Every fall we Wahoo fans eagerly await the start of basketball season. The UVA Men’s basketball program has had an incredible streak in the ACC regular season. We Virginia fans knew UVA would be really good this year, so in years past there has been some frustration before the season starts at all the prognosticators not giving UVA sufficient respect.
So, I decided to have some fun and rank the rankers. Below you will find a list of some prominent personalities in college basketball and a grade for how they ranked UVA before the season started. Overall, I’d say UVA gets a lot more respect in the preseason than they did a couple of years ago.
Kudos to these people…
- David Teel at the Daily Press picked the Hoos first and predicted a 31-3, 17-1 ACC record, which was pretty accurate. He had UNC at #2 and Duke at #3. This looks to be the most accurate preseason poll for the top of the ACC.
- There was a lot of Hoo love in the ACC Degenerates preseason preview podcast. Luke picked UVA 1, UNC 2, Duke 3. Guthrie had UVA #1, UNC #2 and Syracuse #3 with Duke at #5. Mike had Syracuse #1, UVA #2 and Duke #3 but also made a bold prediction for a UVA natty.
- Drew Nantals over at Sporting News picked the Hoos to finish the regular season first in his preseason rankings.
- Tim Leonard at Orange Fizz (a Syracuse sports site) picked the Hoos first all the way back in June.
Pretty Close…
Since the Hoos ended up tied for first, you really can’t be too critical for anyone picking them second. It is interesting that everyone who picked them second put them behind Duke rather than UNC though.
- UVA alum Emily Caron at Sports Illustrated had the Hoos at #2 behind Duke.
- Molly Geary at Sports Illustrated had the Hoos at #2 behind Duke.
- Les Johns at 247Sports had the Hoos at #2 behind Duke.
- Jeff Borzello at ESPN had the Hoos at #2 behind Duke.
- Brian Rauf at Busting Brackets had the Hoos at #2 behind Duke.
- Ky McKeon of the Three Man Weave podcast picked the Hoos #2 behind Duke.
Sort of close
- Andy Katz had the Hoos at #3 behind Duke and UNC. Since Duke won the ACC Tournament and UNC tied for the regular season, he wasn’t that far off.
- Teamrankings.com had the Hoos at #3 behind Duke and UNC. Not sure if we can blame anyone since it was supposed to be based on metrics.
- Michael Hunter’s ACC Basketball Report had the Hoos at #3 in the preseason podcast.
What were they thinking…
- Jack Williams at D1CoachCorner has the Hoos #4 behind a #3 N.C. State.
