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NORTH CAROLINA DOMINATES ACC PRESEASON POLLING

Roy Williams knows people have been talking about how good his team is going to be this season. Time is nearing for his Tar Heels to show it on the court.

Yesterday’s voting by media members at the ACC’s annual Operation Basketball on Wednesday in Charlotte only demonstrated how dominant many expect UNC to be this season as North Carolina was selected first in the poll, garnering 57 of the possible 59 first place votes and 706 total points.

North Carolina sophomore forward Harrison Barnes was selected as the preseason Player of the Year and joins teammates John Henson and Tyler Zeller on the preseason all-conference team.

Duke was selected second in the preseason media poll, with the other two first place votes and 649 points. Blue Devils’ freshman Austin RIvers was pegged as the preseason Rooke of the Year in the voting.

The rest of the voting rounded out in this order:

3) Florida State, 560 points
4) Virginia, 463 points
5) Miami, 455 points
6) Virginia Tech, 411 points
7) Clemson, 403 points
8} NC State, 316 points
9) Maryland, 264 points
10) Georgia Tech, 176 points
11) Wake Forest, 109 points
12) Boston College, 90 points

Miami’s Malcolm Grant, Seth Curry of Duke and Mike Scott of Virginia joined the trio of Tar Heels on the preseason all-conference team.

The word from media day yesterday was the ACC is beginning internal discussions over changes it will make to the conference tournament when Syracuse and Pittsburgh join the league. Like the BIG EAST which spreads their end of the season conference festival over five days to include all 16 teams, the ACC will likely follow a similar format to include all the programs.

ACC commissioner John Swofford also told media members it’s likely the ACC will go to an 18-game regular-season conference schedule when the league expands, which might not be until 2014-15 if Syracuse and Pitt are held to the 27-month exit notice by the BIG EAST.

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