The ACC is welcoming three new teams. Two Former PAC-12 members are set to join in early August, and one former AAC team joined on July 1st. Cal, SMU, and Stanford are the newest members of the Atlantic Coastal Conference, and their arrival has changed the landscape of college basketball. With that said, how does this affect the rest of the conference? Will these new members rise to the top, or fall to the bottom of the standings? The ACC is one of the toughest college basketball conferences, and none of these newbies will have an easy in-conference schedule.
ACC Welcoming 3 New Teams to League
Stanford Cardinal
Stanford Men’s Basketball is going through a rough patch, as the team has not made the NCAA Tournament since 2014. They recently got rid of Head Coach Jerod Haase, with his departure, a few key players entered the transfer portal. Andrej Stojakovic has transferred to California, Kanaan Carlyle is going to Indiana, and Brandon Angel has committed to Oregon. Thankfully, the team’s leading scorer from last season, Maxime Raynaud, has decided to stay at Stanford. New Head Coach Kyle Martin has done a stellar job filling in the holes in the roster. He’s brought in players such as Derin Saran from UC Irvine, and Chisom Okpara from Harvard. Martin should be able to fix some of the issues the team had last season, like rebounding. His 2023-2024 Washington State squad averaged 37.6 rebounds per game, while Stanford averaged just 34.3 rebounds per game.
California Golden Bears
California had some growing pains in Head Coach Mark Madsen’s first year with a record of 13-19. On the bright side, the entire starting unit from last season has either gone pro or transferred. Now, with plenty of new faces on the roster via the transfer portal, things are looking up. The team is ranked fifth on 247Sports 2024 Transfer ACC Basketball Team Rankings. Players like Andrej Stojakovic, BJ Omot, and Rytis Petraitis will especially give the roster a boost. Last season Cal averaged an abysmal 6 steals per game and 2.6 blocks per game. Petraitis was third in the 2023-2034 Mountain West Conference in steal percentage with 3%, and Omot was ranked fourth in block percentage for the Summit League with 2.7%. With these offseason additions, the team’s future looks bright as they enter a new conference.
Southern Methodist University
In Head Coach Rob Lanier’s second season at the helm, the team played well but failed to meet expectations. They went 20-13, missing the NCAA tournament and losing in the first round of the NIT to Indiana State. SMU had a massive exodus of players, with 10 outgoing transfers in total. However, Lanier responded by bringing in six new transfers. Matt Cross and Kevin Miller headline the 2024 transfer class for the Mustangs. Cross will definitely provide a scoring punch for the offense, as he led the Atlantic 10 conference in effective field goal percentage with 59%. The team suffered greatly at the line last season, shooting just 67%. Miller should be able to help ou in the free throw department, as he was ranked fifth in the ACC last year for free throw percentage with 85%. Hopefully, Lanier’s sophomore year as coach goes a little better as the team prepares for next season.
