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MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- Virginia
- Duke
- Florida State
- North Carolina
- Louisville
- Syracuse
- Miami FL
- NC State
- Georgia Tech
- Clemson
- Virginia Tech
- Notre Dame
- Pittsburgh
- Boston College
- Wake Forest
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL CONFERENCE 1ST TEAM:
-Garrison Brooks – SR F – North Carolina (ACC Player of the Year)
-Sam Hauser – SR F – Virginia
-Scottie Barnes – FR G – Florida State (ACC Freshman of the Year)
-Jalen Johnson – FR F – Duke
-Aamir Simms – SR F – Clemson
-Chris Lykes – SR G – Miami FL
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL CONFERENCE 2ND TEAM:
-David Johnson – SO G – Louisville
-Jose Alvarado – SR G – Georgia Tech
-MJ Walker – SR G – Florida State
-Kihei Clark – JR G – Virginia
-Wendell Moore – SO F – Duke
COMMENTS FROM DAVID
-Virginia is the pick to win the conference, which makes total sense to me. In fact it would not shock me to see them back in the Final Four, and perhaps winning it all…again. I guess they are still technically the defending National Champs. They have everything from depth to experience to suffocating defense. To give you an idea of just how good this program is, they appeared to be having a down year last year, but went 11-1 in their last 12 games and damn near finished in 1st place. That is a hell of a down year!
-Duke will likely do what Duke always does. They lost a lot of talent from last year but they replace it with a ton of talent this year, which should rank them among the best in the country. It may take them a little while to get going, but by the end of the year they should be as good as anyone.
-I like this Florida State team a lot. Not everyone else from HoopsHD is with me on that, and I know that they are unproven at the PG position, but they still look to have one of the most effective frontcourts in the nation, they once again have a lot of depth, and this is a program that always seems to outplay their expectations. Take last year, for instance. Not a whole lot of preseason love, but they were the first-place team in the ACC and had the NCAA Tournament been played they would have likely been a #1 seed.
-Louisville is losing some key players, particularly Jordan Nwora, but they look to have enough experience back along with some pretty good looking transfers to once again be competitive. Chris Mack is another coach that seems to regularly outperform his preseason expectations so do not be surprised to see Louisville in the mix.
-A lot of people like this North Carolina team, and I get that, but I am still washing the bad taste out of my mouth from a season ago where they won just 14 games. To be fair, they did lose some key players throughout the year (which definitely had an impact), but even when they got Cole Anthony back they did not look a whole lot better, and he is not back this year anyway. I am not going to say this UNC team is untalented, or that it is crazy to think they will be good this year. I am just not going to start praising them until I see them play a few games first.
-Not many people are all that big on Syracuse, but they do have four starters back and the experience alone should help them this year. I realize that the one starter who is not back was their best player, and at times they just looked awful last year, but it would not shock me to see them bounce back this year.
Miami FL is a team that many are picking as a dark horse. They do appear to have a good core group of players and should get some help out of a few transfers as well.
-NC State is another team to keep an eye on with a solid core group of players who are returning. They, along with Miami, could be in the NCAA Tournament picture come March.
-Georgia Tech has become everyone’s favorite Dark Horse at HoopsHD. There is some reason to be optimistic. Four starters are back from a team that went 11-9 in conference play, and they did finish the season on a huge high note where they won six of their final seven games, so it will be interesting to see if this is a team that we are talking about in March.
-Clemson also has four starters back, and this is a program that seems to develop talent and that becomes better and better with the more experience they have. Right now I would say they will end up on the outside looking in, but you never want to totally discount them.
-After that it does appear to be a bit of a drop-off. Virginia Tech is still trying to rebuild, Notre Dame had a disastrous season last year, Boston College appears to be getting better but still has a long way to go, Pittsburgh is also continuing to improve but based on how bad they were a few years ago it would have been nearly impossible for them to get worse, and Wake Forest…WOW are they bad!!