March 24, 2020

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March 24, 2020

An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903

COVID-19 SPECIAL EDITION

ETHAN CANDELARIO / COLLEGIATE TIMES

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Students should not return to Blacksburg to prevent straining community’s resources

F

For most students, going home is the true embodiment of “Ut Prosim.”

or most of us, the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic probably didn’t hit home until President Tim Sands released his initial statement on March 11.

Like tens of thousands of other students, I anxiously awaited official news from Virginia Tech last week — and like many Hokies, I, too, was deeply disappointed to learn that the rest of our semester would be moved online. Most of the student body was expecting to make memories that would last us a lifetime. Instead, we’ll be spending those months shut away at home, listening to recorded lectures and conferring with our peers on Zoom.

Our situation is far from ideal, and the sadness, anger and fear that we all feel is valid.

What is not valid, however, are the selfish reactions I’ve seen across the board from fellow students. Many are still returning to the dorms, even though living in close quarters like a dormitory is a proven risk factor for the spread of illness and the university has officially encouraged students not to return to campus unless absolutely necessary.

The most common arguments I’ve heard are that Blacksburg is somehow safer than other cities, so we might as well come back anyway. Others argue students want to get as much use out of the money spent on their housing and dining plans as possible.

However, there are a few important points that those who are so quick to return to campus should keep in mind.

First and foremost, Tech’s decision to move classes online was not made with

solely our benefit in mind — the safety of our faculty and staff was also taken into account . The mortality rate for those ages 10 to 39 is only 0.2%, a miniscule figure when compared to the 14.8% mortality rate for those over 80. Many of our faculty and staff are at least over age 40, putting them at a significantly higher risk of falling severely ill or even dying from COVID-19 than the average undergraduate.

However, not all of our peers are perfectly healthy, and even those of us who feel just fine may not be as unafflicted as we believe.

Dozens of COVID-19 carriers have tested positive despite presenting as asymptomatic, a trend that means countless Americans could be sowing the seeds of the virus while they carry on with their daily lives, clueless to the danger lurking within them. Students returning from various spring break destinations will only increase the possibility that faculty and staff and other high-risk patients will catch the virus.

We also need to consider the locals whom we share Blacksburg with for nine months out of the year. Bringing the novel coronavirus to campus might simply be a temporary inconvenience for us students, but it could be a matter of life or death for permanent residents. That’s not to say the virus isn’t likely to come to Blacksburg at some point: Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard, predicts that between 40 to 70% of the global population will be infected over the next year.

But that doesn’t give students the right to place the New River Valley’s healthcare

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system under unnecessary strain by adding students to the mix, particularly when health officials and the general public alike have no idea just how high the actual number of infected Americans could be.

I understand that those of us paying for off-campus leases might want to return to the apartments and townhomes we’re contractually obligated to; if that is the choice you make, then I would urge you to avoid downtown and stay at home as much as possible. And if “home” isn’t a safe place for you, or you are an international student with nowhere else to go, I could never hold the decision to return to Tech against you.

My qualms are with those Hokies who are viewing the transition to online classes as a free pass to make an emptier Blacksburg their social playground, ignoring the danger this poses to both locals and their fellow students who truly have no other option.

I would beg those of you returning to Blacksburg to reconsider. It isn’t enough

to simply avoid the elderly or those who “look” sick. I am susceptible to respiratory issues, and my parents both fall within the at-risk age category. If COVID-19 were to reach my household, the effects could be devastating, and it’s families like ours who I hope you’ll keep in mind when deciding how and where to spend the rest of the semester.

This is a terrifying and uncertain time for all of us. Now more than ever, we must lean on the spirit of “Ut Prosim” that makes us all true Hokies.

It is easy to be giving and considerate when we can still do what we want when we want to. Let’s give back to the people of Blacksburg the love and charity they’ve given us by not taking resources they may need and proving to them that Hokies really do serve — even when it hurts.

LEXI SOLOMON • sophomore • national security and foreign affairs, Russian

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Virginia Tech’s decision to move classes online serves the greater Blacksburg community

A

As COVID-19 continues to spread, moving to the virtual realm and closing down campus promotes social distance.

t the time of writing this, March 19, 2020, it’s been 81 days since the world first heard of the deadly virus, roughly 71 days since the WHO identified the risk of a novel coronavirus, and 59 days since the CDC reported the first known case in the United States.

