ACC Basketball Rankings and Predictions

We’re ranking ACC teams and who we think will be at the top by the end of the season. We’ll be using KenPom to help us predict where teams may find themselves in terms of standings and which team will likely win the regular season and conference tournament. 

1 - Duke - Even with such a new team its once again packed with a superstar player in Cameron Boozer similar to how it was with Cooper Flagg and Paolo Banchero. Each of those times they went to the Final Four. They just beat Tennessee on the road and against one of the best defenses in the country the past five seasons. 

2 - Louisville - They have four elite guards including Ryan Conwell, Adrian Wooley and Isaac McKneely who can shoot from deep at a high percentage. In this guard bunch they also have a potential top 3 NBA Draft pick in Mikel brown Jr. Guards Conwell, Wooley and McKneely all shot above 40% from three last season on their respective teams. They also return both starting bigs in J’Vonne Hadley and Kasean Pryor which will greatly help them maintain their KenPom top 25 defensive ranking.

3 NC State - with multiple transfers with lots of March Madness experience including Darrion WIlliams and Tre Holloman who both helped each other teams reach the Elite 8 last season, its hard to put NC State much lower. They also added Quadir Copeland and Terrance Arceneaux another group of players with experience in the tournament. 

4 - SMU - this team went 13-7 last season in conference and return three players who scored double digits for them during that span. With that kind of success and returning production, this programs hopes to jump in standings this season 

5 - Miami - they’ve added two potentially elite guards with tournament experience in Malike Reneau and Tre Donaldson. If this duo can produce huge for this squad, they could climb much higher than their 3-17 conference record last season. 

6 - Virginia - they've added three guards who scored at least 13 ppg and two who were on teams with top 100 KenPom offenses in Malik Thomas and Sam Lewis. 

7 - North Carolina - a team that did actually have a top 25 KenPom offense and seemed undersized in the tournament loss to Mississippi brings back 11 ppg guard Seth Trimble and added Henri Veesaar a 7-footer also with tournament experience. If they can continue a great offense now with size, they could climb from their 13-7 record last season

8 - Clemson - a team that went 18-2 in conference play last season loses all 5 of their starters and hope to still be good in conference 

9 - Notre Dame - With an ACC Player of the Year candidate in Markus Burton, they hope to improve from their 8-12 conference record last season 

10 - Syracuse - with their team returning leading scorer JJ Starling and forward Donnie Freeman and adding Naithan George from Georgia Tech, a top 75 KenPom offense last season they look to have a winning in conference record than their 7-13 record 

11 - Wake Forest - a team that was 13-7 in conference last season they hope to replicate that kind of success again this year 

12 - Pittsburg - They were a KenPom offense ranked 53th last season 

13 - Georgia Tech - They finished with an in-conference record of 10-10 last season 

14 - Virginia Tech - They were a KenPom ranked offense of 185th last season 

15 - Florida State - they went 8-12 last season in conference 

16 - California - they were 6-14 last season in conference 

17 - Boston College - they were 4-16 last season in conference 

At the end of the season its hard to argue against Duke, a team that’s already beaten an elite defense in their game against Tennessee and on the road despite it being an exhibition game. Even with a brand new class coming in it looks as if Cameron Boozer could be the best player in the conference and can lead this team to the top. Louisville has so many elite guards and could easily propel them to the top here and NC State has so many experienced big game transfers to also put in the convo. We’d like to think its probably going to be one of these teams to find themselves at the top of the conference this season and any could make huge runs in March.