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Duke Basketball: 5 reasons why Blue Devils will win ACC title in 2019-20

By Brian Rauf

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - MARCH 16: Tre Jones #3 of the Duke Blue Devils cuts down a piece of the net after defeating the Florida State Seminoles 73-63 in the championship game of the 2019 Men's ACC Basketball Tournament at Spectrum Center on March 16, 2019 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - MARCH 16: Tre Jones #3 of the Duke Blue Devils cuts down a piece of the net after defeating the Florida State Seminoles 73-63 in the championship game of the 2019 Men's ACC Basketball Tournament at Spectrum Center on March 16, 2019 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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INDIANAPOLIS, IN – APRIL 06: Head coach Mike Krzyzewski of the Duke Blue Devils cuts down the net after defeating the Wisconsin Badgers during the NCAA Men’s Final Four National Championship at Lucas Oil Stadium on April 6, 2015 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Duke defeated Wisconsin 68-63. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – APRIL 06: Head coach Mike Krzyzewski of the Duke Blue Devils cuts down the net after defeating the Wisconsin Badgers during the NCAA Men’s Final Four National Championship at Lucas Oil Stadium on April 6, 2015 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Duke defeated Wisconsin 68-63. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

Duke basketball enters the 2019-20 season as one of the favorites in the ACC. This is why they’ll win the conference for the first time since 2010.

Did you know it’s been a decade since Duke basketball won the ACC regular-season title? A full decade!

Sure, the Blue Devils have won the ACC Tournament three times since they swept regular season and tournament honors in 2010 (Duke also won the national title that year), but they haven’t asserted their dominance over the conference like you would expect.

This decade has belonged to North Carolina and Virginia instead. UNC has four solo regular-season titles while UVA has three, and they both split the 2018-19 title. Miami claimed its first and only ACC title in 2013.

That should not come as a surprise given the fact that both North Carolina and Virginia have won national titles in that time frame along with the Blue Devils, but Duke has had just as much talent – if not more – than those two programs on an annual basis.

This isn’t to say Duke has taken a step back to those programs because they haven’t. UNC has always been alongside the Blue Devils at the top of the mountain and Virginia has crowded that space even more under Tony Bennett.

Yet, if there is one big flaw in Coach K’s recent resume, it’s this drought of regular-season titles the program is currently going through. The good news for Duke fans is that it looks like that drought will end soon.

Very soon.

Like, this coming season soon.

Here are five reasons why the Blue Devils will win the ACC regular-season title for the first time in a decade:

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