CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Zoe Brooks has never known a time at N.C. State before now when she couldn’t lean on star teammates Saniya Rivers or Aziaha James before now.
Florida State coach Brooke Wyckoff understands that type of jarring change considering last year’s national scoring leader Ta’Niya Latson ha s transferred to South Carolina after three seasons.
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Those are common tales across the Atlantic Coast Conference when it comes to women’s basketball for the upcoming season. That’s because roughly 70% of last year’s all-ACC team is gone, including two Associated Press second-team All-Americans in Latson and former Notre Dame-turned-TCU point guard Olivia Miles.
That means a league that stands with the Southeastern Conference as the nation’s best will have a different look with mainstays departed, along with a wide-open route to the spotlight for its next potential stars.
“Some people that we might now know might step up and shock everybody,” Brooks said Monday during the league’s preseason media days.
A changed top tier
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The list of returning all-conference players to the league for 2025-26 is headlined by a two-time AP first-team All-American in Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo.
But 11 of the 15 players who were on the All-ACC first-team are gone, including the Rivers-James duo that led the Wolfpack to the 2024 Final Four, Notre Dame’s Sonia Citron and four- or five-year lineup fixtures like FSU’s Makayla Timpson and North Carolina’s Alyssa Ustby.
Throw in second-team turnover, and 17 of the 25 players from last year’s all-ACC teams are gone either through graduation, transfer or to the professional ranks.
And there were other notable losses outside of the all-conference picks, such as Duke forward Oluchi Okananwa transferring to Maryland after being named the ACC Tournament’s MVP in the Blue Devils’ first championship since 2013.
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While roster turnover is a fact of life in college athletics, this year’s loss rate of all-conference players (68%)…
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