The Virginia Tech men were voted ninth in the ACC preseason poll with Duke being the preseason favorite, following a vote of a select media panel.
The Hokies received little respect on the ACC preseason all-conference team with only one representative.
Duke is the preseason ACC favorite for the third straight year and the 11th time in the last 14 seasons. The media panelists selected Virginia forward Thijs De Ridder as the ACC Preseason Player of the Year, while Duke’s Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje was chosen as ACC Preseason Rookie of the Year. De Ridder is Virginia’s first ACC Preseason Player of the Year honoree since Malcolm Brogdon ahead of the 2015-16 season. Duke picked up 45 of the 48 first-place votes, accumulating 861 total points. Virginia, Louisville and Miami each claimed a first-place vote and finished second through fourth, respectively, in the preseason poll. North Carolina rounded out the top five.
Clemson was slated in sixth, followed by Florida State, NC State, Virginia Tech and SMU.
Syracuse tops the next 10 with Pitt in 12th, Stanford 12th, Wake Forest 14th, California 15th and Notre Dame 16th. Boston College was ranked 17th in the preseason poll, while Georgia Tech ranked 18th.
De Ridder was the lone unanimous choice for the Preseason All-ACC Team and was joined on the first team by Louisville’s Flory Bidunga, Miami’s Sheldon Henderson and the Duke duo of John Blackwell and Patrick Ngongba II. Bidunga was a First-Team All-Big 12 selection and the league’s Defensive Player of the Year while playing at Kansas last year. Blackwell earned Third-Team All-Big Ten honors at Wisconsin last season.
The second team featured Boumtje Boumtje, Louisville’s Jackson Shelstad, Miami’s Malik Reneau, Virginia’s Chance Mallory and Virginia Tech’s Amani Hansberry. Reneau was a First-Team All-ACC pick for the Hurricanes in 2026, while Shelstad earned Third-Team All-Big Ten honors at Oregon in 2025. Hansberry was an ACC honorable mention this past season, after starting in all 30 of his appearances averaging 14.3 points and 7.4 rebounds per game.