Consequently, there are zero rolls of toilet paper remaining on the shelves of my local grocery stores. At this time, the reader and author are probably sharing an uncannily similar experience; they are cooped up within the confines of their homes, fervently updating their knowledge on the nature of the virus known as COVID-19 and wondering when all this will blow over.

I can say for certain that when I first wrote my article back in February for the Collegiate Times, I could not foresee any of this coming. The words of Jianuo Huang, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering and president of the Association of Chinese Students and Scholars, who is also a native of the city of Wuhan, from our last interview, still ring in my mind.

“I think sometimes the U.S. is underplaying the risk,” Huang said.

He was right. The deep freeze that came over the city of Wuhan, as I described it in the February article, has spread across the globe as we all move indoors to avoid its icy sting. For the moment, many Hokies are enjoying their extended spring break, adulterated with a tinge of isolation and paranoia.

On March 11, Virginia Tech announced its decision to extend spring break and transition all courses online starting March 23, similar to the decisions made by other universities around the country earlier that week. The question is if it was the correct response, to send the student populations back home for the remainder of their semester, over a disease whose threat is still, frustratingly, debated over.

There is hardly one sacred thing in this country that stands uncorrupted by the polarizing force of politicization. This glib reality stands no less relevant today in the midst of a global pandemic.

On Feb. 28, during a rally in South Carolina, the president dismissed the looming threat of COVID-19 in the U.S. as the “new hoax” the Democratic Party was using against him to tarnish his approval ratings. He doubled down on this sentiment

with a tweet published March 9, comparing the disease to the flu and remarking about the efforts made to contain its spread.

A new Axios|SurveyMonkey poll found that beliefs that the seriousness of the coronavirus is exaggerated were divided pretty neatly along partisan lines.

The polling website reports, “62% of Republicans see news reports about the seriousness of the novel coronavirus as ‘generally exaggerated,’ double the percentage of Democrats saying so (31%).”

Despite your beliefs, there is not much to exaggerate when it comes to the efficacy of proactive school closures in containing

outbreaks can be seen as a stressor on the healthcare system as they have to deal with large influxes of patients. Now, imagine a student population of over 30,000 gathering in a small mountain town during a global pandemic, rapidly spreading the disease among each other; the facilities local to Blacksburg just aren’t equipped for that.

Italy has already been experiencing this terrifying problem, where hospitals in the region of Lombardy are unable to admit new patients. LewisGale hospital in Montgomery County, which is the closest hospital to the university, only has 88 staffed beds and 10 ICU beds for those

“I don’t always think Virginia Tech lives up to their motto of Ut Prosim, but this time they really did. ”

Juan Pacheco Senior, Psychology

outbreaks.

In an article published by Science, Nicholas Christakis, a physician at Yale, outlines the differences between reactive and proactive school closures and their corresponding effects.

“Reactive is when a school decides to close when a student or parent or staff member is sick,” Christakis said. “ …

Proactive school closures — closing schools before there’s a case there — have been shown to be one of the most powerful nonpharmaceutical interventions that we can deploy.”

Further on in the article, Christakis cites data analyses of the Spanish Influenza of 1918 to vouch for proactive closure’s efficacy.

“What they found was that proactive school closing saved substantial numbers of lives,” Christakis said. “St. Louis closed the schools about a day in advance of the epidemic spiking, for 143 days. Pittsburgh closed 7 days after the peak and only for 53 days. And the death rate for the epidemic in St. Louis was roughly one-third as high as in Pittsburgh. These things work.”

If the words of a well-credentialed authority like Christakis don’t sway you, consider the impact it would have on the healthcare system in the general Blacksburg area if we hadn’t chosen to suspend the remainder of the semester. Generally,

in need of intensive care. That means that even if 0.03% of the student population had a severe reaction to the virus, the hospital would be over admitted. Even the most conservative estimates based on statistics in South Korea find the disease has a mortality

rate of 0.6%, more than enough to create this flooding effect in local hospitals. The larger the population that remains in Blacksburg, the greater the risk they will be siphoning resources from the elderly population who seems to be threatened by this disease more than any other population.

Juan Pacheco, a senior majoring in psychology, is now experiencing his last semester within the four walls of his bedroom. If anyone deserves to complain, it’s the graduating class, who have to surrender their final memories of college to a virus. But Pacheco is taking it all with grace and acceptance.

