Chip Bremer
The 2025-26 season is still young, and the conference schedule hasn’t started yet, but there were some pleasant surprises in the ACC—along with some utter disappointments. There is still plenty of time for coaches to make adjustments and for players to get into synch, but for now, these are the factors that stand out:
Surprises
Duke and Louisville—Yes, everyone knew these would be the top two teams in the conference, but they may actually be better than expected. The Blue Devils passed every major non-conference test thrown at them (Kansas, Arkansas, Florida), and freshman Cameron Boozer is making a strong case for MVP.
On the other hand, the Cardinals were equally impressive, averaging over 96 points a game with at least seven players capable of putting up 20 points on any given night. Clemson also was impressive early on but given they haven’t played many Q1 or Q2 opponents to this point, they had to be left out (sorry, Dan).
Unheralded freshmen—The ACC’s superstar frosh certainly played to expectations, including Duke’s Boozer, Louisville’s Mikel Brown and UNC’s Caleb Wilson, but how about the exceptional new guys nobody saw coming?
Newcomers like Stanford’s Ebuka Okorie (21.4 ppg) and Virginia’s Thijs De Ridder (18.0 ppg) led their respective teams to impressive starts. The Cavaliers also boast freshman big man Johann Grunloh, who leads the conference in blocks but received virtually no preseason hype.
SMU’s experience—The Mustangs boast one of the most experienced lineups in the ACC, and they are playing some of the conference’s best basketball. The backcourt of Boopie Miller and Jaron Pierre are outscoring everybody, and the front line of Samet Yigitoglu and Corey Washington are putting up hefty numbers in terms of rebounding and blocked shots. Apparently, not every team is reliant on newcomers this year.
Disappointments
UNC’s three-point shooting—Despite the additions of Montenegrin import Luka Bogavac and freshman guard Derek Dixon, the Tar Heels still rank in the bottom third of the conference in three-point percentage at just over 31%. Bogavac in particular has struggled to find his stroke and given that so many expected him to carry the team’s perimeter attack, he will need to step up in the coming months, or the team will have to rely more on Dixon (shooting threes at a 45% clip) and several role players to get by.
NC State’s defense—Will Wade certainly delivered on bringing a more exciting product to Raleigh (currently are second in scoring behind Louisville at 93.6 ppg), but the most disappointing facet of the new program has been the lack of defense. Their lack of size in the post led to mismatches and easy points for competitors. Against Seton Hall and Texas in the Maui Invitational, they were dominated on the boards and from the three-point line, which led to a couple of losses that could’ve been wins had the defense showed up. Wade has time to pull this unit together, but if they don’t show signs of life in the coming weeks, it could be a long season for the Wolfpack.
ACC officiating—It’s easy to criticize the officiating when it’s continually bad, but with the hopes that things would change for the better—given the introduction of the coach’s challenge—it’s difficult not to be disappointed in the overall product… again. It always seems that ACC officials like the sound of their whistles so much, they relish the opportunity to call the maximum number of fouls in every game, even when other conference officials seem to allow more contact and let the game flow. Oh well, there’s always next year.