By Jerry Ratcliffe
Three ACC teams were voted into the Associated Press preseason men’s Top 25 basketball poll on Monday, but Virginia wasn’t one of them.
Duke was the highest-ranked ACC team, coming in at No. 6, while Louisville was 11th and North Carolina 25th. Virginia was among other teams receiving votes. The Cavaliers will play the first of two exhibition games at Vanderbilt this week, then host Villanova the following week (see related story on this site).
Purdue was the No. 1 preseason team in the AP poll, followed by Houston, Florida, UConn and St. John’s to round out the top five.
ESPN basketball analyst Seth Greenberg, who was in Charlottesville to attend Virginia’s practice last Friday, disregards preseason polls and had these comments posted on his Twitter/X account:
“I don’t give a crap about preseason top-25 rankings or preseason league polls. You earn your ranking and your standing by your play. All the other stuff is speculation. If you are not in practice every day, you have no idea how good a team is and teams will develop over the season.”
In other Virginia basketball news, Petersburg HS star power forward Latrell Allmond committed to Oklahoma State on Monday. Allmond, considered the No. 2 prospect in the state of Virginia, had narrowed his list to the Cowboys, UVA, Indiana, Tennessee and Maryland.
The 6-foot-8, 4-star is ranked the No. 21 overall player in the nation by Rivals. He’s considered the No. 3-ranked power forward in the country.