“I feel like Virginia Tech did the right thing, and I never agree with Virginia Tech,” Pacheco said. “I think they did right because we see how fast the Hokie Plague spreads, and it’s better (that we close campus) because so many elderly and immunocompromised people live near campus. I don’t always think Virginia Tech lives up to their motto of Ut Prosim, but this time they really did.”

ALEX PICADAS • junior • multimedia journalism

ETHAN CANDELARIO / COLLEGIATE TIMES Squires Student Center lies empty as Virginia Tech shuts down classes and moves to online-only in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, March 18, 2020.

PAGE 4 March 24, 2020

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Rebates for housing contracts and rollovers for dining plans to commence in wake of COVID-19 Virginia Tech cancels dining plans for the remainder of the semester as students are not expected to return to campus.

ASHLEY LONG editor in chief

On Friday, March 13, Virginia Tech released a statement detailing plans for students with on-campus housing contracts and dining contracts in the wake of COVID-19 changes.

On-campus housing contracts Students with on-campus housing contracts are encouraged to remain in an off-campus, low-health risk environment.

However, if students are unable to move off campus or need to be on campus to access online learning, dorms will be accessible.

If students choose to remain on campus, they need to let Housing and Residence Life know by Wednesday, March 18, by filling out this form. If students choose

to terminate their housing contracts, they will be rebated in the amount of $1,000.

If they need to retrieve items from their dorms prior to Sunday, March 22, students should submit a request here.

Dining contracts Students with dining contracts are able to end their dining plans by indicating so on this form. If students are returning to campus next fall, their dining dollars, flex dollars or commuter cash will roll over to the fall semester. Those who are not returning to Virginia Tech will receive a full refund.

Hokies can stay up-to-date on policies and changes through the university’s designated COVID-19 web page.

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The Collegiate Times’ official statement about coverage, operations amid COVID-19 pandemic The CT will continue online presence and take printing decisions week by week as the situation with the virus develops.

ASHLEY LONG editor in chief

In the midst of drastic changes across the nation and on Virginia Tech’s campus, the staff of the Collegiate Times will stay dedicated to keeping the public informed on all fronts, including our paper’s operations.

First and foremost, the Collegiate Times is an independent, student-run newspaper that will remain committed to keeping the community informed.

However, we also put the safety of the students on our staff first. We will refrain from any and all activities that could put our staff members at risk. That being said, we will still be regularly publishing stories online, and will cover the state of

Virginia Tech’s campus and the NRV to the best of our ability.

In terms of print issues, we’re taking everything one week at a time. For now, we will continue to print issues of the paper and will remain on our usual schedule (print issues hitting stands each Tuesday).

However, we fully recognize that anything could change at any moment, and we will adapt our printing schedule as necessary. We will keep you informed of any changes.

In addition to being student-run, the Collegiate Times is also a small business.

As such, if you see a print issue in one of the boxes, we ask you to pick it up and give it a read. Take a bunch of papers to use around the house if you wish. Any support you can offer us, whether it’s across social

media or by picking up a paper, is greatly appreciated at this time.

The craziness could be far from over, but the Collegiate Times will stay dedicated to keeping our readers informed about what’s happening in the community and with our paper. Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions by emailing editor@collegiatetimes.com or through social media.

Stay safe, stay healthy and stay a responsible distance away from others.

Sincerely, The staff of the Collegiate Times

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March 24, 2020 PAGE 5 ETHAN CANDELARIO / COLLEGIATE TIMES

Spring Commencement moves online, updates on class ring delivery and Ring Dance released Virginia Tech moves Spring Commencement online as meeting in-person becomes a risk due to COVID-19.

ASHLEY LONG AND TAHREEM ALAM editor in chief and news editor

On March 19, Virginia Tech released two major announcements regarding COVID-19 changes: class of 2020 spring commencement ceremonies and ring delivery.

Class of 2020 spring commencement activities All commencement activities for those graduating this spring have been moved online. However, all students who were scheduled to graduate in May are invited to return in the fall of next school year to celebrate.

According to Virginia Tech’s Instagram post, students will be allowed to bring two guests, attend a “senior tailgate, an ‘Enter Sandman’ entrance into Lane Stadium and complimentary attendance at the Sept. 26 home football game.”

Furthermore, students planning to graduate in May are invited to participate in formal commencement ceremonies in either December 2020 or May 2021.

