ACC basketball preseason predictions: Is Duke, led by Cooper Flagg, the favorite?

College basketball season is here. Preseason practices are underway and games are scheduled to tip off in less than a month.

Some folks, particularly in the state of North Carolina, have been ready for the round ball since the UConn Huskies cut down the nets as national champions at the Final Four in Arizona.

Since then, the ACC has welcomed three new schools to the table — Cal, SMU and Stanford — ahead of the 2024-25 season, bringing the league’s total to 18. Duke, led by 17-year-old Cooper Flagg, is predicted to be the ACC favorite this year. North Carolina, led by fifth-year senior RJ Davis, figures to be the top challenger for the Blue Devils.

The official preseason ACC media poll will be released following ACC Tipoff this week in Charlotte, but here is one preseason ballot sure to be used as bulletin board material.

Here are ACC predictions for order of finish in the conference, player of the year, coach of the year and the All-ACC first team for the 2024-25 season.

ACC basketball predictions

A preseason look at the projected league standings, along with NCAA Tournament predictions in parentheses.

• Duke (Conference champion, NCAA Tournament)

• North Carolina (NCAA Tournament)

• Wake Forest (NCAA Tournament)

• Louisville (NCAA Tournament)

• Clemson (NCAA Tournament)

• Miami (NCAA Tournament)

• NC State (NCAA Tournament)

• Pitt (NCAA Tournament)

• Notre Dame

• Virginia

• Georgia Tech

• Syracuse

• SMU

• Cal

• Virginia Tech

• Stanford

• Florida State

• Boston College

ACC Player of the Year prediction

Here is a prediction for ACC Player of the Year in the 2024-25 season.

Cooper Flagg, Duke

It’s tempting to roll with UNC guard RJ Davis, the reigning ACC Player of the Year, but a player hasn’t won back-to-back awards in this category since Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan in 1996-97. Another Demon Deacon, current guard Hunter Sallis, would also be a viable choice to win ACC Player of the Year this season.

But a Duke player has won the award four times in the last 10 seasons. Cooper Flagg will be the fifth.

The projected No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, the 6-foot-9 Flagg isn’t likely to average nearly 23 points per game like Zion Williamson did as ACC Player of the Year in the 2018-19 season. But Flagg’s overall statistics will be superb across the board for the Blue Devils, who are getting a matchup nightmare and defensive menace in the Maine native.

ACC Coach of the Year prediction

Here is a prediction for ACC Coach of the Year in the 2024-25 season.

Pat Kelsey, Louisville

Notre Dame’s Micah Shrewsberry and Georgia Tech’s Damon Stoudamire figure to be in the mix for the award, but it’s Pat Kelsey’s to lose as he begins the process of resurrecting Louisville. The Cardinals, who won 12 games in the last two seasons under Kenny Payne, haven’t won 20 games in a season since 2020.

With a revamped roster full of experience, led by Wisconsin transfer Chucky Hepburn and James Madison transfer Terrence Edwards Jr., Kelsey will put Louisville in position to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019. Kelsey’s teams have won at least 23 games in four of the last five seasons, with a sweep of the conference titles in four of those seasons.

All-ACC first team prediction

Here is a prediction for the All-ACC first team in the 2024-25 season.

• RJ Davis, UNC

• Hunter Sallis, Wake Forest

• Terrence Edwards Jr., Louisville

• Cooper Flagg, Duke

• Ian Schieffelin, Clemson

Staff writer Rodd Baxley can be reached at rbaxley@fayobserver.com or @RoddBaxley on X/Twitter.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: ACC basketball predictions: 2024-25 preview, preseason picks