The 2012 Kentucky Wildcats were able to achieve the impossible, they won the NCAA tournament while being led by Freshman. The Wildcats, led by the duo of Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist were able to surmount every other team and cut down the nets that season. They were the last team with freshmen at the helm to complete this task, and with the way that the landscape of college basketball looks at this point in time, it seems that it will remain this way for the foreseeable future.
In the past 11 seasons since Kentucky’s win, it has become more and more evident each year just how important it is to have leadership on the court. While coaches have established themselves as the true stars of college basketball, it’s clear that even the best coaches need a well-balanced roster to find themselves victorious at the end of the season.
We’ve seen teams with plenty of star freshmen such as the 2018-2019 Duke team fall short of glory despite immense levels of talent. And ACC Basketball has proven to be no different, with three teams from the conference winning a National Championship in the past decade, (Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia) the conference has established itself to be one of the very best in college hoops each and every year (even when teams disappoint like UNC this past season.)
With that being said, this article is set to highlight the best-returning players for each of the 15 teams in the ACC.
Louisville
It’s no secret that the Louisville Cardinals were bad last season. The team finished with a painful 4-28 record under Kenny Payne in his first year as a head coach. Despite the eyesore of a first season there are at least a few areas in which Cardinals fans can feel confident. According to 247 Sports the Cards are bringing in the 6th ranked recruiting class in the nation, as well as four transfers headlined by former 5-star recruit and Illinois Point Guard Skyy Clark.
Another area where Louisville fans can find some positivity is in the area of returning players. Although the Cards lost their leading scorer in El Ellis to Arkansas through the transfer portal, they were able to retain five players from last year’s squad, with four of those places being impact pieces. Coming back for the Cardinals is Mike James, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, JJ Traynor, Emmanuel Okorafor, and Hercy Miller who has been reverted back to being a walk-on to make more room for incoming scholarship players.
The first 4 of the names listed above played sizable roles for Louisville in their struggling season. Okorafor joined the team as a true freshman around the halfway mark of the season, and the NBA Academy product showed promising flashes in his 5 games played with the team. In just under fifteen minutes of playing time Okorafor added averages of 4.4 points and 4.2 rebounds. The small sample size of his ability gives Cardinals fans good reason to believe he will be the starting 5 for the team come November.
JJ Traynor, another returning face for Louisville played in all 32 games for the Cardinals and started in fifteen. In just over 25 minutes of average playing time Traynor added 6.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, and just 0.6 assists. The 6’8 forward proved to be an efficient scorer hitting 47% of his shots from the field, but with his 7’2 wingspan he left much to be desired when it came to rebounding, an area in which the Cardinals ranked 12th amongst the ACC.
Mike James will be the highest returning scorer for the Cards in the upcoming season. He was second on the team behind El Ellis while taking around half as many shots as the transfer did. In his 32 starts last season James totaled averages of 10.1 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.1 assists. James was a scoring threat in every game for Louisville as he was able to reach feats as a Redshirt freshman that few Louisville freshmen have.
The returning Cardinal with the most to offer is Brandon Huntley-Hatfield. Huntley-Hatfield was a top-5 prospect in the class of 2022 before he reclassified to the class of 2021. From there he went on to play one season at the University of Tennessee where he had a few stand-out performances, but overall was unable to find his footing. After transferring to the Cardinals Huntley-Hatfield was given a much bigger role his sophomore season where he averaged 6.7 points, as well as a team-high 5.4 rebounds, and 0.8 blocks.
While these numbers don’t exactly jump off the page he did this while nursing a foot injury that caused him to miss eight games. With his athletic 6’9, 220-pound frame, if he can fall securely into his bigger role and live up to his potential in the upcoming season he could be a large riser in the eyes of many.
Notre Dame
It should come as a surprise to no one to see Notre Dame sitting at the bottom of this list. Coach Mike Brey left the program after sitting in the Head Coach position for 23 years, and with his departure nine of Notre Dame’s players followed suit. Their top seven leading scorers were part of the nine exiting players. After the losses new coach Micah Shrewsberry has been left with just three returning players, Matt Zona, Tony Sanders Jr., and JR Konieczny.
Out of the three players, it wasn’t exactly hard to decide which to pick for this list as Matt Zona was the only of the three returners to average more than a single point in the past season and Konieczny was redshirted for the entire last season under Coach Brey.
As a Junior last season Zona saw the court in just 20 games where he averaged 1.7 points, 1.4 rebounds, and 0.3 assists in just 7 minutes played. With a nearly brand new team surrounding him in the upcoming season Zona (the lone returning forward on the team) should be able to expect much more consistent playing time than he has seen in the years prior. But outside of Zona most of the minutes given to players will be fresh faces for the Fighting Irish.
