{"id":166845,"date":"2025-11-17T05:59:50","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T10:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=166845"},"modified":"2025-11-17T06:08:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T11:08:23","slug":"acc-power-rankings-unheralded-freshman-has-stanford-undefeated-while-cal-is-off-to-best-start-in-15-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/11\/17\/acc-power-rankings-unheralded-freshman-has-stanford-undefeated-while-cal-is-off-to-best-start-in-15-years\/","title":{"rendered":"ACC Power Rankings: Unheralded Freshman Has Stanford Undefeated While Cal Is Off To Best Start In 15 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ACC<\/a> aims to regain its momentum in the 2025-26 fiscal year. The ACC, historically one of the top basketball conferences in the country, has taken a slight hit over the past few seasons.<\/p>\n

ACC Basketball Power Rankings: Ten Teams Still Undefeated<\/h2>\n

An ACC team has not won the national title since 2019 (Virginia). Still, the ACC had six teams receive berths in the NCAA Tournament last year, with Duke<\/a> reaching the Final Four. Louisville<\/a> and Clemson<\/a> were Sweet 16 participants.<\/p>\n

This year, Duke, Louisville, and North Carolina are ranked in the AP Top 25.\u00a0 \u00a0The conference owns a combined 56-8 record for an 87.5% winning percentage, which ties the BIF 12 for the second-best mark in the country, behind the Big result, resulting in an. Ten of the 18 teams remain undefeated after two weeks. Also, 17 teams own a winning record, with Boston College (2-2) being the lone exception.<\/p>\n

1. Duke Blue Devils 4-0<\/h3>\n

Duke hasn’t played the most daunting schedule, but the Blue Devils have shown their offensive muscles. The Blue Devils, who go nine deep, topped the century mark in each of their last two games and 95 in their past three. The 75 points that they scored in their season opener against Texas is a season low.<\/p>\n

Duke ranks in the top 20 nationally in offensive rating at 114.1, as it is one of the top shooting teams, connecting on over 50% of its field goal attempts and draining 11.3 threes at a 37.5% clip. Cameron Boozer<\/a> has carried the Blue Devils and shown off his well-rounded, all-around game. Coming off his second double-double with a 35-point and 12-rebound performance against Indiana State on Friday, the 6-9 highly-touted freshman averages 22.5 points, 10.5 boards, 4.0 assists, 2.0 steals, and 1.8 blocks through the first four contests.<\/p>\n

Also on Friday, Duke announced the commitment of Cameron Williams<\/a>. A top-10 prospect from Phoenix (Arizona) became Jon Scheyer<\/a>‘s third member of the 2026 class. Bryson Howard<\/a> and Maxime Meyer<\/a> are the other two players to pledge to the Blue Devils.<\/p>\n

Next Up: vs. No. 25 Kansas (2-1) at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 18. Hosting Niagara on Nov. 21.<\/p>\n

2. Louisville Cardinals 4-0<\/h3>\n

Louisville has been one of the most explosive offense teams in the nation through the first two weeks, scoring 96 points in each game. The Cardinals, who hit the 100-point mark for the third time in their 106-81 victory over Ohio, have the 11th-best offensive rating at 132.2. Star freshman Mikel Brown<\/a> has scored in double-figures in all four games, which includes a career-high 29 against Kentucky earlier this week, and senior Ryan Conwell<\/a>, who has topped the 20-point mark in each of the last three games, leads the way for Louisville with 19.2 points per contest.<\/p>\n

Louisville is 4-0 for the first time since 2020-21. The Cardinals also snapped a three-game losing streak to UK with a 96-88 win earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Up Next: at Cincinnati (Friday).<\/p>\n

3. North Carolina Tar Heels 4-0<\/h3>\n

UNC followed up its big win against Kansas a week ago by cruising to two victories this past week. A win by the Tar Heels against Navy on Tuesday would move their record to 5-0, thus allowing them to have their best start under Hubert Davis.<\/a>\u00a0 Sensational freshman Caleb Willson<\/a> posted his first two career double-doubles against Radford and North Carolina Central and leads the team in scoring (20.0) and rebounds (9.5). Arizona transfer Henri Veesaar<\/a> is off to a great start with 16 points and eight boards per contest.<\/p>\n

Senior Seth Timble,<\/a> who is third on the team in scoring, broke a bone in his forearm last Sunday and is expected to be out five to seven more weeks, per Shelby Swanson of The Herald Sun<\/a>. Maximo Adams<\/a>, a top 25 recruit, became the first member of Davis’ 2026 class when he committed to the Tar Heels on Friday.<\/p>\n

4. North Carolina State Wolfpack 3-0<\/h3>\n

NC State is off to a flying start under first-year head coach Will Wade<\/a>. The Wolfpack defeated UNC Greensboro (110-64) as Darrion Williams<\/a> erupted for 32 points, while also grabbing 10 rebounds, to secure a perfect record after three games for the third time this decade.<\/p>\n

NC State leads the nation in scoring (106 points) and 3-pointers (15,0). The Wolfpack are also 10th in field goals attempted, 10th in three-point attempted (34), and 16th in 3-point percentage (44.1%). Williams, who leads the team in scoring, Paul McNeil Jr<\/a>., and Quadir Copeland<\/a> combine to average 57 points a game.<\/p>\n

