Northwestern Forward Robbie Beran Commits To Virginia Tech

By: David Cunningham | Managing Editor
Northwestern transfer Robbie Beran committed to Mike Young and Virginia Tech. (Northwestern athletics)

On Tuesday, Virginia Tech and Mike Young picked up a commitment from Northwestern transfer Robbie Beran. He has one year of eligibility remaining.

A 6-9, 215-pound forward from Richmond, Va., Beran spent four years in Evanston, playing in 120 games with 100 starts. As a senior, he started all 34 games, averaging 7.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. In his time with the Wildcats, he recorded 744 points and 454 rebounds.

Beran was key to Northwestern’s turnaround over the past two seasons. After a 15-16 (7-13 Big Ten) season in 2021-22 in which he averaged 6.4 points and 4.3 rebounds, he helped the Wildcats to a 22-12 season (12-8 Big Ten) that culminated in a trip to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

For his career, Beran is a 41.2% field goal shooter, 36.1% from behind the arc. He was Northwestern’s fifth-leading scorer this season, which makes sense given his number of shot attempts.

In 2022-23, he was 36.9% (80-of-217) from the floor while shooting a similar percentage of shots to Hunter Cattoor (242). He shot the three well (34.5%) and was efficient from the free throw line (84.8% — 56-of-66).

Beran is a versatile big who defends well and stretches the floor. He’s a direct replacement for Grant Basile, who is playing professionally in Italy. He’s also the third transfer portal pickup of the offseason for Virginia Tech, joining Old Dominion’s Mekhi Long and North Carolina’s Tyler Nickel.

With the addition of Beran, the Hokies have 13 scholarship players for 2023-24, which is the NCAA limit. Here’s a full breakdown:

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  1. Don’t sleep on Patrick Wessler. In fact, I think he starts at the 5 over Kidd. I saw him play in high school and he was the best player on the court that included MJ Collins.

  2. no offense to Robbie Beran, but i think Lynn Kidd deserves to start over him.

    2. Lost a lot between Mutts and Basile. Not sure the 3 we picked up are nearly as good as either of those players, but the hope is 3 of them can fill the place of 2. The reality is that we have playing time in the ACC to offer. Our recruiting has not been good, so we rely heavily on these portal players.

      1. I agree. We are not getting top recruits, losing players, and gaining cast-off that are not that talented. Young is not the basketball saviour.

        1. A bit pessimistic. Rice is a highly rated player, our new class is strong. we aren’t doing poorly recruiting. And we aren’t getting cast-offs. Nickel was a 4-star with several years of eligibility, as an example. The 1-year players fill a void. We run a clean program, have a sound system, and have quality players. We will be fine, IMO.

        2. Maybe you all could enlighten the rest of us as how you ran your successful D1 P5 basketball programs?

          1. Loser talk. That’s the kind of comment someone makes that cannot face criticism.

        3. Nickel is not cast off. Neither is Long. Beran is a starter from a B1G tourney team. Rice is a top recruit. We will be just fine

      2. Or our portal recruiting is so solid we can recruit high school players to develop who fit our program instead of bagging a bunch of 4*s who don’t.

      3. Maybe it is just me, but in my opinion, recruiting is not just high school players, I suspect the “recruiting” in the portal in just as cut throat as with the high schoolers. The one difference is coach has had a chance to see the players in action against a similar level of talent. Mutts was “recruited” to play here, so was Basile. Hunter was “recruited” away from Wofford. Does CMY get every player he wants, of course not, but I hesitant to call the recruiting “not good”. An ACC championship would seem to indicate otherwise.

        1. Not just you, recruiting priorities have changed. Plugging holes from the portal is emerging as priority 1, grabbing quality freshmen/sophs from the portal #2, and high school #3. It’s just about impossible for VT to land a high school recruit already good enough to make into an immediate efficient starter, and you risk losing him to the portal if he doesn’t get his PT right away. I’m not suggesting eliminating HS recruiting, just have to feel good about their commitment to stay with the program while they learn.

          We’ve literally reached the age of rebuilding our rosters every season now. Even the bluebloods that dominate the 5* HS recruiting are migrating more to the portal for key pieces that increase their roster experience.

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