Georgia Tech
Damon Stoudamire is taking the place of Josh Pastner after another struggle-filled season for Georgia Tech, and while doing so he’s retaining much of the roster that went 15-18 last season. Included in the returning talent for Coach Stoudamire are four of the team’s top five scorers from a year ago. These four players are Kyle Sturdivant, Lance Terry, Deebo Coleman, and Miles Kelly.
Kyle Sturdivant and Deebo Coleman are both guards that hovered around the mark of 9 points per game last season. While Sturdivant is a better passer due in part to running the one guard position Coleman has proven to be the better rebounder and defender at the guard position. It is likely that both of them will be able to play a large amount of time together on the court with Coleman moved to more of a wing position due to his height and length, but it should be interesting to see how Coach Stoudamire handles the guard-heavy rotation.
Lance Terry is another one of the many guards returning to play under the new coach. Terry split starts last season with Sturdivant, but now with a new coach at the helm, it is unsure who will solidify themselves as the team’s starting point. But with the way last season looked it seems likely Terry will start the season in the role. Terry averaged just over 10 points per game while adding 2.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists.
Miles Kelly is the final guard returning that had a big impact on last year’s team. Kelly is now in position to be the team’s leader in his second straight season. In his sophomore year, Kelly showed one of the biggest improvements that we saw in any singular player where he was able to skyrocket over 10 more points per game average over his freshman year, While also showing large improvements in rebounding and defense.
Last season, Kelly’s height at the guard slot proved to be troublesome for many defenders as he was able to average over 14 points per game. Kelly showed his love for the long ball all season long averaging 7.1 attempts per game and knocking down 38 percent from beyond the arc. His ability to shoot over smaller defender as well as create space revealed itself early in the season, and if he shows more of the same he could be a great offensive catalyst for Damon Stoudamire.
Florida State
While Florida State is losing two out of their three leading scorers (Matthew Cleveland and Caleb Mills) this off-season they are still returning eight players from last year’s team. Included in these eight returning players is a fair balance of impactful players at each position on the court. For guards, they are returning Chandler Jackson, Jalen Warley, and Cam’Ron Fletcher. On the wing, they’ll return a team focal point in Darin Green Jr. And to round out the team in the post they return Cam Corhen and as well as Jaylan Gainey who should return from injury.
Jaylan Gainey was able to become one of the top contributors for Brown in his three seasons. He was a two-time Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year before entering the transfer portal. Although he was never able to break into double-digit scoring his efficiency (69.9 career field goal percentage) was always very impressive on the offensive end, especially for a player that is such a defensive threat on the defensive end. Now with Gainey returning to the paint for the Seminoles, they will have a defensive presence amongst the best in the country.
The other big man making his return to the team is Sophomore Cameron Corhen. Last season Corhen earned the start in 21 out of 31 games played underneath Coach Hamilton. On the year, Corhen added 8.3 points and 3.5 rebounds per game for the team. Obviously, the rebound numbers are lower than what would be liked from a starting center, but If Corhen and Gainey are able to share the floor together this lack of rebounding from Corhen could likely be made up for by his frontcourt partner.
At the wing position Coach Hamilton Darin Green Jr. will be coming back for his second season for FSU after making the transfer to the program. With the other two of the top three scorers for the Seminoles leaving the team, even more of the offensive load will fall onto the shoulders of Green now. While he’s proven he can lead a team in scorer as a volume shooter he has also proved to not have the best shot selection when given the keys to an offense. He’s shown that he has the ability to extend his range past the three-point line, but this has also shown to be his detriment. Last season, Green averaged 7.8 three-point attempts per game while shooting 36 percent. Now with the ball likely making its way to his hands more and more, it will be interesting to see how Leonard Hamilton uses the scoring ability that Green Jr. possesses.
With the three guards making their return in Chandler Jackson, Jalen Warley, and Cam’Ron Fletcher, the backcourt should be in good hands. Warley and Fletcher are expected to step into the two starting roles to start the season with Jackson returning to a similar 6th man type role that he played for the team all of last year.
Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech is another team that despite losing some of the best players that suited up for them in the past season still has high hopes for their returners. With Grant Basile and Justyn Mutts parting from the team the frontcourt will likely look weaker than it did this past year. The two averaged 29.7 of the team’s 74.1 points per game last season while being the team’s two leading rebounders.