Ring delivery and Class of 2021 Ring Dance Students in the Class of 2021 can have

their class rings shipped to a location of their choice at no shipping cost, according to an email by Virginia Tech Class Programs.

The ring provider Balfour will send students their rings. Students must submit shipping addresses by Sunday, April 5, otherwise they will be charged $14.95 for shipping by the company.

The rings will be shipped within 30 to 60 days. They will come in certified USPS mail and require a signature from the recipient.

In addition, those who do not submit the survey will have their rings ready for pickup in the coming fall 2020 semester.

Furthermore, Virginia Tech Class Programs stated that at the time, the Class of 2021 Ring Dance is canceled, but there are possibilities of holding a future event in the next academic year. This decision follows the public health recommendations regarding the COVID-19 coronavirus.

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Hokies come home: Study abroad students scramble to get back to states during the coronavirus pandemic On March 13, President Trump announced that the United States would not allow travel to other countries.

BRANDON ALIMANESTIANO lifestyles staff writer

As you may have heard, COVID-19 is all we ever talk about anymore. For us students, many parts of life that simply make us students have been taken away from us, and the shared sacrifice is all in hope of getting back to everything that makes us happy, unless happiness involves watching paint dry because you live in the country and there is little internet.

Some have had to sacrifice more than others. Study abroad students were hit hard, considering their once optimistic views of seeing the world and its many interesting people has been reduced to self-quarantine at home –– and online classes.

“I never wanted to leave –– it was the most amazing time of my life,” said Ciara Summersgill, a junior water, resources, policy and management major who studied in Ireland for spring break.

The coronavirus did not bother students in Europe much until it got worse, but many felt the future effects on the backburner as they noticed gradual changes in everyday life.

“Everyone didn’t really seem bothered

at all (at first),” said Caleigh McDonough, a sophomore finance major who was studying this semester in Prague. “As the weeks went on, I saw more and more people wearing masks and more talk on the news about the virus.”

Some students felt an inevitable end to their semester abroad.

“A week before I officially went home, I had a feeling we weren’t going to be in Barcelona for much longer, but I did not expect it to end as quickly as it did, because life just seemed so normal there,” said Emma Buckle, a junior hospitality and tourism management major studying a semester in Spain.

On Wednesday, March 11, President Trump declared a travel ban on most of Europe, which has since been extended to all of Europe and other countries across the world. This came as a confusing and unsettling message to many Virginia Tech students studying abroad.

“One of the guys (in our group) woke us up at two in the morning to tell us about the travel ban,” McDonough said. “It was very vague, so we thought we had 48 hours to get back in the U.S. Everyone freaked out, called their parents and immediately booked flights.”

COURTESY OF JENNA PARKER

For Buckle, the situation was like something out of a movie.

“Everyone was in the streets on their phones either texting their parents, calling them or booking flights home immediately,” Buckle said. “I went home that night at three in the morning, packed up my stuff, barely slept and left for the airport.

My roommate had left for an earlier flight and told me the check-in lines were at least an hour long.”

Due to the urgency of the situation, it appeared that a large portion of people rushing to get to the airport and back to the United States were also studying abroad.

“When I arrived (at the airport) feeling extremely overwhelmed and sad, the check-in line had over 150 study abroad students in line as well,” Buckle said. “It seemed like the airport was mostly full of (us).”

With uncertainty, fear and confusion in the air, some airports were just as you may have imagined them to be.

“There was a general disruption at the airport,” said Emily Bowlin, a senior studying criminology who was also in Ireland for spring break. “Workers at the airport said customs were a madhouse, and that we (had to) hurry there as fast as we could. People, including us, were lined up and getting antsy before the (gate) was even open.”

According to Bowlin, there was a huge amount of confusion and inconsistency while they tried to board a plane.

“One of our leaders, Jose, was separated from the rest of our group for further questioning,” Bowlin said. “He said everyone that went before him in that process got denied. As we went through customs, some of us got questioned hard about our travels and possible symptoms, while others barely got asked where we traveled.”

Summersgill, who was on the same trip, was concerned about the sheer amount of people.

“It was very stressful in the airport, because we were in such close quarters

with so many people,” Summersgill said.

“It took about three hours to get through customs and security.”

At the time, it may seem that once their planes touched down in the United States after such a hectic and confusing 48 hours, everyone would be extremely relieved.

This was not the case for some.

“The only thing I felt when we landed in Dulles was upset,” McDonough said.

