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ACC Basketball: Agree or Disagree with the ACC Preseason Basketball Poll?

By James Fitzgerald

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The ACC Basketball 2015-16 Preseason Poll was released via theACC.com.

Teams were ranked as voted upon by the media that was in attendance at the ACC’s “Operation Basketball” event that was held in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The top four teams in the poll are really no surprise, nor is the order that they were voted in.

The North Carolina Tar Heels received top billing in the poll receiving 60 first place votes and 1292 overall points.

The Heels’ were also voted No.1 in the Preseason Coaches Poll along with Kentucky. Marcus Paige, Brice Johnson, and Kennedy Meeks are going to have a lot of hype to live up to this season. But the Heels are loaded enough to get it done.

The Malcolm Brogdon led Virginia Cavaliers came in second with 18 first place votes and 1226 total points and were ranked sixth in the Coaches Poll.

The defending National Champion Duke Blue Devils were third in the ACC vote after receiving eight first place votes and 1187 total points. The Blue Devils were also fourth in the Coaches Poll and will be playing one of the top recruiting classes in the nation led by swingman Brandon Ingram.

Notre Dame came in fourth with one first place vote and 949 total points after winning the ACC Crown last season. They were ranked 18th in the Coaches Poll and are going to be looking to overcome the losses of Jerian Grant and Pat Connaughton to the NBA

From there the poll actually had a few surprises. Here is how the overall poll took shape:

ACC Operation Basketball 2015-16 Preseason Poll

(First-place votes in parenthesis)

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    • Team & Points

    1. North Carolina (60): 1292
    2. Virginia (18): 1226
    3. Duke (8): 1187
    4. Notre Dame (1): 949
    5. Miami: 841
    6. Florida State (1): 827 
    7. Louisville: 821
    8. NC State: 808
    9. Syracuse (1): 666
    10. Pitt: 623
    11. Wake Forest: 391
    12. Clemson: 359
    13. Georgia Tech: 296 
    14. Virginia Tech: 260
    15. Boston College: 134

    Miami coming in fifth in the vote is not really a surprise since they are returning senior center Tonye Jekiri, and senior guards Sheldon McClellan and Angel Rodriguez.

    We already know that the Hurricanes are going to be well coached by Jim Larranaga, but they are not going to be better than the Florida State Seminoles this season who is the true dark horse to win the ACC this year.

    Florida State has a great blend of experienced players like senior guards Devin Bookert and Montay Brandon, leading scorer Xavier Rathan-Mayes who is back for his sophomore season, along with Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley who are two of the top freshman in the land.

    The Noles’ are going to have a lot of versatility when you throw in the size they can put on the frontline with Michael Ojo and Boris Bojanovsky.

    Florida State’s versatility and experience should have put them in the Top Four.

    Wake Forest also looks to be ranked low. Danny Manning‘s team is going to be the surprise of the ACC.

    Devin Thomas and Codi Miller-McIntyre along with sophomores Cornelius Hudson and Mitchell Wilbekin should be ready to make a leap into the Top 10 of the ACC.  Number 11 in the poll seems safe but in reality, we should expect more.

    This is how the ACC Poll should look in reality.

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    • 1. North Carolina
    2. Virginia
    3. Duke
    4. Florida State
    5. Notre Dame
    6. Louisville
    7. Miami
    8. Wake Forest
    9. Pittsburgh
    10. NC State
    11. Syrcause
    12. Clemson
    13. Virginia Tech
    14. Georgia Tech
    15. Boston College

    Florida State is Top 4 and could possibly win the ACC crown at the end of the year while Wake Forest is going to be gunning for an NCAA tournament bid.

    Miami is being slightly overrated, but will also be on the tournament bubble with Wake Forest.

    NC State and Syracuse are going to underwhelm this season though both teams return enough players to actually factor into the Top Ten. NC State is going to fall off a bit without the services of Trevor Lacey and Syracuse honestly lost too much in the offseason.

    Syracuse is going to run the risk of missing out on the NCAA tournament this season and we are not really trusting Trevor Cooney and Michael Gibnje to be able to have the Orange overachieve this season. Look for them to be on the fringe of being out though they may get put in the bracket because of name recognition.

    You can always find something wrong with how people vote. The media did not get it completely wrong, they just got it slightly wrong.

    Next: Washington State 2015-16 Season Preview

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