Way, way back in October, the media covering the ACC picked Duke and North Carolina first in the preseason poll in an unprecedented tie. Half right, half way wrong.
As the tournament begins in Greensboro, looking back, the media picked six teams within two spots of their final resting places, three too high and three too low. The biggest miss was obviously on the Tar Heels, nine spots off, but Virginia Tech and Florida State were undersold as well.
Here's the then-and-now breakdown:
1. Duke (tournament seed: 1)
2. North Carolina (10)
3. Clemson (6)
4. Georgia Tech (7)
5. Maryland (2)
6. Wake Forest (5)
7. Florida State (3)
8. Virginia Tech (4)
9. Boston College (8)
10. Miami (12)
11. Virginia (9)
12. North Carolina State (11)
Luke has worked for The N&O since 2000. He covered the Carolina Hurricanes and the NHL before becoming a sports columnist in August 2008. A native of Evanston, Ill., he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. He can be reached at (919) 829-8947, @LukeDeCock on Twitter or 
Comments
And once again, we learn the
Thu, 03/11/2010 - 12:48 — mad_maxAnd once again, we learn the lesson that preseason predictions are nothing more than popularity contests and bureaucratic guessing games. Seeing as how they've made a career out of following collegiate athletics, you'd think these guys would have gotten more than one of the twelve spots right.