{"id":169992,"date":"2025-12-17T08:30:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T13:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=169992"},"modified":"2025-12-16T18:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T23:45:11","slug":"college-basketball-acc-rankings-12-16-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/12\/17\/college-basketball-acc-rankings-12-16-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"College Basketball ACC Rankings 12-17-2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the entirety of my lifetime, the ACC has been the best conference in college basketball. I believe that college basketball is better when the ACC is good. Now, I grew up on Tobacco Road, so I\u2019m a little biased. But I do believe that the ACC is back, and it is good for college basketball. This league should be able to get 5+ bids into the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n

NCAA Basketball: ACC Rankings<\/h2>\n

1. Duke<\/h3>\n
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Photo Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Blue Devils are just a juggernaut. Part of what makes this team so effective is its collective height. This allows them to utilize Jon Scheyer\u2019s defensive principle of switching all screens 1 – 4, which is different from what you see out of most teams. They\u2019re a tough team to prepare for and an even tougher team to beat. By the looks of their latest recruiting efforts<\/a>, things may not change for a long while.<\/p>\n

2. Louisville<\/h3>\n
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Photo Credit: Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Be ready for some strange results with this Louisville team. They lead the nation in 3-point rate to this point in the season. The 3-point shot creates a lot of volatility, as some nights will just feature better shooting than others. So be ready to embrace the chaos with Pat Kelsey\u2019s bunch this season.<\/p>\n

3. Virginia<\/h3>\n
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Photo Credit: Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is no team in the ACC that I was more wrong on in the preseason than Virginia. They have completely flipped from their slow, plodding style under Tony Bennett and are now embracing a pressure-filled, \u201chavoc\u201d-style defense. They have an elite frontcourt in Thijs De Ridder and Johann Grunloh, and are set up to be one of the top contenders in the ACC.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

4. North Carolina<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What this team has been able to accomplish without Seth Trimble for most of the season has been impressive. Freshman Derek Dixon is a name to watch over the next three months \u2013 he could give this team another offensive threat at the guard spot, which they desperately need, especially if Trimble\u2019s return is later rather than sooner.<\/p>\n

5. NC State<\/h3>\n
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Photo Credit: Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Wolfpack were so, so close to the first marquee win of the Will Wade era on Saturday, before narrowly losing to Kansas in overtime. Darrion Williams has been a bit of a disappointment so far, failing to recapture what made him so dynamic at Texas Tech. But Ven-Allen Lubin is playing the best basketball of his career, and Quadir Copeland is shining in his return to the ACC.<\/p>\n

6. Clemson<\/h3>\n
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Photo Credit: Chris Jones-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Tigers were so, so close to picking up a marquee win over BYU last week, but the Cougars\u2019 second-half rally behind AJ Dybantsa left Clemson with nothing to show for a great performance. If Jestin Porter is going to continue to shoot the ball the way he did against BYU, this will be a tough offensive team to guard.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

7. Wake Forest<\/h3>\n
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Photo Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Where was this Myles Colvin at Purdue? After a 33-point performance against Queens on Sunday, Colvin appears to be the next great guard transfer for Steve Forbes \u2013 following Alondes Williams, Tyree Appleby, Boopie Miller, and Hunter Sallis. It\u2019s quite the impressive list.<\/p>\n

8. Miami<\/h3>\n
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Photo Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Hurricanes have really made their hay off of beating inferior teams to this point in the season. I\u2019m ready to see them get tested with the weekly battle of attrition that is conference play in the ACC. An NCAA Tournament appearance in his first year would be a great accomplishment for Jai Lucas.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

9. SMU<\/h3>\n
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Photo Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Andy Enfield has put together a team that will likely appear on the \u201cbubble\u201d in his second season in Dallas. But this team can really score, as Boopie Miller, BJ Edwards, and Jaron Pierre can all go off on any given night, and freshman Jaden Toombs is starting to develop into another option as well.<\/p>\n

10. Notre Dame<\/h3>\n
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Photo Credit: Michael Caterina-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Irish are going to have to do something they haven\u2019t done in three years \u2013 play without star guard Markus Burton. They\u2019ve won two straight without his services, as freshman Jalen Haralson has been outstanding serving as the lead guard.<\/p>\n

For more great college basketball analysis, check out DrRoto.com<\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the entirety of my lifetime, the ACC has been the best conference in college basketball. I believe that college basketball is better when the ACC is good. Now, I grew up on Tobacco Road, so I\u2019m a little biased. But I do believe that the ACC is back, and it is good for college […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5637,"featured_media":170003,"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],"tags":[3120,1457,861,882,1498,4735,914,856,3249,876,4220],"class_list":["post-169992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","tag-acc-basketball","tag-clemson-tigers","tag-duke-blue-devils","tag-louisville-cardinals","tag-miami-hurricanes","tag-nc-state-wolfpack","tag-north-carolina-tar-heels","tag-notre-dame-fighting-irish","tag-smu-mustangs","tag-virginia-cavaliers","tag-wake-forest-demon-deacons"],"modified_by":"Doug Henderson","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169992","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\/5637"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169992"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170018,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169992\/revisions\/170018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}