BLACKSBURG — On a wall of Megan Duffy’s new office at Virginia Tech are two framed WNBA jerseys from when she played for the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx.
Her office also contains the trophy she won when she was named the Big East coach of the year while at Marquette.
But putting her stamp on the office and moving into a new house are hardly the only things Duffy has done since being named Virginia Tech’s women’s basketball coach in early April.
She has also been putting her stamp on the program, from landing recruits to hiring assistant coaches.
“I’m really excited about the people we have here,” Duffy said Friday in an interview in her office. “I can’t wait to get our team back here in a couple weeks.”
Duffy succeeded Kenny Brooks, who left for Kentucky. Six of Brooks’ players opted to remain with the Hokies after Duffy took over. One of Brooks’ fall signees also stuck with Tech.
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“We just tried really hard to build the relationships with our current team and convince them we’re the coaching staff that they want to play for,” Duffy said. “They love Virginia Tech.”
Duffy signed three high school recruits this spring and scooped up a player from the transfer portal.
She is likely done recruiting for her 2024-25 roster and has already picked up a commitment from a player in the high school graduating class of 2025.
So Tech will have only 11 scholarship players in the upcoming season, even though the scholarship maximum is 15.
“Sometimes if you get too many, … it’s hard to keep everybody happy. So we were very cognizant of that,” Duffy said. “The big thing now is you have to stay healthy, with 11.
“I wanted to give those returners an opportunity and build with the young players and start with that.”
The roster has four freshmen, a redshirt freshman, two sophomores, a redshirt sophomore, one junior and two seniors.
“It’s going to be a little bit of a youth movement,” Duffy said. “I like the youth. We get to kind of shape them in a certain way with the new era.
“It’ll be a little bit different because this team has been a veteran-laden team.”
Tech must replace four starters from its 2024 ACC regular-season championship team — third-team All-American Georgia Amoore, who is joining Brooks at Kentucky as a graduate transfer; second-team All-American and WNBA draft pick Elizabeth Kitley; Cayla King; and Olivia Summiel.
“There’s going to be more minutes to be had,” Duffy said. “That’s what we’re trying to get [the returning players] to understand with their work this summer — to continue to develop so they can play those heavy minutes.
“I’ll play anybody, though. It doesn’t matter if it’s a freshman or a senior.”
The new team will begin summer workouts later this month.
“You’ve got to fit your team. … What’s really going to be formative in these eight weeks in the summer when they come here is that we’re going to figure out what our style will be,” Duffy said. “We like to play fast. We’ve shared the ball with my teams in the past. But I want to give them their space to play their games and stick to their strengths.
“I take a pro-style approach; you turn on a WNBA or NBA game and there’s going to be some similarities. … [But] the biggest thing is picking the right things that fit our players. I have a good idea of what we’re going to do from a concept side.”
Lani White is the transfer coming aboard. The guard averaged 2.5 points and 10.8 minutes as a Utah sophomore last season.
“She’s champing at the bit for her opportunity,” Duffy said. “She brings athleticism. She brings a skill set from that wing position. She can score on three levels.”
Duffy signed two high school players this spring who had originally signed with her last fall when she was at Marquette. One of them was Kayl Petersen, a guard/forward from Wisconsin who is rated the No. 68 high school senior in the country by ESPN.
“I love versatile players who can play multiple positions,” Duffy said. “She can stretch the floor with her shot. She can play inside.”
Leila Wells, a guard from a Michigan high school, also flipped from Marquette to Tech.
“Wells is an elite-level athlete,” Duffy said. “She’s going to fit right in with the ACC athleticism. … You can put her in different positions.”
Signee Ramiya White, a 6-foot-5 center from a Louisville high school, had ties not to Duffy but to one of Duffy’s new assistants. White had originally signed with Kentucky last fall, back when new Tech assistant Jen Hoover was a Kentucky assistant.
“She brings great size,” Duffy said of White. “She’s got great hands, great feet.”
All three of Duffy’s assistants had ACC ties.
“The ACC ties really help, just to help me with a little bit of transitioning into the league, but I think most importantly I was trying to find really good coaches and people,” Duffy said.
Hoover, a William Byrd graduate, played for Wake Forest and served as Wake’s head coach from 2012-22.
“She’s a terrific post coach,” Duffy said. “She’s got a great basketball mind.”
Itoro Coleman, a former point guard and head coach at Clemson, is Duffy’s associate head coach. She was on Duffy’s Marquette staff in the 2020-21 season before spending the past three seasons as a North Carolina assistant.
“She just has an infectious personality,” Duffy said. “She really connects with so many people, whether that’s a player, a recruit or even our coaching staff.”
Sharnee Zoll-Norman, who played point guard for Virginia, is also one of the new assistants. The former Penn State assistant was one of Duffy’s teammates for a year when the two played professionally in Romania.
“She’s tremendous with player development and is leading our recruiting in a lot of ways,” Duffy said.
Duffy and her staff have been watching video from last season of the returning Hokies.
Matilda Ekh (10.4 ppg) is the lone returning starter.
“Matilda’s going to be great for us,” Duffy said. “She’s going to have a little bit more responsibility scoring the ball. She’s a tremendous shooter. What we’re going to try and expand is a little bit of her versatility — scoring in the paint and bringing her off some different type of screens.”
Rose Micheaux averaged 4.1 points for Tech last season. Duffy has not only watched Micheaux’s Tech film but also film of her when she played for Minnesota.
“She’s going to have to be an anchor for us in the post,” Duffy said.
Carleigh Wenzel averaged 4.2 points last season.
“She had a certain role; we’re going to try and expand it a little,” Duffy said. “She can play on and off the ball. I think she can be a three-level scorer.
“She’s hungry to get better.”
Carys Baker averaged 3.4 points last season.
“Carys is going to be really good,” Duffy said. “I got to watch her play a lot before she came to college, when she was on the AAU circuit.
“I want her to be a little bit more of an inside-out player — making sure her versatility shines.”
Samyha Suffren played in only 15 games last season.
“We recruited her a little bit at Marquette,” Duffy said. “She’s fast. She’s explosive. … She can shoot it better than people think.”
Mackenzie Nelson was redshirted last season.
“I know Mackie pretty well from … high school and AAU,” Duffy said. “I really like … the way her game looks.”
Myah Hazelton, a forward from a Maryland high school, was the lone Brooks signee from last fall who remained committed to Tech.
“She brings a lot of length,” Duffy said. “A versatile kid.”
