UNC Basketball: Sports Illustrated predicts Tar Heels to finish here in 2018

First-place finish for North Carolina? Not according to Sports Illustrated.

With less than three months until the start of the 2018-19 college basketball season, Sports Illustrated released its preseason Atlantic Coast Conference power rankings on Tuesday.

The ACC looks capable of putting nine teams in the NCAA Tournament again this season, something its done each of the past two years.

Anchored by Duke and North Carolina, along with both Virginia schools and a handful of others, the top-half of the conference is absolutely loaded. Not only will it be a gauntlet for the conference’s bottom-half, but it will serve as barometer for the programs looking to contend for a national title.

According to Sports Illustrated, Duke is the ACC’s best team. Thanks to the Blue Devils’ No. 1-ranked recruiting class — led by R.J. Barrett, Cameron Reddish and Zion Williamson — Duke will finish the season at the top of the conference.

Duke is followed by Virginia, which lost just three games during its entire 2017-18 campaign. Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, the last of those three losses came in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, marking the first time a 1-seed ever lost to a 16-seed. They do return three starters from last year’s team, though, and will look to recover from the devastating season-ending loss.

North Carolina is No. 3 on the list, thanks in part to its trio of returning senior starters in Luke Maye, Kenny Williams and Cameron Johnson. Another big factor in the Tar Heels’ preseason ranking is their star-studded freshman class.

"Nassir Little is big time. The McDonald’s All-American Game MVP should take some pressure off Luke Maye."

Virginia Tech returns four double-digit scorers from last year’s squad, and comes in fourth on the list. Florida State brings back some talented players from last season’s Elite 8 team, and is ranked fifth.

Syracuse welcomes back all five starters from a season ago, and comes in at No. 6 on the list. Shelton Mitchell is back in Miami this season, propelling the Hurricanes to seventh on the list. Notre Dame, Louisville and Miami round out the top-10.

Boston College, North Carolina State and Wake Forest are 11th, 12th and 13th, respectively. Georgia Tech lost three of its top-five scorers and comes in at 14th. And in a surprise to absolutely no one, Pittsburgh — which didn’t win a single conference game in 2018 — is predicted to finish dead-last in the conference.

ACC conference play will go into full swing the first week of January.