ACC Regular season champion: Duke Blue Devils

The Duke Blue Devils are a fairly inexperienced team, per usual, but they have far and away the most talented team in the conference. Led by phenom Freshman Cooper Flagg, the defense looks like a top tier unit when you also add in the rim protection of Maliq Brown and another 5-star Freshman, Khaman Maluach. Guys like Sion James, Tyrese Proctor, and Mason Gillis will play a big role for the perimeter defense, making this team incredibly difficult to score on. The offense is the more concerning side of the ball, especially in the shooting department, but Freshman Kon Knueppel has emerged as one of the biggest surprises of the 2024 recruiting class and will play a massive role for the Blue Devils this season. Duke should hit their stride on offense by mid season at the latest, as the talent will win out in the ACC over some teams that look a bit depleted in that area. Teams like North Carolina and Wake Forest certainly have a shot at the regular season crown, but it would be a major surprise in our opinion.

ACC Coach of the Year: Steve Forbes, Wake Forest

Steve Forbes is entering his 5th season as the Wake Forest head coach, and he continues to make strides each and every year. He has a great perimeter tandem in Hunter Sallis and Cameron Hildreth, who are great shotmakers, and Forbes has always been able to scheme shooters open. The Demon Deacon head coach also went to the portal once again for his starting point guard in Ty-Laur Johnson from Louisville. This is significant because Forbes has elevated the game of essentially every single transfer guard he has acquired. Guys like Alondes Williams, Tyree Appleby, Kevin Miller, and even Hunter Sallis all improved significantly while in Winston-Salem, and that’s a testament to how great Forbes is. The defense also looks to be an improved unit, adding some physicality to the power forward position with Appalachian State transfer Tre’Von Spillers and Iowa State transfer Omaha Biliew to pair with Efton Reid in the frontcourt. With these improvements, it would not be a surprise to see Wake Forest leapfrog North Carolina for the #2 spot in the ACC, or even have an outside chance at winning the conference outright. Coach Forbes should see his Demon Deacons in the NCAA tournament for the first time in his tenure, leading to the ACC coach of the year honor.

ACC Player of the Year: RJ Davis, North Carolina

The 5th year senior guard from North Carolina led the conference in scoring a season ago en route to winning the ACC player of the year, and we fully expect him to do it again this coming year. Despite the Tar Heels not being the favorite to win the conference, the production will be too much to ignore. Davis is coming off a season where he averaged 21.2 ppg along with 3.5 apg, and it would be a surprise if he didn’t see an uptick in production due to the loss of Armando Bacot. There is no real interior presence to replace Bacot on the offensive end, so we should see a more perimeter centric Tar Heel offense this season. Shooting outside of Davis looks to be a slight issue, as the Freshmen class in Ian Jackson and Drake Powell don’t look fully ready to take on any sort of volume on offense. Even if the Tar Heels finish below expectations, we should still expect Davis to take home this honor. Unless Cooper Flagg has a massive scoring year and Blue Devils run the table in the ACC, which seems unlikely despite all of the hype, this is Davis’ award to lose.

ACC 1st team

RJ Davis, North Carolina

Hunter Sallis, Wake Forest

Markus Burton, Notre Dame

Nijel Pack, Miami

Cooper Flagg, Duke