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

Chris Graham

acc basketball 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


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


  • 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


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

Preseason All-ACC Basketball Team


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

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham, the king of "fringe media," is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019, and Team of Destiny: Inside Virginia Basketball’s Run to the 2019 National Championship, and The Worst Wrestling Pay-Per-View Ever, published in 2018. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].