Monday’s media predictions broke a string of nine straight years of the Hokies being picked to finish #1 or #2 in the Coastal Division.

When the votes were tallied in Greensboro, a jumble of voting on Duke, Virginia Tech, Miami and UNC in the Costal Division had resolved itself into a #3 prediction for the Hokies. And that was by a narrow margin, as the 571 points amassed by the Hokies barely nudged them ahead of UNC’s 570 points.

Here’s the Coastal voting.

In the previous nine years of ACC preseason predictions, the voting has never been that congested at the top, and it’s the first time that six Coastal teams have received first-place votes. (In 2008, five of six Coastal teams — everyone but Duke — got at least one first-place vote.)

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