Syracuse has been picked to finish fifth in the Atlantic Coast Conference in the preseason conference media poll released Wednesday. Duke took the top spot with 85 first-place votes.

Rounding out the top five are No. 2 North Carolina (six first-place votes), No. 3 Virginia, No. 4 Louisville and SU.

The Orange is coming off a disappointing regular season that saw the team finish 19-12 and 10th in the ACC, but a magical postseason that saw Syracuse reach the Final Four. SU was 9-9 in conference play last season and lost its first game of the ACC tournament to Pittsburgh.

---

ACC Media Poll Results

1. Duke (85 first-place votes) – 1359 points
2. North Carolina (6) – 1239
3. Virginia – 1125
4. Louisville – 1034
5. Syracuse – 905
6. North Carolina State – 772
7. Notre Dame – 716
8. Florida State – 705
9. Miami – 650
10. Virginia Tech – 645
11. Clemson – 623
12. Pittsburgh – 511
13. Wake Forest – 309
14. Georgia Tech – 199
15. Boston College – 128

---

The Orange will have to replace its top three scorers from last season in Michael Gbinije, Malachi Richardson and Trevor Cooney. But head coach Jim Boeheim has said his current team, with newcomers Paschal Chukwu, John Gillon and Andrew White III, is better than last year’s squad. One of the team’s top returners in Tyler Lydon was voted to the All-ACC second team.

“We’ve never put five new guys in in one year that I can remember that actually, five new guys that actually played a lot, which will happen this year,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said at the team’s media day on Friday. “… So we’ll be able to do some more things. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to work, but we will do some more things.”

Published on October 26, 2016 at 5:29 pm

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus