UVA Basketball: ACC media pick Ryan Odom, new-look ‘Hoos to finish fifth

I think we can live with the ACC media picking UVA Basketball to finish fifth in the 2025-2026 conference race.

Here’s something that jumps out at me: the press release tells us that the voting was done by 49 media members.

As recently as 2018, the voting was done by 121 media members; it was 101 voting in 2022, before plummeting into the 50s in 2023 and 2024.

The sports media business is getting ever smaller.

Anyway.

UVA, fifth, I’m OK with that.

Duke is at one, because, Duke.

No Cooper Flagg this year, so, it’s a rotation with a lot of 18-year-olds going up against a lot of rotations with 22- and 23-year-olds.

Louisville (2) and NC State (4) are among those older teams.

North Carolina (3) is, like Duke, familiar – kinda like voting Clemson to win the ACC in football.

The voting is the collective opinion of 49 media members who were able to break away for a mid-week trip to Charlotte in the middle of football season.

Translation: a lot of local Carolina-based media in that 49.

Fifth would mean Ryan Odom has his team in the running for a double-bye in the ACC Tournament, and in the discussion for a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Like I said, we can live with that.

2025-2026 preseason ACC voting

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1. Duke (34 first-place votes), 866 total points
2. Louisville (15), 842
3. North Carolina, 741
4. NC State, 710
5. Virginia, 623
6. SMU, 616
7. Clemson, 510
8. Miami, 500
9. Syracuse, 489
10. Notre Dame, 477
11. Wake Forest, 412
12. Virginia Tech, 355
13. Georgia Tech, 315
14. Pitt, 301
15. Florida State, 221
16. California, 156
17. Stanford, 138
18. Boston College, 107

2025-26 preseason All-ACC team

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First Team

• Cameron Boozer, Duke, 46 votes
• Markus Burton, Notre Dame, 46
• Darrion Williams, NC State, 45
• Mikel Brown Jr., Louisville, 36
• Ryan Conwell, Louisville, 36

Second Team

• Isaiah Evans, Duke, 24
• Boopie Miller, SMU, 27
• J.J. Starling, Syracuse, 27
• Baye Ndongo, Georgia Tech, 24
• Caleb Wilson, North Carolina, 24

ACC Preseason Player of the Year

• Darrion Williams, NC State, 23
• Cameron Boozer, Duke, 19
• Markus Burton, Notre Dame, 2
• J.J. Starling, Syracuse, 2
• Donald Hand Jr., Boston College, 1
• Baye Ndongo, Georgia Tech, 1
• Caleb Wilson, North Carolina, 1

ACC Preseason Rookie of the Year

• Cameron Boozer, Duke, 43
• Mikel Brown Jr., Louisville, 3
• Caleb Wilson, North Carolina, 2
• Neoklis Avdalas, Virginia Tech, 1