Nickel reportedly in transfer portal after one year at Virginia Tech

By R.L. Bynum

After one season at Carolina and one at Virginia Tech, Tyler Nickel is reportedly looking for a new home.

Nickel, who averaged 8.8 points and 2.2 rebounds while shooting 39.9% from 3-point range in 33 games this season for the Hokies, has entered the transfer portal, according to 247Sports.

He’s not alone. Nickel is the sixth Virginia Tech player to enter the portal, following Sean Pedulla, M.J. Collins, Mylyjael Poteat, John Camden and Lynn Kidd, leaving Virginia Tech with three returning scholarship players. Kidd has already committed to Miami.

The Hokies went 19–15 overall and 10–10 in the ACC, losing on March 23 at Ohio State 83–73 in the second round of the NIT. Nickel had six points and two 3-pointers in 12 minutes.

Virginia Tech seemed like a natural spot for the 6–7 Nickel, who has two years of eligibility, since is from Harrisonburg, Va.

After the Hokies’ 86–76 second-round ACC tournament loss to Florida State, he said that transferring to Virginia Tech was all he had hoped for.

“I think it’s definitely still the fit that I imagined it would be, it’s just frustrating what happened,” Nickel said at the time. “However things are for me individually, it’s hard to talk about now just because of how we just went out.”

Obviously, he was either trying to be positive in the moment or had a change of heart.

In Nickel’s freshman season for UNC, he averaged six minutes and 2.1 points over 25 games.

The No. 90 player in the high school Class of 2022, he chose UNC over Iowa and Virginia Tech out of high school. Last summer when he entered the portal, he received offers from Penn State, South Carolina, VCU, Marquette, Cincinnati, and Mississippi State.