Where Notre Dame men’s basketball was picked in the preseason ACC poll

On3 imageby:Patrick Engel10/18/22

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Notre Dame basketball had high internal preseason expectations last season: NCAA tournament or bust. Everything revolved around seeing the words “Notre Dame” pop on the screen on Selection Sunday for the first time since 2017. The Irish believed it was possible.

The outside views, though, weren’t as convinced. Notre Dame, coming off an 11-15 season in 2020-21, was tabbed to finish eighth in the ACC in what was widely predicted to be a down year for the league.

This year? External views and prognostications have higher standards. That’s what a second-place finish in the league, two wins in March Madness and a crop of returning fifth-year seniors will do.

Notre Dame was picked to finish sixth in the preseason ACC poll, the conference announced Tuesday evening. The 15-team poll was voted on by the media members present at ACC media days earlier this month.

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A two-spot jump from last season’s preseason prognostications sounds more significant than it reads. The ACC had one team ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 for much of the regular season and sent just five teams to the NCAA tournament. It would have been four without Virginia Tech – not a projected at-large team – stealing a bid by claiming the ACC tournament title.

This season, though, looks like a deeper and more challenging 15-team field. North Carolina is the preseason No. 1 team in the AP poll. Duke is not far behind, at No. 7. Virginia is at No. 18.

The Tar Heels bring back four starters from a team that reached the national title game. The Blue Devils, as they have often done, signed the No. 1 recruiting class, per the On3 Consensus team recruiting rankings. Virginia missed the NCAA tournament, but returns all five of its starters.

Further down, Virginia Tech has a second-team preseason All-ACC selection back in forward Justyn Mutts, and Miami brings back reigning third-team all-conference guard Isaiah Wong. Both found at least one first-team all-conference selection from another conference in the transfer portal. Florida State, a disappointment last season in part due to injuries, returns two former five-star recruits and its top two scorers.

Then there’s Notre Dame, which has six grad students among its 12 scholarship players. Five of them are in the projected seven-man rotation, along with freshman guard J.J. Starling and freshman forward Ven-Allen Lubin. The former was a five-star prospect. All told, three of the top five scorers from last year’s team return and are paired with a top-20 recruiting class. The Irish are as old and experienced as any team in the conference. It all means they’re thinking big.

“I think the potential of this team is to be a Final Four team,” grad student guard Cormac Ryan said earlier this month. “I believe that whole-heartedly.”

North Carolina was picked to win the ACC and earned 90 of 101 first-place votes. Duke was second, followed by Virginia, Miami, Florida State. Virginia Tech was picked seventh, with Syracuse, Wake Forest and North Carolina State rounding out the top 10.

Notre Dame did not have any players on the two preseason All-ACC teams. Starling earned two votes for the ACC Preseason Rookie of the Year.

Notre Dame first game is an exhibition Nov. 2 against Xavier University of Louisiana. The Irish open the regular season Nov. 10 at home vs. Radford. Their first ACC game is Dec. 3 vs. Syracuse.

2021-22 preseason ACC poll

(School, name, votes, first-place votes in parentheses)

1. North Carolina (90), 1504

2. Duke (2), 1339

3. Virginia (6), 1310

4. Miami (2), 1138

5. Florida State, 1064

6. Notre Dame, 971

7. Virginia Tech (1), 921

8. Syracuse, 700

9. Wake Forest, 672

10. NC State, 548

11. Clemson, 528

12. Louisville, 477

13. Boston College, 368

14. Pitt, 320

15. Georgia Tech, 260

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