Virginia Tech is set to return to the NCAA Tournament this season in Megan Duffy’s second season at the helm with a team that has improved greatly over the course of the season. The Hokies also earned the 6 seed for the upcoming ACC Tournament and will enter the event as a sleeper to win the whole tournament.
Part of that success is a credit to Duffy and her assistants, with one of her assistants being linked to multiple open ACC head coaching jobs.
Virginia Tech assistant coach Jen Hoover has been linked as a potential candidate for the Boston College head coaching job by On3’s Talia Goodman, and linked as a potential candidate for the open Pittsburgh head coaching job by USA Today’s Mitchell Northam.
Hoover was a previously head coach for one season at High Point (2011-12) and ten seasons at Wake Forest (2012-22). During her head coaching tenure, she earned a record of 162-183 which included only the second NCAA Tournament appearance in Wake Forest’s appearance plus four WNIT appearances.
She has extensive major conference assistant experience as well at Virginia (2003-07), California (2008-11), Kentucky (2022-24), and Virginia Tech (2024-now). She has worked primarily with frontcourt players and has helped Texas Tech transfer Kilah Freelon have a breakout season, averaging 9.6 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks in 26.2 minutes per game. Her win shares per 40 minutes of .242 and box score plus/minus of 8.8 are also the best in Freelon’s career.
At 56 years old, the Roanoke native may be looking for one more shot to be a head coach. The question is would she want to take a risk and go to an underfunded program like Pitt or BC, or wait for a quality high mid-major opportunity where resources are competitive with the relative competition. She also could easily be content to just stay where she’s at and be patient for either the right job or to coach out her career without head coach pressure at a quality program.
