North Carolina picked to finish first in the ACC

As the basketball season looms less than three weeks from today, I am going to begin to look at the whole Atlantic Coast Conference, thanks to the 40 media members, who voted on several things at the annual Basketball Media Day. Of course for North Carolina and Tyler Hansbrough there was plenty to be happy after looking at the voting.

2008-09 Predicted Order of Finish:

1. North Carolina - 480
2. Duke - 436
3. Wake Forest - 354
4. Miami - 344
5. Clemson - 306
6. Virginia Tech - 298
7. Maryland - 192
8. Georgia Tech - 186
9. NC State - 179
10. Florida State - 145
11. Boston College - 123
12. Virginia - 79

You have to like this list if you are a Tar Heel fan, since Carolina received all fourty first place votes. Two other schools in the state of North Carolina come in second (Duke) and third (Wake). The other thing that I find interesting is that the two schools that we thought were going to give a jolt to the football part of the ACC are in the top half of this ranking with Miami fourth and Va Tech sixth, while the one that people thought might be better off on the hardwoods and not on the gridiron (Boston College) is eleventh in the ranking.



Now that we have checked the teams, let's see what the 40 media members voted as far as the All ACC team.

2008-09 ACC Preseason All-Conference Team:

Tyler Hansbrough - North Carolina
Tyrese Rice - Boston College
Jack McClinton - Miami
Ty Lawson - North Carolina
Gerald Henderson - Duke

2008-09 Preseason ACC Player of the Year:

Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina

2008-09 Preseason ACC Rookie of the Year:

Al-Farouq Aminu, Wake Forest


(Picture by: Keelo of CB.com)

Can you really argue with any of this? Sure you can, but this is the pre season, and what matters most is the post season and how each team did. Of course, as a Tar Heel, I am rooting to see more and more UNC players on the list, but in the end, as I said just now, I am a Tar Heel, and I believe in the ideal that the name on the front of the jersey is always more important than the one on the back. So, for me, the key is this team going all the way, winning it all, and from that many, many more accolades will come out from it.

Picture from ACC web site