The Charlotte Sports Foundation and Ally Financial announced Thursday that Virginia Tech is part of the 2024 Ally Tipoff at the Spectrum Center on Sunday, Nov. 10.
The Hokies will face Iowa in a rematch of last year’s thriller, an 80-76 Hawkeyes victory that went down to the wire and featured a combined 75 points from Caitlin Clark and Georgia Amoore. The event has expanded to a doubleheader for its second year and will feature South Carolina and NC State in the other game.
All four squads are currently in the top 15 of the AP Poll, headlined by the top-ranked and undefeated Gamecocks.
“I am very excited to have our Hokies participate in the Ally Tipoff put on by the Charlotte Sports Foundation,” Tech head coach Kenny Brooks said in a release. “Last year’s game against Iowa was a memorable game and gave our team much-needed experience playing in a big-time event with an incredible atmosphere. The commitment to women’s sports was on full display and we are honored to do it all again.”
In addition to the unveiling of the 2024 Ally Tipoff lineup, Ally and the Charlotte Sports Foundation have agreed to a multi-year partnership extension, which runs through 2026.
“We believe the Ally Tipoff is the premier regular season women’s basketball event in the country,” CSF executive director Danny Morrison said. “Ally has been a tremendous partner and with the support of ESPN Events and the Spectrum Center, we know we will build on last year’s success and create an unmatched player and fan experience.”
The game set a record with an attendance of 15,196, the largest regular-season women’s basketball game in North Carolina history. It was the largest regular-season crowd for a Virginia Tech game in program history. Both coaches agreed it had an aura comparable to a Final Four game.
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The Hokies were quite the hot ticket this season. They were the highest-attended road team in the league with an average of 6,350 fans, more than 1,500 more than the next-highest (North Carolina).
In Cassell Coliseum, they sold out five regular season games for the first time ever: NC State, Virginia, Boston College, Duke and North Carolina. They were the first ACC women’s basketball school to be visited by ESPN’s College GameDay, too, on Feb. 25 ahead of their matchup with the Tar Heels.
On television, November’s Tech-Iowa clash averaged 548,000 viewers, which was the most-viewed regular season women’s college basketball game on ESPN2 since 2017. That was one of Tech’s six games on the main ESPN channels this year.
The Hokies are 24-7 this year and will find out their NCAA Tournament fate on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. The regular-season champions finished 14-4 in ACC play and are projected to be a No. 4 seed in the Big Dance by both ESPN and The Athletic, meaning they’d host a regional.
Of the players currently on Tech’s roster, nine can return for next season, including Amoore, an All-American and All-ACC point guard, who has one season of eligibility remaining because of COVID-19. Kenny Brooks & Co. received a commitment from juco forward Amelia Hassett in mid-February and inked a top-10 recruiting class in November.
The Hawkeyes (29-4) won the Big Ten Tournament on March 10 and are projected to be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. They will be without Clark come November, who now holds the all-time NCAA scoring record and declared for the WNBA Draft in February. Three other starting pieces — Kate Martin, Gabbie Marshall and Molly Davis — will be gone as well.
However, Iowa should return second-leading scorer Hannah Stuelke (6-2, 14.6 points per game) on the interior. Head coach Lisa Bluder also signed four top-100 prospects for the incoming recruiting class.
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Well, the past two years have really sold me on women’s basketball. There are so many storylines across the country this year, WBB has to be the most exciting and intriguing sport today. I really hope we get to see Liz Kitley play again, not because we have to win at all costs, and I don’t want her to re-injure herself, but I’d love to see what this team can do with Liz in the game. In either case, I’m a fan for life.
Have they stated yet what Liz’s injury is?
If they had, that information would be plastered all over the place (and included in this article), so …. no. 😁
We’ll find out after the seedings on Sunday.
I suspect if the prognosis was favorable it would be out there.
Yeah, OPSEC, I agree. I guess there could be some grey area in there – gawd forbit it really is day-to-day – but having been injured a few times myself, it’s usually in months not weeks to recover from some things and, of course, you don’t want to push it.
You’ve gotta admit, among VT, Ally, Charlotte Sports Club, Iowa everyone’s on the ball here for putting this together in a timely fashion. It even dragged in none other than USCe. who usually despite being the #1 team have been reticent to join these kind of things early season.. Prediction of sellout? 100% and early at that with 3 fairly close teams and the Iowa faithful. Don’t delay. Surely there are three or four other venues that are paying attention to this and trying to put together something similar posthaste.
Kenny was a little bit hesitant last year, not that he had a choice but yup, .early season gold for everyone involved. Iowa and VT will be a battle of young teams. Again, don’t…delay.
Quite an honor for the women and Kenny. Baptism of fire for Clara, Amelia and the other new players.
Yeah, It’ll be fun, a lot of new faces for both teams, I know Iowa just got some 5-star guard.
At least the girls hoops team at Iowa aren’t oranges and realize what these types of games do for the sport.
Some day Tom Brands will come around.