Next up: home vs. VCU (2-1) on Monday.<\/p>\n

5. Syr,acuse Orange 3-0<\/h3>\n

SU is off to a perfect start to the campaign for the first time in three years after outscoring Drexel 43-18 in the second half of their 80-50 victory. Donnie Freeman<\/a> and Kiyan Anthon<\/a>, along with\u00a0the defense, continue to carry the Orange. Through the first three games, Freeman and Anthony are combining for 35.0 points, on 6o% shooting from the field, 7.7 rebounds, and 4.6 assists. Meanwhile, the Orange have yet to allow 50 points in the game and are holding opponents to 28.4% shooting from the field and 33.6% from the 3-point line. Starting point guard JJ Starling<\/a> has only played three minutes this season due to a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n

Up Next: Home vs. Monmouth (1-2) on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

6. Virginia Cavaliers 4-0<\/h3>\n

First-year coach Ryan Odom<\/a>, who has been head coach at three other places, has the Wahoos 4-0 for the first time since 2022-23. Odom has the Cavaliers back to establishing their defensive identity, holding opponents to 61.5 points a contest (25th) on 37,8% shooting from the field. They have done a phenomenal job on the glass (+18 rebound margin) and protecting the rim (8.3 blocks). Belgium native Thijs De Ridder<\/a> leads five players in double-figures with 17.6 points and six rebounds with shooting splits of 54.2\/45.5\/63.3.<\/p>\n

Next Up: Greenbrier Tip-off Tournament: vs Northwestern (Nov. 21) and Butler (Nov. 23).<\/p>\n

7. Virginia Tech Hokies 4-0<\/h3>\n

Virginia Tech defeated Charlotte today, 84-76, to improve to 4-0 for the first time since 2022-23. The 84 points are a season low in the early going for the Hokies. The key for the Hokies in the early go-go season has been ball security, committing just 7.3 turnovers, and 3-point shooting, as they are making 10.5 threes a game at a 37.5% clip.<\/p>\n

Three players are making at least two triples a game and shooting 38.5% or better from distance. Jaden Schutt<\/a> leads the way from distance with 3.0 threes at a 54.5% clip, while Jailen Bedford<\/a> is shooting a team-high 2.5 triples at 62.5%. Meanwhile, Neoklis Avdalas<\/a> leads the team with 16.2 points and 6.0 assists to go along with 2.0 threes (38.1%).<\/p>\n

8. Wake Forest Demon Deacons 3-1<\/h3>\n

Wake Forest bounced back from nearly upsetting No. 6 Michigan (85-84) last Monday with a convincing 109-75 victory over UMass Lowell on Nov. 16. Sophomore forward Juke Harris<\/a>, the consensus No. 88 recruit in 2024, has taken a step forward in his development, producing team-highs in points (22.4) and rebounds (7.3). The Demon Deacons are participating in the Baha Mar Championship in Nassau, Bahamas.<\/p>\n

Next Up: No. 11 Texas Tech (3-1) in Nassau, Bahamas, on Nov. 20.<\/p>\n

9. Clemson Tigers 3-1<\/h3>\n

Clemson suffered its first loss on Sunday, falling at Georgetown 79-74 as the Tigers were outscored 46-38 in the second half. Despite the setback, the Tigers have kept their non-losing record through the first four games to 26. The Tigers are a well-balanced team that is ranked in the top 35 in both offensive and defensive efficiency.<\/p>\n

Next Up: home versus North Alabama (2-2) on Monday and West Virginia in Charleston (SC) on Friday.<\/p>\n

10. SMU Mustangs 4-0<\/h3>\n

SMU is perfect after four games for the first time since 2020-21 after securing a pair of high-scoring victories this week — Murray State (102-91) and Butler (87-85). The Mustangs are a strong scoring team, with five players averaging at least 12 points, as they don’t shoot many threes (5.5 of 15.8 attempts). However, they score 23 points per contest from the free throw line on 28.8 attempts, while making 80% of the attempts (25th). Fouling and defending the 3-point line have been issues for them defensively.<\/p>\n

Next Up: home vs Arkansas Pine-Bluff (Nov. 18) and Arkansas State (Nov. 21).<\/p>\n

11. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 3-1<\/h3>\n

Georgia Tech suffered its first loss of the season on Friday night, falling to Georgia 92-87.\u00a0 The Yellow Jackets have yet to beat their arch-rivals in three tries under coach Damon Stoudemire<\/a>. Overall, the Jackets have lost eight of their last 10 games to the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n

Georgia Tech is 3-1 for the second straight season. The Jackets have not gone unbeaten after four games since the 2020-21 season, which was the last time they made the postseason (NIT).<\/p>\n

Georgia Tech has struggled offensively (No. 331 in offensive rating) through the first four games, though they have been great on the defensive end (No. 16). Lamar Washington<\/a> has scored in double-figures. However, in the last two games after missing the first two contests, and leads the team with 14 points a game. Freshman Mouhamed Sylla<\/a>, the consensus No. 36 2025 recruit, averages a double-double and has been great as a rim-protector.<\/p>\n

