Virginia is heading into the season with some serious ACC respect.
Second-year forward Thijs De Ridder was voted the league’s Preseason ACC Player of the Year on Tuesday, and the Cavaliers were picked to finish second in the conference behind Duke. Virginia second-year point guard Chance Mallory also earned preseason All-ACC recognition, landing on the second team.
Duke took the No. 1 spot in the poll, collecting 45 first-place votes and 861 points. Virginia followed with 778 points, including one first-place vote, while Louisville, Miami and North Carolina rounded out the top five. The rest of the top half of the league slotted in with Clemson at sixth, then Florida State, NC State, Virginia Tech and SMU.
The back half of the preseason ballot put Syracuse 11th, followed by Pitt, Stanford, Wake Forest, California, Notre Dame, Boston College and Georgia Tech. There were 48 total voters.
For Virginia, the second-place prediction lines up with a program that has consistently outperformed these preseason projections. The Cavaliers were picked fifth in the 2025-26 preseason poll and finished second with a 15-3 record. UVA has finished at or above its predicted spot in 15 of the last 18 seasons.
De Ridder now joins a short Virginia list in this category. He and Malcolm Brogdon are the only Cavaliers to be named preseason ACC Player of the Year.
Brogdon shared the honor before the 2015-16 season. De Ridder earned All-ACC first-team honors last season after leading Virginia in scoring at 15.6 points per game and rebounding at 6.2 per game.
He was joined on the preseason first team by Flory Bidunga of Louisville, John Blackwell and Patrick Ngngba II of Duke, and Shelton Henderson of Miami.
Mallory’s rise continued after a strong rookie year in 2025-26, when he averaged 9.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists. He made the preseason second team alongside Malik Reneau of Miami, Jackson Shelstad of Louisville, Amani Hansberry of Virginia Tech and Duke’s Joaquim Boumjte Boumjte.
Boumjte Boumjte also picked up ACC Preseason Rookie of the Year honors. He was the runaway choice there, earning 34 votes. Caleb Gaskins of Miami received five, followed by Cameron Williams of Duke with four, Maximo Adams of North Carolina with three, and Harris Reynolds of Clemson and Deron Rippey of Duke with one apiece.
Virginia will open the regular season on Tuesday, Nov. 3 against Drexel. Tipoff at John Paul Jones Arena is set for 7:30 p.m. on the ACC Network.
In Other News...
Virginia Heads To SMU With New Defensive Concerns Growing
Virginia heads to SMU for an important ACC matchup with its latest depth chart already carrying a few warning flags. Tony Elliott said the Cavaliers will be without wide receiver Rico Flores Jr., and the injury picture around the roster remains fluid as the team gets ready for a road test that could demand both resilience and flexibility on both sides of the ball.
The bigger concern sits in the secondary, where starting cornerback Omillio Agard is now out for the rest of the season with an ACL injury. Virginia is also managing day-to-day uncertainty with players such as Brandyn Hillman and Maddox Marcellus, leaving Elliott and his staff to sort through more questions as SMU looms and the Cavaliers try to hold together their defensive plan. [Read more 🡒]
Virginia's Defense Suddenly Has A Huge Problem Before SMU
Virginias defense took a major hit this week as Tony Elliott confirmed that starting cornerback Omillio Agard suffered a torn ACL and will miss the rest of the 2026 season. Agard is set to undergo surgery after the injury, leaving Virginia with a significant hole in the secondary just as it heads into a high-profile matchup with No. 24 SMU.
The timing only adds to the uncertainty around the Cavaliers, who are already managing a cluster of injuries on both sides of the ball. Several players are still being evaluated ahead of the game, with some listed as day-to-day or questionable, while others, including Baxter, have already had surgery and are expected to be out for multiple games. [Read more 🡒]
Virginia Transfers Are Driving A 4-2 Start And Raising New Concerns
Halfway through the 2026 regular season, Virginia has settled into a 4-2 start and a spot near the top half of the ACC, and a big part of that early stability has come from a roster rebuilt with transfers. Quarterback Pribula has generally met expectations while helping steer the offense, running back Middlebrook has piled up the most all-purpose production, and defensive additions such as Hillman and Fobbs-White have given the Cavaliers real help on that side of the ball.
Even so, the review of the newcomers comes with some real caveats, because not every transfer has been able to settle in cleanly. Middlebrook has been more of a ground-game presence than a receiver, Flores Jr. and Lewis have been slowed by injuries or limited roles, and Virginia is still sorting out how dependable this group can be as the schedule tightens and the margin for error shrinks. [Read more 🡒]