But luckily for the Hokies, they are returning their two most important backcourt players in the talented scorer Sean Pedulla as well as the two-way assets that Hunter Cattoor brings to the team. To round out the wing positions, it’s likely that Rodney Rice will be the other starter for the Hokies if he’s able to stay healthy. The team is also returning both MJ Collins and Lynn Kidd. Collins will look to add some much-needed depth to Mike Young’s roster, while Lynn Kidd will fight to solidify himself as the team’s centerpiece down low.
Last season, Kidd averaged 5 points and 3.4 rebounds in just 12 minutes played per game for the Hokies. The big man put up these numbers on an efficient 66% from the field. With the loss of much of the offense produced inside the paint, Kidd will be thrust into a much larger role in the upcoming season. His efficiency ensures his ability to play this key role offensively for Virginia Tech, but if he’ll be able to step up on the defensive end is still left up in the air.
Rodney Rice will also be tested in a much larger role this season as well. Due to injuries Rice only appeared in Young’s lineup in 8 games this past season. Rice averaged 20 minutes per through his eight matchups, and he showed why he was getting the opportunities he was. He scored 7.4 points and pulled in 3.3 rebounds per game in his 8 games played, and although efficiency wasn’t up to where the team would like it to be, Rice showed that he can be a high-volume true shooter with some development. Barring any more big injuries it could be expected for Rice’s name to be among the discussion for ACC Most Improved Player.
The return of both Sean Pedulla and Hunter Cattoor will allow Mike Young to experiment with the other 3 positions in the lineup as he pleases due to the expected consistency from the two guards. Pedulla jumped up by over 9 points to average 15 points as the Hokies starting Point guard this past season, and his role is only expected to grow from this point. Pedulla’s ability to both score and facilitate showed that it pairs nicely alongside Cattoor who showed his all-around ability throughout the past year.
Boston College
Boston College has struggled greatly in recent years trying to compete in the deep ACC. It has been 5 seasons now since the Eagles finished with a winning record, but after a shaky past season where they finished one game under .500 things are finally looking up for BC. After last season where they were closer to finding success than they have been in years, they will now be able to return a majority of their key pieces from last year’s team. They are returning five players from last year’s roster that scored 5 or more points, one of these five being ACC Most Improved Player Quinten Post.
Alongside Post, the other of these four players are Prince Aligbe, Devin McGlockton, Jaeden Zackery, and Mason Madsen. Although each of these players should be expected to take a step forward with the departure of Makai Ashton-Langford, and DeMarr Langford, the two names with the most focus on them are Jaeden Zackery and Quinten Post.
In his sophomore season, Jaeden Zackery was able to show his worth in multiple ways on the court for the Eagles. Despite putting up nearly identical numbers to his freshman year at BC Zackery showed moments of potential that could put him amongst the best guards in the ACC. Since taking on a bigger role for the team Zackery’s overall efficiency took a slight dip in year two with the team, but when he was able to perform efficiently he proved his importance.
In games where Zackery was able to score 15 or more points the Eagles had a perfect record of 7-0. On top of his very solid offensive numbers where he added 10.7 points and 2.7 assists to the slate for BC he was also able to pull in 1.45 steals per game which made him one of the best perimeter pickpockets in the entire conference. With the addition of a great 3-point shooter in Claudell Harris Jr. to the roster some of the spacing issues that the Eagles faced should be fixed, and with that Zackery should be able to work his way inside the arc where he shot 46% this season.
Quinten Post is another player that should be able to take advantage of this new addition to help add another offensive dimension to the team. This past season, Boston College ranked 14th in overall scoring amongst the ACC. This stagnant offense largely stemmed from the lack of quality 3-point shots they were able to make as a team (they also ranked 14th in 3-point percentage.)
Despite the lack of spacing inside in his 19 games played, Post was still able to lead the whole team in points with 15.1 per game and rebounds with 5.6 per. He also put up these impressive numbers in the midst of a season where he was sidelined for just under half the team’s matchups due to a nagging foot injury. If Post is able to remain healthy in the upcoming season he will be one of the most dangerous centers to match up against in the entire conference. He showed last season that he has the versatility on the offensive end of the floor to be a matchup nightmare for many teams.
Post was the lone player in all of Division 1 basketball to post a shooting line of better than 50/40/80. This shows that with his 7-foot height not only can he post up and draw fouls, but he can also extend the floor and pull opposing big men to open up the floor for his teammates. A healthy Quinten Post could easily help the Eagles make a jump into the upper half of the conference, and finally break the skid of losing seasons they’ve begun to build.