Next Up: home vs. Georgia Southern (3-1) on Tuesday and West Georgia next Sunday.<\/p>\n

12. Notre Dame Fighting Irish 3-1<\/h3>\n

Notre Dame suffered its first loss of the season earlier today, falling to Ohio State (64-63) on a last-second layup by the Buckeyes. The Irish are 3-1 for the second straight year and fourth time this decade. Markus Burton<\/a> is an elite scorer, and Braden Shrewdsberry<\/a> is a solid high-volume 3-point shooter. Meanwhile, Northern Arizona transfer Carson Towt<\/a> is an elite rebounder who leads the ACC in rebounds.<\/p>\n

Next Up: home vs. Bellarmine (1-3)<\/p>\n

13. Miami (FL) Hurricanes 3-0<\/h3>\n

Miami has been off since Monday, when they defeated Stetson 102-61 at home. The Hurricanes face their first real test against No. 9 Florida (2-1) on Monday in Jacksonville, Fla.. The Hurricanes, who are 3-0 for the third time in four seasons, host Elon on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Next up: Florida in Jacksonville (Nov. 17) and home vs. Bryant (Nov. 19)<\/p>\n

14. Pittsburgh Panthers 3-1<\/h3>\n

Pitt will look to bounce back from a disappointing 71-49 setback to West Virginia the last time out when they hit the floor on Monday at home against Bucknell (2-2). Cameron Corhen<\/a> and Brandin Cummings<\/a>, who struggled mightily against WVU, are both averaging nearly 15 points a game. Corhen has given the Panthers a reliable inside presence and has produced two double-doubles and grabbed 10+ rebounds in three of his first four contests.<\/p>\n

Next up: hosting Bucknell on Monday, facing UCF in Daytona Beach (Fla.) on Nov. 20.<\/p>\n

15. California Golden Bears 3-1<\/h3>\n

Cal is off to its best start since also starting 3-1 in 2010-11, despite falling short to Kansas State (Nov. 13), 99-96, as their comeback attempt came up just short. The Bears outscored the Wildcats 62-44 over the final 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

While the Golden Bears’ offense has been clicking, at 88.3 points per game, their defense has been a little leaky, as they give up nearly 73 points per contest. Virginia transfer Dai Dai Ames<\/a> has been excellent in the early going, averaging 22.5 points and 3.5 threes while connecting on 60% of his field goal attempts and 66.7% from deep.<\/p>\n

Next Up: Presbyterian (3-3) on Nov. 18 and Sacramento (Nov. 21)<\/p>\n

16. Stanford Cardinal 3-0<\/h3>\n

Stanford hasn’t faced the most daunting schedule, and all three of their victories have been at home. The Cardinal are 3-0 for the first time since 2020-21, though Montana State (77-69) gave them a challenging game. Unherald freshman guard Ebuka Okorie<\/a> has scored 20+ points in each of the first three contests and leads the ACC in scoring (25,3) and steals (3.0). Okorie was a three-star recruit, ranked No. 226 by On3, and chose Stanford over offers from Harvard, Albany, Bryant, Fairfield, and Samford.<\/p>\n

Next Up: vs. Louisiana (Nov. 18) and Seattle (Nov. 21).<\/p>\n

17. Florida State Seminoles 2-1<\/h3>\n

FSU has been off since suffering its first loss under rookie head coach Luke Loucks<\/a> last Sunday at No. 10 Florida (78-76). Jacksonville transfer Robert McCray V<\/a> tallied a season-high 29 points against UF.\u00a0 McCray averages 17.7 points, 2.3 steals, and the ACC conference 8.7 assists.<\/p>\n

Next Up: hosting UT Martin (3-0) on Tuesday and Georgia Southern (Nov. 21).<\/p>\n

18. Boston College Eagles 2-2<\/h3>\n

Boston College continued its trend of starting slowly. The Eagles have not posted a winning record since the start of the 2010-11 season, when they opened with a 3-1 record. They went 1-1 this past week,\u00a0 losing to Central Connecticut State (60-59) and defeating Temple (76-71).<\/p>\n

\n

Next Up: home vs. Hampton (2-3), vs. Davidson in Charleston (SC) on Nov. 21.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Scott Sewell, Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ACC aims to regain its momentum in the 2025-26 fiscal year. The ACC, historically one of the top basketball conferences in the country, has taken a slight hit over the past few seasons. ACC Basketball Power Rankings: Ten Teams Still Undefeated An ACC team has not won the national title since 2019 (Virginia). Still, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":167004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773,2,62],"tags":[3120,2306,1457,861,2422,914,3249,3668,1075,4220],"class_list":["post-166845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","category-featured","category-nba","tag-acc-basketball","tag-california-golden-bears","tag-clemson-tigers","tag-duke-blue-devils","tag-north-carolina-state-wolfpack","tag-north-carolina-tar-heels","tag-smu-mustangs","tag-stanford-cardinal","tag-syracuse-orange","tag-wake-forest-demon-deacons"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166845"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167006,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166845\/revisions\/167006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}