Our beautiful dueling Final Four basketball programs are just a few weeks away from returning to the court, and the ACC preseason polls were released yesterday.
On the men’s side, NC State was picked to finish eighth, or somewhere right in the chewy center of the ACC basketball standings. The Pomeroy Ratings suggest this is underrating the Pack a bit, but who knows really. Pretty sure that UVA is not going to finish up there in fifth, though. Seems the media is slow to react to Tony Bennett being kinda middling in his program-building capabilities now.
Duke was picked first, followed by UNC and Wake Forest; all three earned at least one first-place vote. NC State didn’t place a player on any of the preseason all-conference teams.
On the women’s side, Notre Dame is the runaway favorite to win the league, with 70 first-place votes. NC State checks in next, with eight first-place votes. That seems fair.
Both Aziaha James and Saniya Rivers landed on the 10-person preseason All-ACC squad, while Zamareya Jones is on the newcomer watch list. James and Rivers both received at least one vote for preseason Player of the Year.