On Tuesday, ESPN announced the field for the 2022 Shriners Children’s Charleston Classic. Virginia Tech will play in-state foe Old Dominion on Thursday, Nov. 17 at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
It’ll be the 25th meeting all-time between the Hokies and Monarchs, and the first since Dec. 16, 2007. Tech lost to ODU by three, 72-69, in Norfolk that day. It will also mark just the fourth neutral site meeting between the two schools, the first since they played in Richmond in 1983.
ODU posted a 13-19 (8-10 C-USA) record in 2021-22 in the ninth season under head coach Jeff Jones. They finished ranked No. 194 in KenPom and No. 201 in the NET.
This year marks the first time that Tech will play William & Mary, Old Dominion and Virginia in the same season since 2005-06. It’s not uncommon for VT to play three other schools from the Commonwealth in the same year — it occurred back in 2020-21 with Radford, VMI and UVa — but that specific trio hasn’t happened in a while.
The Hokies will face either Furman or Penn State in the second round of the tournament on Friday, Nov. 18. The second round matchup will be at 12 p.m. or 2 p.m./2:30 p.m. ET on Friday. The Paladins posted a 22-12 (12-6 SoCon) record last year, while the Nittany Lions were 14-17 (7-13). VT last met Furman in 2013, and most recently played Penn State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge in 2020.
This is the second time Virginia Tech has participated in the Charleston Classic. Back in 2018, the then-No. 16 Hokies won the tournament when they defeated Ball State, Northeastern and then-No. 23 Purdue. Nickeil Alexander-Walker averaged 22 points and 5.6 rebounds across the three games and was named the tournament’s MVP.
With the announcement, the Hokies now know the entirety of their non-conference schedule for the 2022-23 season.
Overall, the schedule is set up to be of medium difficulty. It’s not as tough as how Mike Young scheduled last year with a few road games at Navy and Dayton, but it will still be challenging. Three straight games against Minnesota, the Flyers and Oklahoma State will be quite a test, especially when an ACC game will likely get squished in between.
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I wonder what George S. Patton would say about this game against ODU: “If we aren’t victorious, let no man come back alive!” Well, that escalated quickly . . .
Have to admit, really hate playing ODU in anything. Then we likely get PSU who no matter what else they do seem to beat us pretty regularly. Not sure it will do us much good if we win and it surely won’t if we don’t. Not a big addition to the schedule it appears.
The article is posted in Virginia Tech Baseball, change to basketball.
Good catch, thank you.
Dangerous number of OOC opponents around 300 in NET this past year. Must win the top 100 OOC games or we may be hurting on selection Sunday unless we’re 13-7 in ACC
Agree HOKIEPRO. That is not an ideal schedule with all of the weak teams, though you never know, some could be considerably better this year than last, and constitute a Top 100 win or two for VT.