Oct. 30, 2008
CHAPEL HILL - The University of North Carolina men's basketball team was the unanimous preseason No. 1 pick in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll for 2008-09, the newspaper announced today. Carolina tops the coaches preseason poll for the second consecutive season and is the first unanimous preseason choice since USA Today assumed sponsorship of the poll in 1991.
Connecticut was No. 2 in the poll, followed by No. 3 Louisville, No. 4 UCLA, No. 5 Duke, No. 6 Pittsburgh, No. 7 Michigan State, No. 8 Texas, No. 9 Notre Dame and No. 10 Purdue in the top 10. Miami (No. 16) and Wake Forest (No. 24) are the other Atlantic Coast Conference teams in the poll.
"Our guys are really excited about this season and rankings such as this are nice, but we know we have to play well once the season begins," head coach Roy Williams told USA Today on Wednesday. "That's the great thing about college basketball. Rankings are nice, but we don't have to wait for each Monday's poll to come out to see how we fared. We get to play that out on the court."
To read more about the USA Today/ESPN Coaches preseason poll, click here.
