The ACC does not have as many quality programs as the Big 12, Big Ten or SEC regularly produce. That’s the best explanation for why the league has ranked outside of the top four nationally in each of the past four seasons, according to KenPom.com. Too many of the ACC’s big brands haven’t been good lately.
But there’s still real strength at the top of the ACC, which expanded to 18 teams by adding Cal, Stanford and SMU for 2024-25.
North Carolina played in the national championship game three years ago, earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament last season and should be a top-10 team this season. And, as my CBS Sports Network colleague Pete Gillen once famously said, Duke is Duke. So I don’t expect, nor does any so-called Bracketologist expect, the ACC to lead all conferences in bids to the 2025 NCAA Tournament. But the ACC does have at least two teams that are clearly equipped to win the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
Each of our panelists is projecting Duke and North Carolina to finish first and second in the ACC, in some order. Among the fascinating aspects of this perceived conference race is that one of those teams (Duke) will be led by a 17-year-old freshman phenom (Cooper Flagg) while the other is headlined by a fifth-year senior (RJ Davis) who will turn 23 in two weeks.
It should be a fun race.
Duke and UNC will meet for the first time on Feb. 1.
RJ Davis, one of the nation’s top guards, returns for a fifth season at UNC.
USATSI
ACC Preseason Player of the Year
RJ Davis | G | North Carolina
For all of his greatness at the collegiate level, Davis is not generally considered to be a high-end NBA prospect, which helps explain his return to UNC for a fifth year after he was a consensus First Team All-American last season. The 22 year-old New York native averaged 21.2…
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