The 2024-25 ACC basketball season keeps growing closer on the horizon, and the conference should run through the Duke Blue Devils once again.
The Athletic’s Brendan Marks released his early power rankings for the conference on Thursday, and he put Jon Scheyer’s squad in the very top spot.
It’s rare to see a fanbase that lost 10 players as optimistic as the Cameron Crazies, but there’s only one [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] in the country. The top-ranked freshman has been raising his stock higher and higher over the last 12 months, from Montverde Academy’s undefeated season to his breakout weekend at Team USA’s Olympic training camp.
Caleb Foster and Tyrese Proctor, who combined to start more than 40 games last season, are the only two returning names from last year’s rotation. Marks thinks they are key to Duke’s ceiling.
“Proctor and Foster need to stay healthy after missing time last season,” he wrote. “If they do? Duke has the experience, top-end talent and role definition necessary to make a national championship run.”
North Carolina, naturally, came in second on Marks’ list. Louisville, Miami, and Wake Forest rounded out his top five with NC State, last year’s Cinderella, sliding all the way to 10th.