ACC Basketball: Media goofs pick Virginia fifth in 2024-2025 preseason poll

The media members who took part in the ACC Basketball Tipoff last week tabbed the UVA Basketball team fifth in the preseason rankings, the league office announced on Tuesday.

They’re undervaluing this group.

You’ll never guess who they put first and second.

Wake Forest, which has consistently underperformed in the Steve Forbes era, was picked third, with Clemson, coming off a surprise Elite Eight run in the spring, at fourth.

There are 18 schools in the ACC now.

Boston College, no surprise, was slotted at 18th.

To my point about Virginia being undervalued: the ‘Hoos were selected fourth in the 2023-24 ACC Basketball Preseason Poll and finished third (13-7) in the standings.

UVA has finished at or higher than their predicted finish in 14 of the last 16 seasons.

ACC Basketball: Preseason Poll

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School, Points

1. Duke (42), 956
2. North Carolina (11), 924
3. Wake Forest (1), 800
4. Clemson, 765
5. Virginia, 743
6. Miami, 659
7. Pitt, 636
8. NC State, 550
9. Louisville, 518
10. Notre Dame, 462
11. Syracuse, 454
12. Georgia Tech, 433
13. SMU, 344
14. Virginia Tech, 252
15. Florida State, 251
16. California, 206
17. Stanford, 165
18. Boston College, 116

First-place votes in parentheses; 54 total voters

Preseason ACC Player of the Year

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• RJ Davis, North Carolina, 40 votes
• Cooper Flagg, Duke, 10
• Hunter Sallis, Wake Forest, 3
• Maxime Raynaud, Stanford, 1

Preseason ACC Rookie of the Year

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• Cooper Flagg, Duke, 53 votes
• Jeremiah Wilkinson, California, 1

Preseason All-ACC Basketball Team

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First Team

• RJ Davis*, North Carolina, 54
• Hunter Sallis, Wake Forest, 52
• Cooper Flagg, Duke, 52
• Markus Burton, Notre Dame, 41
• Nijel Pack, Miami, 37

Second Team

• Ian Schieffelin, Clemson, 36
• Chase Hunter, Clemson, 31
• Jamir Watkins, Florida State, 26
• Baye Ndongo, Georgia Tech, 21
• Ishmael Leggett, Pitt, 20

*denotes unanimous selection