ACC Media Picks NC State 8th

The ACC media turned in their votes today at ACC Operation Basketball (aka Media Day), and they picked NC State to finish 8th in the official preseason poll.

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

Over the past 46 years, the media’s No. 1 or No. 2 ACC Operation Basketball preseason pick has gone on to win the ACC’s regular season championship 36 times (including ties). The media’s No. 1 pick has also won outright, or tied, for the regular season title 22 times while the No. 2 choice has gone on to finish first on 14 occasions.

Only five times in the long and distinguished history of ACC Operation Basketball has the assembled multitudes of ACC media been “off the mark”. In 2006-07, Virginia tied North Carolina for first place in the ACC during the regular season after being picked to finish eighth by the media. In 1980, 1996 and 2003, Maryland, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest, respectively, finished first after being penciled in by the media for the sixth spot. In 2012-13, Miami finished atop the ACC regular-season standings after being accorded a preseason ranking of fifth. (ACC)

Wolfpack head coach Mark Gottfried said at NC State’s Media Day that he wouldn’t be surprised if they were picked to finish 9th, 10th, or 11th in the preseason polls.  It looks like he wasn’t too far off.  It wasn’t that long ago that he was a member of the media himself, as an ESPN analyst.