ACC Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2022-23 season

It wasn’t a great regular season for ACC Basketball, with one consistent storyline being whether the league would get more than two teams for the NCAA Tournament. But while Duke carried the conference for most of the 2021-22 campaign, it was rival North Carolina that took the starring role in March. The Tar Heels defeated the Blue Devils in Coach K’s last home game and followed that up by beating them in the Final Four to make the title game as an 8 seed.

There were other storylines besides the two big schools, including both Miami and Wake Forest going from the bottom of the ACC to the top half. But after plenty of offseason roster changes, where do those teams and the rest of the league stand heading into this upcoming season?

Here’s how I would project the ACC to look for the 2022-23 campaign.

The Yellow Jackets were the second-worst team in the ACC last season and lost their only two double-digit scorers in Jordan Usher and Mike Devoe. That’s over 32 ppg, 11 rpg, and 6.0 apg of lost production and they were easily the two best players on the team. So what hope does this team have to get out of the bottom?

A lot of it comes down to the two incoming transfers for the program. Lance Terry averaged 14 ppg at Gardner-Webb and will need to be the lead guard at Georgia Tech, while Javon Franklin is a 6’7 transfer from South Alabama that averaged 12.2 ppg and 7.8 rpg. He didn’t do much at Auburn in two years there so can he be a solid role player at the ACC level?

There’s not much depth in the frontcourt overall, with returning center Rodney Howard and Jordan Meka as the only other true bigs. That’s little offensive production there and you can expect more small lineups with this group.

Alongside Terry in the backcourt does have returning players that could break out with bigger roles. Senior Kyle Sturdivant is the top returning producer at 7.6 ppg and 2.3 apg, while Devion Smith is likely the team’s starting point guard this season. The Jackets will also need former top-50 prospect Deebo Coleman (6.2 ppg) to take a sizeable leap and become a go-to option for them. If that happens, Georgia Tech may not end up as the doormat of the ACC.