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

5) *Relatively* down year for the ACC

All of this isn’t to say that this Duke team doesn’t have flaws because they do. However, the ACC doesn’t project to be anywhere near as strong at the top as it has been over the last few years.

Virginia, the defending national champions, are reloading after losing the core of their title-winning team. North Carolina lost six of their top scorers and are replacing them with two five-star freshmen and a pair of grad transfers from Charleston Southern and William & Mary. Virginia Tech, who nearly upset Duke in the Sweet 16, lost head coach Buzz Williams to Texas A&M and is now picked to finish among the worst teams in the conference. Florida State and Syracuse will also take significant steps back due to personnel losses.

Duke is the only team that finished with a winning conference record that didn’t take a significant step back this offseason – with the notable exception of Louisville.

The Cardinals are projected to be ranked in the top 10 in the preseason AP poll. They return almost all of their rotation players from last season’s 20-win team and welcome in a top 15 recruiting class headlined by five-star guard Samuell Williamson. There are questions about them, including how those two groups will mesh in Chris Mack’s second season in charge, but they’re the only real threat at the top of the conference – even though Duke is probably the more talented team.

The 2019-20 season presents as good of an opportunity as there has been in recent years for the Blue Devils to win the ACC regular-season title and end the drought. And, because of these five reasons, I believe Duke will be able to do just that.