“None of us wanted to have to come home that early.”

Bowlin noted that home is not necessarily a safe haven anymore due to social distancing and the changes in everyday American life.

“Our group really misses our time in Ireland where things were easy and fun,” Bowlin said. “Now, we have to get back to our lives, but even our old lives aren’t the same.”

Summersgill recalls how her trip to Ireland was the actual escape from the situation.

“I felt really sad coming back because I knew that I was going to have to deal with COVID-19, whereas on study abroad it didn’t feel like it was real,” Summersgill said. “I felt like I was at summer camp, only to come back home to the real world.”

As many of us are now experiencing similar life alterations to what these students have already been experiencing in self-quarantine, life may seem a bit bleak. The only thing we can do is persist.

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March 24, 2020 PAGE 7

A year to never forget: Students’ responses to Virginia Tech’s recent decisions regarding COVID-19 Virginia Tech recently announced the transition to online classes and the cancellation of big events in Blacksburg.

ISA DIAZ

lifestyles staff writer

Students of all grade levels are expressing disappointment and anger over the fact that their semesters have been cut short and college experiences forever impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.

In the wake of the global pandemic currently sweeping across the world, Virginia Tech followed the example of other universities nationwide and announced Wednesday, March 11, that it would be extending its spring break by a week. Classes are being converted from in-person to online classes beginning March 23. Additionally, it was announced that all university-sponsored events through April 30 expected to attract 100 or more people would be canceled, as well as all summer study abroad programs.

While the measures taken by the university to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are an appropriate response to the growing crisis, the decision nevertheless has had a huge impact on students.

Virginia Tech students and students at other universities nationwide have taken to every social media platform imaginable, from Twitter to TikTok, to express their sadness and anger over the fact that their semesters have been cut short. For many, the disappointment goes deeper than just being stuck at home for a few months and calling into class via Zoom.

“As a senior, this has meant the abrupt end of all things that I thought I still had time to say goodbye to,” said Ashley Deans, a marketing management major.

Deans was an active member of the Marching Virginians as part of the color guard and also participated in Valiant, the indoor color guard team at Virginia Tech.

“Our remaining competitions, including championships, have been canceled,” Deans said. “I’ve been spinning for eight years and wasn’t ready to so abruptly say goodbye to this sport. I had no idea that my most recent performance would be my last.”

Deans also said that the impact carries beyond her college experience. “The job search has become significantly more difficult. Not having access to campus resources combined with companies hiring less is very anxiety-inducing,” she

said. “It’s intimidating to have no idea what tomorrow looks like.”

Anna Cheema, a junior majoring in criminology and political science, is president of Students for Non-Violence, an organization founded in the wake of the 2007 shooting. “Our aim is to promote peace and non-violence, as well as to raise awareness about social issues on campus.” Cheema said that Students for Non-Violence only recently became an active club again. “We planned to have an open mic night in April, and it was a huge deal because the organization hasn’t had a real event in a very long time,” she said. “We were collaborating with organizations like RAFT and Moms Demand Action. I had been working on this for months, and it’s just really sad to see that it won’t happen this semester.”

The cancellation of all major events essentially decimated this semester’s roster of things to do at Virginia Tech.

Keystone student service events like Relay For Life and The Big Event, long-standing university traditions such as Ring Dance and the Run to Remember, and even student favorites like the annual spring football game all had to be shut down in an effort to slow the spread of the virus.

Events on campus are oftentimes more than just an extracurricular; for many undergraduate students, they’re a way to gain experience that can open doors into the professional world. Brett Anderson is a second-semester senior majoring in marketing at Virginia Tech. Anderson’s main involvement on campus was through efforts to bring the Up and Up Festival, a concert contest that chooses a major artist to perform on campuses nationwide, to Virginia Tech. Tech placed third nationwide.

“For the past year and a half, I’ve been meeting local student DJs, meeting Hokies who love electronic music and spearheading campaigns to bring an epic concert to Virginia Tech,” Anderson said. Now, like all other spring events on campus, the festival will no longer happen.

“I’m heartbroken, because not only did I work really hard to make this happen, but this was essentially my interview for a music industry career,” he said.

