Virginia Basketball Picked to Finish 5th in ACC Preseason Poll

Matt Newton | Oct 15, 2024

Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

The 2024-2025 ACC Men's Basketball Preseason Poll was unveiled on Tuesday evening and Virginia was picked to finish 5th, as selected by the media during last week's ACC Tipoff event.

Duke was voted the preseason favorite for the ninth time in the last 12 seasons, receiving 42 of a possible 54 first-place votes. North Carolina was picked to finish second and received 11 first-place votes, while Wake Forest picked up the last first-place vote and was picked to finish third. Clemson and Virginia rounded out the top five.

The new ACC members were each picked to finish in the bottom third of the conference, with SMU placing 13th, California 16th, and Stanford 17th.

UVA was picked to finish fourth in the 2023-2024 ACC Preseason Poll and wound up finishing third in the standings with a 13-7 conference record. The Cavaliers have finished the same or better than their predicted order of finish in the ACC preseason poll in 14 of the last 16 seasons.

See the results of the 2024 ACC Men's Basketball Preseason Poll below:

2023-2024 ACC Men's 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

North Carolina guard RJ Davis, who enters the season as the reigning ACC Player of the Year, was voted the Preseason ACC Player of the Year, garnering 40 of the 54 votes. Davis is the first ACC Player of the Year to return to school the following year since Tyler Hansbrough in 2008-2009. Duke freshman Cooper Flagg picked up 10 votes for Preseason ACC Player of the Year and ran away with the Preseason Rookie of the Year, receiving all but one of the votes for that accolade.

Davis, Flagg, Hunter Sallis (Wake Forest), Markus Burton (Notre Dame), and Nijel Pack (Miami) were selected to the Preseason All-ACC First Team. Clemson's Ian Schieffelin and Chase Hunter, Florida State's Jamir Watkins, Georgia Tech's Baye Ndongo, and Pitt's Ishmael Leggett were named to the Preseason All-ACC Second Team.

No Virginia player was named to either the First or Second Preseason All-ACC teams.

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 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

Virginia is set to open the 2024-2025 season at home against Campbell on Wednesday, November 6th at 7pm at John Paul Jones Arena.

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