30 ACC Basketball Things to Know Before the Season Kicks Off

| Posted on |

Thing 1: Trevor Keels and Jeremy Roach will reunite at Duke this season. The two were high school teammates at Paul VI in Northern Virginia.

Thing 2: While on the subject of Duke, Coach K is taking a farewell tour this season before turning the program over to assistant coach Jon Scheyer.

Thing 3: Boston College has a new head coach, College of Charleston’s Earl Grant. 

Thing 4: As does North Carolina! Hubert Davis took over for Roy Williams after 18 years in Chapel Hill.

Thing 5: Sticking to coaches, Virginia Tech’s starting point guard for the last few years, Wabissa Bede, chose to start his coaching career instead of playing another year. He joined his former coach Buzz Williams at Texas A&M.

Thing 6: The ACC led all conferences with 84 alumni on opening day NBA rosters.

Thing 7: Virginia center Francisco Caffaro played for Argentina at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Thing 8: Eight of 15 conference teams were either ranked or received votes in the preseason AP poll. No. 9 Duke, No. 19 North Carolina, No. 20 Florida State, and No. 25 Virginia are the four ranked teams.

Thing 9: Virginia’s preseason KenPom rank (currently No. 45) is outside the Top 20 for the first time since 2012-13.

Thing 10: Boston College (No. 145) and Pittsburgh (No. 146) are the second and third lowest-ranked major conference programs in KenPom’s preseason ratings. Only No. 159 Georgia is below them among all six power conferences.

Thing 11: Duke’s Paolo Banchero won Preseason ACC Player of the Year and all four experts projected him to win ACC Player of the Year in ESPN’s ACC preview.

Thing 12: Banchero and Syracuse sharpshooter Buddy Boeheim are the ACC representatives on the NABC Player of the Year Watch List.

Thing 13: Boeheim will be joined in the Orange lineup this year by Cornell transfer Jimmy Boeheim, his brother. On the sidelines, of course, is their father, legendary coach Jim Boeheim.

Thing 14: The Orange also brought in five-star Benny Williams from IMG Academy, their highest-rated recruit since 2014.

Thing 15: Miami guard Charlie Moore will now be playing in his fourth major college basketball conference. He started his career in the Pac-12 for California, then played one season in the Big 12 for Kansas, and two more in the Big East while at DePaul.

Thing 16: Some players transferred within the conference, namely Casey Morsell (Virginia to NC State), Justin McKoy (Virginia to North Carolina), Lynn Kidd (Clemson to VA Tech), and Matt Cross (Miami to Louisville).

Thing 17: Louisville nabbed two of the country’s Top 10 JUCO recruits, #2 El Ellis and #9 Sydney Curry.

Thing 18: One interesting outgoing transfer for Louisville is Quinn Slazinski, who left to play for former Louisville coach Rick Pitino at Iona.

Thing 19: Virginia returns just 24.9 percent of its scoring from last season. All three of their double-digit scorers from 2020-21 (Jay Huff, Sam Hauser, Trey Murphy III) moved onto the pros, leaving Kihei Clark (9.5 ppg) and Reece Beekman (4.7 ppg) as their two biggest returning bucket getters.

Thing 20: Wake Forest ended last season on an eight-game losing streak and only won five times against D-I opponents all season. The Deacs had a ton of roster turnover this offseason, including bringing on stat-stuffing and versatile Indiana State transfer Jake LaRavia and seven-foot Colorado transfer Dallas Walton.

Thing 21: Despite being one of the biggest snubs for the NCAA Tournament, Louisville finished last season as the ACC’s luckiest team, according to KenPom’s “luck rating.” Of 357 teams, they wound up at No. 9.

Thing 22: Current Syracuse forward Chaz Owens is the son of Syracuse legend and former No. 3 overall NBA Draft pick Billy Owens.

Thing 23: Duke currently has five players on Jonathan Wasserman’s latest 2022 NBA Draft Top 50 Big Board — No. 2 Paolo Banchero, No. 7 AJ Griffin, No. 21 Trevor Keels, No. 27 Mark Williams, and No. 50 Wendell Moore Jr.

Thing 24: Williams has a sister, Elizabeth Williams, who plays in the WNBA.

Thing 25: The only other ACC program with a player currently on Wasserman’s board is Florida State — No. 16 Matthew Cleveland.

Thing 26: The Seminoles were one of 17 teams last season to hold their opponent to under 40 percent shooting from the field.

Thing 27: Georgia Tech won their first ACC Tournament since 1993 last year behind superstars Moses Wright and Jose Alvarado. Both have moved on to the pros.

Thing 28: Miami was the only ACC team to shoot less than 30 percent from beyond the arc in 2020-21.

Thing 29: Notre Dame was blown out by 42 in their final game of 2021-22 and finished No. 85 in KenPom rankings. This year, they bring back almost all their top guys, including last year’s ACC assists leader Prentiss Hubb, and are one of the most experienced teams in the country. Plus, they brought in Ivy League Player of the Year Paul Atkinson. The expectations are certainly there and the 27th rank in KenPom’s preseason ratings proves as much.

Thing 30: North Carolina led the conference in offensive rebounding and rebound margin by a WIDE margin a year ago. Adding McKoy from Virginia, Dawson Garcia from Marquette and Brady Manek from Oklahoma is a step in the right direction to keep that up this season.

Extra 1: The ACC Tournament will be held in Brooklyn this year for the first time since 2018.

Extra 2: Louisville head coach Chris Mack has a suspension kicking off that will force him to miss six games.

2021-22 ACC Men’s Basketball Media Guide