CHARLOTTE – North Carolina received 57 of a possible 59 first-place votes to finish atop the ACC media poll released Wednesday at the conference’s Operation Basketball media event.

The Tar Heels return all five starters, including preseason ACC player of the year selection Harrison Barnes, from a team that finished 29-8, reached an NCAA regional final and won first place in the ACC with a 14-2 conference record last season.

Duke was picked second in the poll, followed by Florida State, Virginia, Miami, Virginia Tech and Clemson. N.C. State was selected to finish eighth, with Maryland, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Boston College closing out the poll.

The Virginia Historical Society has loaded a searchable database of more than 1,500 slave names, with links back to original documents such as wills, bills of sale, court records, deeds, and deeds of emancipation. The database is searchable by the first and last name of the slave, the owner's name, the slave's occupation and location.

The project, called Unknown No Longer, is a work in progress, and historians continue to add information pulled from the nearly eight million items in the society's unpublished manuscript collection.

Chapel Hill Transit will provide shuttle service on its "Tar Heel Express" to and from  the North Carolina-Virginia football game this Saturday.

You don't have to look far to find ACC talent in the NFL.

Every team in the league has at least three players from ACC schools and the conference has a total 249 players in the league as the season begins tonight in Green Bay.

Despite a recent downturn on the field, Miami leads the ACC with NFL players with 44. For the first time since expansion, Maryland takes over the second spot with 28, edging Florida State, which is down to 25 from an ACC-best 46 in 2006, and North Carolina (24).

RALEIGH – Upper Room Christian Academy senior Rodney Purvis has re-opened his recruiting process and announced a revised list of schools he’s considering for the 20012-13 season.

Purvis, a 6-foot-4 senior guard who pulled his verbal commitment from Louisville in May, said he’s now, in no order, considering offers from: Connecticut, Memphis, Missouri, N.C. Central, N.C. State, Ohio State, Virginia Commonwealth and Virginia.

Purvis and his mother, Shanda McNair, said they have no time frame on a decision, but may wait to after they take five official visits, interact with coaching staffs during home visits and thoroughly evaluate each program. 

“Instead of rushing into another decision,” Purvis said. “I get to sit down and talk with the coaches more. Gain relationship with every coach on the staff. Just get a good feel for the campuses ... and see what fits my style of play the best.”

Lindsey Hilts' two-out single in the bottom of the seventh inning drove in Jasmine Lamontagne on Sunday, and the North Carolina Challengers defeated Long Island (N.Y.) Bandits-Smith 5-4 to become national champions for the first time.

The 16U team from the Triangle-based girls fast-pitch softball organization won the 16-and-under PONY National Championship Tournament on Sunday at Thomas Brooks Park in Cary.

Updated at 1:48 p.m. to include complete Preseason All-ACC list.

GREENSBORO — Florida State and Miami led all ACC teams with four players from each school selected to the Preseason All-ACC Football team announced today.

Virginia Tech, Clemson and North Carolina all had three selections apiece, Boston College and Duke each had two players named and N.C. State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, and Virginia each had one player selected.

Wake Forest was the only league team not to place a player on the Preseason All-ACC team.

Among those in attendance for the start of the ACC baseball tournament in Durham today will be a number of scouts from major league teams.

This year’s MLB draft, which will be held June 6-8, is likely to include several ACC players again. The league has emerged as a primary professional pipeline in baseball.

As an assistant at Virginia in 1983, Jim Larranaga etched his name into ACC basketball infamy with a technical foul that may have sparked a national championship run — by N.C. State.

At age 61, the George Mason coach of the past 14 seasons is getting a chance to change his mark on the ACC. Miami saw to that Friday by hiring Larranaga to take over Frank Haith, who left recently for Missouri.

GREENSBORO — There weren’t a lot of fans in Greensboro Coliseum this afternoon to watch the first game of the 58th ACC Tournament between Miami and Virginia.

UVa coach Tony Bennett probably wishes he were among the thousands of no-shows by the time it ended.