The ACC media yesterday tabbed Virginia Tech as an overwhelming favorite to win its second consecutive conference title. The Hokies received 78 of 87 votes to win the Coastal Division and 69 to win the championship game. Florida State, the media’s pick to win the Atlantic Division, received seven votes to win the title game. Georgia Tech, which got nine votes to take the Coastal, also received seven to win the title game.

GREENSBORO, N.C. From his office at the McCue Center, Al Groh will confront dozens of questions about his Virginia football team in the coming weeks. Can Vic Hall become a capable starting quarterback despite not playing the position regularly since he was a high school senior in 2004? Will the Cavaliers find the consistency they have long enjoyed at linebacker despite losing three of four starters?

GREENSBORO, N.C. Kam Chancellor rose through Norfolk’s youth football ranks as one of the biggest kids and best athletes—certainly no target for opponents to single him out as a weakness on the field. A quarterback and free safety in high school, he came to Virginia Tech, played cornerback as a freshman, moved to rover—Tech’s version of strong safety—as a sophomore and slid over to free safety last season. With each position change came adjustments, including coping with getting picked on by offenses.

Virginia Tech reintroduced Greg Boone as a quarterback last season in its Wild Turkey offense - a package of plays that allowed Boone, a tight end, to run, hand off or throw. With the graduation of backup quarterback Sean Glennon, Tech has no experienced backups for junior Tyrod Taylor. Except, of course, Boone. Though redshirt freshman Joseph “Ju-Ju” Clayton, a Hermitage High graduate, was named the backup quarterback coming out of spring practice, Boone expects to practice at quarterback this fall. (He said he had five practices there in the spring.)

Ronnie Shaban’s freshman season as a Virginia Tech baseball player was exactly one month old March 20 when he stepped to the plate against Georgia Tech pitcher Deck McGuire. Shaban, a Cosby High graduate, was familiar with McGuire, a sophomore who played at Deep Run and would end up becoming this season’s ACC pitcher of the year. Shaban arrived at Tech confident that he could play in the ACC, and he was proving himself during the season’s first month, when he hit .324. But he hadn’t felt comfortable at the plate lately. He had just five hits in his past 20 at-bats before this Friday game against the Yellow Jackets and their ace right-hander.

In Durham, N.C., a seemingly interminable wait finally ends tonight for the University of Virginia baseball team. The eight-team ACC tournament began yesterday afternoon at Durham Bulls Athletic Park. By the time the sixth-seeded Cavaliers take the field for their 8 p.m. opener, four teams (Georgia Tech, Miami, Boston College and Florida State) will have played two games apiece in the tourney. Two others—North Carolina and Duke—will have played once.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas State filed a lawsuit yesterday challenging a secret deal between former athletic director Bob Krause and ex-football coach Ron Prince that would pay Prince $3.2 million in deferred compensation between 2015 and 2020. Prince is currently an assistant coach at U.Va. Prince’s agent responded that the lawsuit is without merit and the deal between his client and the university is legally binding.

Like Neapolitan ice cream, wise men or blind mice, dominant pitching is better when it comes in threes. In the Colonial District, it’s embodied by Douglas Freeman’s Patrick Scoggin, Deep Run’s R.C. Orlan and Mills Godwin’s Kevin Buran. You could say they have a bit of a love-hate relationship. The love part is that they’re friends. So it’s more of a bromance type of love. The hate part is that since they’re nestled next to one another in the western corner of Henrico County, they’re forced to pitch against each other. The race for best pitcher in the Colonial District has no front-runner. It has a trifecta.

MOBILE, Ala. - A team from the Atlantic Coast Conference will face the top selection from the Mid-American Conference in the GMAC Bowl in Mobile next year. The ACC will send its ninth pick to Mobile. The new agreement was reached after the ACC’s contract expired with the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho. The ACC will take the place of Conference USA, which has sent a team to the GMAC Bowl in each of the 10 years the game has been in existence.

BLACKSBURG Whenever Virginia Tech’s softball team walked onto the field earlier this season, sophomore pitcher Kenzie Roark began an inner dialogue that continued for most of the game. “I’m good,“ she’d tell herself. “I’m here for a reason. I’m gonna strike these people out.“ Looking back, Roark dubbed this strategy “fake it ‘til you make it.“ She had to fake it. She wasn’t as confident as she was in high school, when she led Mount Juliet (Tenn.) to two state championship games. Now she had to confront the pressure of being the No. 1 pitcher on a Division I team.

DETROIT—OK, so maybe it wasn’t the end of college sports as we know it. Six years after commissioner Mike Tranghese predicted doom if his conference lost schools to the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big East is doing just fine, thank you. Exhibit A: Take a look at the Final Four, where Big East teams UConn and Villanova make up half the bracket.

Duke wins its ninth ACC championship in 12 years.

Though the University of Virginia men’s basketball team struggled this year, one consistently bright spot for the Cavaliers was the play of freshman Sylven Landesberg, a 6-6 guard from Flushing, N.Y., who fulfilled his reputation as a highly regarded recruit. After a season in which he established himself as Virginia’s best player, Landesberg yesterday was named ACC rookie of the year.

The ACC men’s basketball tournament is back in Atlanta for the first time in eight years. The 12-team tourney starts Thursday with four first-round games at the Georgia Dome. The top four seeds—No. 1 North Carolina, No. 2 Wake Forest, No. 3 Duke and No. 4 Florida State—have byes into Friday’s quarterfinals. In 2001, also at the Georgia Dome, Duke edged Maryland 84-82 on Nate James’ tip-in with 1.3 seconds left. The Blue Devils crushed North Carolina 79-53 in the ACC championship game and went on to win the NCAA title.

North Carolina senior forward Tyler Hansbrough yesterday was named a unanimous selection to the all-ACC’s first team for the fourth consecutive year. It’s the first time in league history that has happened. Hansbrough, the reigning national player of the year and leading scorer in school history, averages an ACC-best 21 points. Virginia Tech guards A.D. Vassallo and Malcolm Delaney were chosen for the third team. Virginia guard Sylven Landesberg was voted to the all-freshman team and also was an honorable-mention selection—the only freshman so honored.