For some students, the transition to online classes is as simple as taking notes

ETHAN CANDELARIO / COLLEGIATE TIMES A Virginia Tech student in the process of moving out of his dorm after Virginia Tech moves to online-only classes in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, March 18, 2020.

via Zoom lecture or submitting assignments online via Canvas. However, for others, it’s not that easy. Diana Hall, a sophomore majoring in public and urban affairs, plays trumpet in one of the jazz ensembles and has seen firsthand how the School of Performing Arts is going to be affected by the transition. “Realistically, there is no way to perform online,” she said. “Dozens of student performers are disappointed beyond measure that they don’t have the opportunities to perform again until next semester.”

“This includes music faculty too, who have spent their time to carefully select musical pieces and structure rehearsals to create performances that will no longer happen,” Hall said. She went on to talk about how the change doesn’t just affect music majors, but students and faculty across all concentrations who choose to pursue performance art. “Performance is a way all of us are able to express our artistic side outside of academics and we use music as a form of self-expression we can’t get anywhere else.”

The transition is going to be difficult for students across the board, as online learning is almost never preferable to in-person lectures and discussion.

Connor Lindsay, a freshman in general engineering hoping to pursue computer science, expressed concerns over logging

into online learning in large lecture classes. “I really worry about network connectivity when it comes to 400-plus people trying to log on at once,” he said.

Lindsay is just one of the thousands of freshmen whose first year at Virginia Tech has been memorable, to say the least, from start to finish: The Class of 2023 began the year facing a housing crisis and ended it early with a global pandemic.

The crisis continues to evolve and changes seem to come daily, if not hourly.

How the university will continue to react and how things will look further into the spring remains to be seen. However, Lindsay summed up pretty simply how a lot of students are feeling at the moment: “It’s just difficult. I miss all my friends.”

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PAGE 8 March 24, 2020

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Effects of COVID-19 on campus and Blacksburg

ETHAN CANDELARIO / COLLEGIATE TIMES The ExpressOasis Cafe in Newman Library sits empty with the chairs and tables removed after a ban on groups larger than 10 is put into effect, March 18, 2020.

ETHAN CANDELARIO / COLLEGIATE TIMES The Drillfield lies empty as Virginia Tech shuts down classes and moves to online-only in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, March 18, 2020.

sports

ETHAN CANDELARIO / COLLEGIATE TIMES A sign on the door of Souvlaki informing customers of new policies enacted in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, March 18, 2020.

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Landers Nolley II and Dara Mabrey seek transfers, enter the portal on the same day Following a shortened postseason due to COVID-19, two star basketball players for Virginia Tech have entered the transfer portal.

DAVIS CARBAUGH sports editor

Redshirt-freshman men’s basketball player Landers Nolley II and sophomore women’s basketball player Dara Mabrey both announced that they will enter the transfer portal.

Jeff Goodman broke the news on Twitter on March 16 while Nolley posted an update on his Instagram; Mabrey posted her decision on Instagram on the same day.

Nolley burst onto the scene and finished the season on the ACC All-Freshman team and honorable mention All-ACC team; meanwhile Mabrey finished the season third in the ACC in 3-point percentage.

Under first-year head coach Mike

Young, Nolley became the focus of the offense early in the season. He finished the season leading the Hokies in total points (495), points per game (15.5), 3-pointers made (68), free throws made (85) and field goals made (171).

While Nolley struggled at times during ACC competition, he remained a focal point of the offense. His 30 points in the season opener against Clemson and 22 points in an upset victory over Michigan State put his name on the map nationally, while many believed he could enter the NBA Draft this offseason.

Originally signed by former head coach Buzz Williams, Nolley entered the transfer portal last offseason as well.

Despite returning for the 2019-20 season, it appears that Nolley has played his final

minutes in Blacksburg. The 6-foot-7-inch forward will be a hot commodity in the transfer portal this offseason.

While Nolley’s departure is not the most surprising news, Mabrey’s decision was unexpected. Mabrey finished third on Virginia Tech in points per game (11.9), second in 3-pointers made (75) and second in assists (53). Mabrey put up similar numbers her freshman year and has been a quality scorer for head coach Kenny Brooks since joining the program.

The Hokies are coming off one of their best seasons in over a decade, recording their most ever conference wins in a season since joining the ACC. Despite a first-round exit in the ACC Tournament, Tech looked poised for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament this season prior

to its cancellation.

Virginia Tech is losing two of its best scorers on the men’s and women’s basketball teams. The Collegiate Times sports staff will provide updates as to which schools Nolley and Mabrey decide to continue their careers with.

@CTSportsTalk