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ATLANTA, Ga.The Virginia men’s basketball team was picked to finish 12th in the Atlantic Coast Conference during the 2008-09 regular season on Sunday (Oct. 26) in a preseason poll of media representatives attending the ACC’s 40th annual Operation Basketball.
North Carolina was the unanimous choice of media representatives participating in the preseason poll to finish first in the ACC regular season standings. North Carolina had 480 points in the poll followed by Duke (436), Wake Forest (354) and Miami (344). Clemson (306) was fifth in the preseason poll followed by Virginia Tech (298), Maryland (192), Georgia Tech (186), NC State (179), Florida State (145), Boston College (123) and Virginia (79).
Virginia freshman guard Sylven Landesberg finished second in balloting for ACC preseason Rookie of the Year. Wake Forest’s Al-Farouq Aminu finished first in the voting with 18 votes followed by Landesberg (4) and DeQuan Jones (Miami), Iman Shumpert (Georgia Tech) and Tony Woods (Wake Forest) with two votes each. Seven other players each received one vote.
North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough was a unanimous selection as the conference’s preseason Player of the Year.
Hansbrough and Boston College’s Tyrese Rice were unanimous selections to the preseason All-ACC Team. Other members of the team included Jack McClinton (Miami), Ty Lawson (North Carolina) and Gerald Henderson (Duke).
Virginia plays an exhibition game with Shepherd University (W. Va.) on Nov. 9 at John Paul Jones Arena before opening the 2008-09 regular season by hosting VMI on Nov. 16.