The ACC released the preseason selections from ACC Operation Basketball on Thursday. Based on votes from the media in attendance at the event, Virginia fared well in the results.
Individually, Mamadi Diakite received a spot on the preseason All-ACC team. Diakite got 49 votes and earned a spot on the first team. The other four players on the first team were Louisville’s Jordan Nwora, Duke’s Tre Jones, North Carolina’s Cole Anthony, and Notre Dame’s John Mooney. The second team picks were NC State’s Markell Johnson, Duke’s Vernon Carey Jr., Miami’s Chris Lykes, North Carolina’s Garrison Brooks, and Florida State’s Trent Forrest.
Diakite also got two votes in the Preseason ACC Player of the Year voting. Nwora was the media’s pick to be the ACC Player of the Year with 55 votes. Anthony, Jones, Mooney, and Johnson also received votes.
UVA freshman Casey Morsell received three votes for Preseason ACC Freshman of the Year to tie with Duke’s Cassius Stanley and Matthew Hurt. Anthony led that voting with 89 votes, while Carey had eight votes. Duke’s Wendell Moore Jr. also picked up five votes.
The media also made its pick for the ACC standings. Unsurprisingly, the media votes pegged Duke as the preseason favorite with 51 first-place votes and 1,564 total points. The media has picked the Blue Devils for four straight seasons and in six of the last seven years. Duke, however, has not finished in first place in the ACC since 2010 when it tied with Maryland in the final standings. The Devils’ last outright ACC Regular Season Championship came in 2006.
North Carolina finished second in the voting with 19 first-place votes and 1,493 total points, while Louisville was third with 29 first-place votes and 1,448 total points. Virginia rounded out the top four (the equivalent of a double bye in the ACC Tournament) with 12-first place votes and 1,405 total points. UVA and UNC have dominated the ACC regular season race for the last dozen years. From 2007 to 2019, Carolina has eight first-place finishes and Virginia has five. Those two teams shared the ACC Regular Season Championship in 2007 and 2019. The Tar Heels were outright winners in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2016, and 2017. The Hoos were solo champs in 2014, 2015, and 2018.
The rest of the standings in order were Florida State, NC State, Notre Dame, Syracuse, Miami, Pittsburgh, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Boston College, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest.
Naturally, the voting brought on some fan conversation on the men’s basketball message board. One thread with thoughts can be read here.
For Fan Friday, it’s time for fans to have their say though. So, vote in the poll below! Among the four teams that got first-place votes from the media, who will win the ACC Regular Season title? The poll is open through next Thursday and the results will be in next week’s article.
Who Will Win The ACC Basketball Regular Season?
- Virginia (57%, 28 Votes)
- Louisville (22%, 11 Votes)
- North Carolina (12%, 6 Votes)
- Duke (8%, 4 Votes)
Total Voters: 49
Loading ...On to the rest of Fan Friday …
Takes Of The Week
The Virginia football team plays a key Coastal Division game on the road tonight in Miami. As the only team with no ACC losses remaining in the division currently, the Cavaliers can take further control of the standings with a win against the Hurricanes. Remember, the media picked UVA as the Coastal favorite in that preseason voting.
That led to an interesting thread-starter from poster HooBaseball on the football board. The basic premise – if the Hoos don’t win the Coastal, how will fans view the season? Some posts from the thread – read it here – follow.
Fans Of The Week
Go Hoos Go!
Student Fans Of The Week
Loving the Hoos from the front row.
Feature Photo Of The Week
Olusegun Oluwatimi holds down the center spot for the Virginia offensive line.
Thread Of The Week
The thread of the week comes from the soccer message board. The Cavaliers are currently ranked No. 1 nationally in both men’s and women’s soccer! HooInDE opened the thread with a post about coach George Gelnovatch, who has won two National Championships with the men’s soccer program. Read it here.
Question Of The Week
For this week’s selection, poster doublehoo11 provided the question on the men’s basketball message board. Instead of an all-time starting five or Mt. Rushmore concept for the best players in program history, doublehoo11 asked “What would be your Hoos starting 5 of your favorite players?” There are lots of responses in the thread here where you can take a trip down memory lane with names like Harold Deane, Yuri Barnes, Jontel Evans, Jason Cain, and more.