Wake Forest
There’s a reason that Tyree Appleby was ACC’s First team and second in Player of the Year voting. The loss of Appleby is arguably the biggest for any team in the ACC. Despite this, the Demon Deacons were able to preserve a large amount of the talent on their roster including Damari Monsanto, Cameron Hildreth, Andrew Carr, and Matthew Marsh.
Matthew Marsh was able to get the starting nod in 16 out of 30 games he played in last season. In 18 minutes per, the 7’1 Center averaged 6.1 points and 4.2 rebounds while shooting a conference-leading 88 percent from the field for the season.
Andrew Carr is one of three double-digit scorers who made the decision to stay with the Demon Deacons for the upcoming season. Carr was one of only two players to start in every game for the team, and while doing so he averaged 10.7 points and a team-leading 6 rebounds. Carr did this while only attempting 8 shots per game, so with Appleby’s 13 shot attempts per game leaving this should open up the opportunities that fall into the hands of Andrew Carr.
As a sophomore, Cameron Hildreth made the jump that many expected he could after a freshman year that had some promising moments throughout. He jumped up over eight points and two rebounds in his second season with Wake Forest. In year two Hildreth showed much more potential and showed just the kind of player he could end up being for the team. In November, Hildreth dropped a rare triple-double when he recorded 14 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists in a game that showed just how much damage he can do as a lead guard when given opportunities.
Prior to his season-ending Injury in late February Damari Monsanto had shown he could be everything the Demon Deacons expected and then some in his second year as a part of the program. He was shooting over 40 percent from three which had him in second amongst the entire conference.
With a majority of the offense run through Tyree Appleby, Monsanto showed that he could be a very viable first option in upcoming seasons. He averaged 13.3 points per game for the season and just under 15 points per game in conference play. As long as Monsanto is able to pick back up where he left off, Wake Forest has the returning power to surprise many unsuspecting ACC fans.
Syracuse
Adrian Autry, the longtime assistant of Coach Boeheim, is now poised to start off the 2023-2024 college basketball season in the head coach position for the very first time. With Coach Boeheim’s departure, the Orange were able to hang onto a large amount of talent that may have been leaving the team if change was not made. The Orange have 6 different scholarship players returning to play for them in the upcoming season, this group of players easily reaches its peak with Benny Williams and Judah Mintz.
For Benny Williams, his sophomore season showed growth in the right direction in every major statistical category. Of course, this is expected when you double your minutes per game as Williams did, but he was also able to drastically improve his scoring efficiency at all three levels while making the jump in playing time. Now, going into his third year with the program it’s expected that Williams will continue to get stronger during the off-season to allow him to better use his natural athleticism to help him both in scoring and on the glass.
Judah Mintz was a star in his first year suiting up for the orange, so much so that most people assumed he would be making his way to the NBA during this off-season. Instead, Mintz has opted to return for at least one season under Autry who is very lucky to have this returner. In just his freshman year, Mintz led the roster in assists and was second in scoring (4.6 apg and 16.3 ppg). He also showcased his ability to score from all three levels, but he shines when working close around the rim, although he has the mechanics to develop into a very solid three-point shooter over time.
Despite his talent on the offensive end of the floor, the young guard was also able to show his defensive prowess. He led the Orange in steals per game and proved to be a dangerous defender when paired with Jesse Edwards at the five-spot to protect the rim from almost everyone who tried to score on it. Now without leading scorer Joseph Girard on the offensive end or All-ACC defender Jesse Edwards on defense the pressure falls on the sophomore guard to become the team’s leader on both sides.
North Carolina
UNC took arguably the biggest hit of all power 5 teams when it came to players leaving after the 2022-2023 season. Coming into the season the entire college basketball world had expectations that the roster could never even begin to live up to. And this lack of success (Compared to projections) has now hurt them drastically going into next season. They lost a total of 7 players to the transfer portal including leading scorer in Caleb Love, and on top of that they lost both a 10-point-per-game scorer in Pete Nance and also the heart of the team in Leaky Black to graduation.
But despite this, all hope is not lost for the Tar Heels as they were able to keep the two best players on the roster for another season. Both R.J. Davis and Armando Bacot have opted to return to the team, which at the very least boosts this team’s floor to among the middle of the ACC, and its ceiling near the top.
Regardless of how disappointing the season may have been for the Tar Heels as a whole, R.J. Davis was anything but disappointing in his Junior year. He was able to improve statistically in both points (16.1 per game) and rebounds (5.1 per game(extremely impressive for a guard listed at 6’0 175 pounds)) and he was able to do so while also having his most efficient season to date. He was also able to put up these numbers with a very ball-dominant backcourt partner in Caleb Love who put up over 15 shot attempts per, so in this next season we should be able to see Davis finally step all the way into the spotlight, and shoot at a higher clip than we’ve seen at this point in his career.
