In another clear sign of how things have changed for Virginia basketball over the past two years, even the Carolina media is showing the Hoos respect these days. At the annual ACC Operation Basketball media day on Wednesday, the Cavaliers were tabbed to finish second in the preseason poll. They claimed 18 first-place votes as well. Virginia was picked fourth the previous two seasons.
The media selected North Carolina (60 first-place votes) to finish at the top of the standings followed by UVa (18), Duke (8), Notre Dame (1), Miami, Florida State (1), Louisville, NC State, Syracuse (1), Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, and Boston College.
The Tar Heels, who return four starters from last season’s Sweet 16 team, have been the media’s preseason pick a league-high 21 times. The Cavaliers have won 60 games the past two years and finished atop the regular season standings in back-to-back campaigns.
“I think first you have to realize to defend or repeat or however you want to say it, it’s going to be probably more difficult than it has been in the past,” UVa coach Tony Bennett said. “Yeah, you have to acknowledge that. We tasted it some last year, but whether a team is not as good as you, as good as you or better than you, they’re going to be so ready when you play them, and that’s different. It really is. You’re going into games where teams are trying to play their best, even the so-called big boys, and that means you’ve got to be ready for that. You’ve got to embrace that. You’ve got to understand that. But the sooner we can understand how we’re going to be at our best is we’re not going to change much how we’ve been. We have an identity. We’re going to stick to it.”
Both of those teams placed two players on the preseason All-ACC team as well. For Virginia, Malcolm Brogdon received first-team honors and Anthony Gill took a second-team spot. Gill missed a first-team slot by one vote. For UNC, Marcus Paige joined Brogdon on the first team, while Brice Johnson made the second team with Gill. Brogdon and Paige also shared the media’s preseason Player of the Year vote. The full team is below.
First team (votes in parenthesis)
- Marcus Paige, Sr., North Carolina (86)
- Malcolm Brogdon, Sr., Virginia (77)
- Xavier Rathan-Mayes, So., Florida State (43)
- Brandon Ingram, Fr., Duke (29)
- Demetrius Jackson, Jr., Notre Dame (28)
Second team
- Anthony Gill, Sr., Virginia (27)
- Grayson Allen, So., Duke (27)
- Zach Auguste, Sr., Notre Dame (24)
- Anthony “Cat” Barber, Jr., NC State (22)
- Brice Johnson, Sr., North Carolina (22)
