ACC Basketball News & Notes: Dominance and Depth Ahead of Conference Play

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The Atlantic Coast Conference is sending a clear message as the non-conference slate winds down: the league is back in elite form. With conference play on the horizon, the ACC has racked up a resume that will be difficult for the selection committee to ignore come March.

Already, the league has secured 10 wins against Top-25 opponents, the second-highest total of any conference in the country. Perhaps even more impressive is the league’s collective performance against the “Power 4,” boasting 31 wins against power conference teams. To put that in perspective, the ACC only managed 19 such wins during the entire non-conference schedule last season.

NET Rankings & Poll Presence

The first release of the NET rankings this Tuesday further validated the league’s depth. Nine ACC teams are ranked in the Top 50, trailing only the Big Ten for the national lead.

Top 20 Anchors: Duke (#2), Louisville (#13), and North Carolina (#17) lead the pack.
Quad 1 Dominance: The conference currently owns 14 Quad 1 wins, a vital metric for tournament seeding. Duke leads the country in this category with four Quad 1 victories.
The AP Top 25: Four teams remain staples in the national polls:
Duke: #3 (AP & USA Today)
Louisville: #11 (AP & USA Today)
North Carolina: #12 (AP) / #13 (USA Today)
Virginia: #23 (AP) / #22 (USA Today)

A Freshman Class for the Ages

The impact of the incoming talent in the ACC has been nothing short of historic. Five of the top 12 freshmen scorers in the nation reside in this league.

Cameron Boozer (Duke): The nation’s leading freshman scorer is averaging an incredible 23.3 points per game.
Ebuka Okorie (Stanford): Making an immediate impact for the conference newcomer, averaging 21 points.
The Supporting Cast: Duke’s Caleb Wilson (#8 nationally at 19.4 PPG), Louisville’s Mikel Brown Jr. (16.6 PPG), and Virginia’s Thijs De Ridder (16.1 PPG) round out a group that is terrorizing veteran defenses.

High-Octane Offense

The “slow-down” era of the ACC seems to be a thing of the past. League members have already recorded 22 games of 100+ points this season—the second-most in league history and a massive jump from the 11 such games recorded all of last season. The league record of 24 (set in 1989-90) is well within reach.

The dominance hasn’t just been in scoring, but in the margin of victory. The ACC has 65 non-conference wins of at least 20 points, trailing only the SEC (68). It is the league’s most dominant start since the 2018-19 season.

Weekly Honors

ACC Player of the Week: Myles Colvin (Wake Forest). Colvin earns the honor following a career-high 33-point explosion against Queens, where he shot a blistering 11-of-13 from the field.
ACC Rookie of the Week: Neoklis Avdalas (Virginia Tech). The Greek standout averaged 24 points and 4.5 assists last week, securing his second weekly award of the season.

As we look toward the holiday break, we want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!