When it’s all said and done, Armando Bacot’s career at UNC will be a legendary one. He’s the program’s all-time leader in rebounds and double-doubles while also having surpassed Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list to put him at 14th of all time. And now, with Bacot returning for one final run, the storied career only continues to grow. In 2023 Bacot was named as an AP All-American and was also able to secure his second straight All ACC First Team nod.
Behind Zach Edey, Bacot is the best-returning center in all of college basketball, and with Caleb Love transferring away it’s likely his numbers of 15.9 points and 10.4 rebounds per game will rise even higher this following season as he looks to lead the Tar Heels down the road to redemption after this past season struggles.
NC State
NC State is a mixed bag when you compare what they kept to what they lost, they lost their two leading scorers in Terquavion Smith and Jarkel Joiner, but they were also able to return a number of their more important players on the last year’s roster. Their returning players are highlighted by D.J. Burns and Casey Morsell, but they are also bringing back other smaller roster pieces such as LJ Thomas, Breon Pass, and Ernest Ross.
While those bottom three names didn’t exactly put up game-changing numbers, they should all be able to expect to see an uptick in both playing time, and overall production. Especially Ross who showed potential to take a large jump in the box score on both points and rebounds if he is able to use his athleticism and size to his advantage.
Casey Morsell will easily be the most important guard that the team is able to bring back for the season. Morsell is the only returning guard that got significant minutes in last year’s rotation, and he got nearly the most amount of minutes of anyone on the team. He played an average of 35 out of 40 minutes per game for the Wolfpack. In those 35 minutes, he was able to show that the Cavaliers lost a great player when he decided to transfer to NC State from Virginia. He put up averages of 11.8 points alongside 4.4 rebounds while also showing improvement on both sides of the court.
He continued to improve on his offensive game by once again developing his 3-point shot. In each of his four years in college, Morsell has been able to greatly improve from beyond the arc and is the best long-range shooter on a power 5 team. On top of that, he also made continuous improvements with his perimeter defense where he was able to match a career-high 1.1 steals per game for the season.
In the frontcourt, D.J. Burns will be looked at as the returning leader. Burns, like Morsell, appeared in every matchup for NC State Last season, but he only got the starting nod in 22 of these games. Throughout those games, in an average of just under 23 minutes played, Burns was able to show immediate impact for the team, with flashes that showed he could be a centerpiece in the future. In his time played Burns averaged 12.5 which was third on the team, and 4.4 rebounds which was tied for second.
In a late January matchup, he showed what he can do if he’s given a larger role for the Pack when he put up an impressive 31 points on 14-26 shooting. Now with the two scorers who sat above him on the team gone, and an increased role Burns will look to solidify himself as one of the most skilled post players in the conference.
Pitt
Pitt struck gold this past season as they were finally able to break through and have a successful season, and they had a very successful one at that. Now they are reeling to recover from big off-season losses such as Jamarius Burton, Nelly Cummings, and Greg Elliott. But this is a recovery that they plan to make gracefully as they’ve been able to retain players such as Jorge and Guillermo Diaz-Graham, Federiko Federiko, and leading scorer last season Blake Hinson.
The Diaz-Graham twins return solidifies a very deep bench presence that this Pitt roster will be able to reach into. While it may be hard to play the two of them together at times due to their similarities in size and play style they both offer great size and length down low, with Guillermo standing at 7’0 while Jorge is just one inch shorter. Last season they played similar roles off the bench, and more of the same should be expected in this upcoming season. They both showed that they could score and rebound at this level in their small sample size, with Guillermo being the more advanced and efficient scorer at this time. As long as they continue to get stronger and grow into their frames they both offer a great boost off the bench when Federiko checks out.
Holding down the paint for the Panthers is the returning Junior Federiko. In the entirety of the ACC only 8 players received any votes for defensive player of the year, and this past season Federiko was able to garner 3 votes for the honor. As a starter in 27 of 35 games for Pitt, Federiko averaged 6.6 points paired with 5.3 rebounds. However, most of his impact came on the defensive end for the Panthers. In the ACC Federiko ranked 3rd in blocks, blocks per game, and block percentage. On top of this he was top 20 in defensive rating, so despite numbers on the offensive end that seem underwhelming his defensive impact cannot be overstated.
The return of Hinson brings the opposite impact from that of Federiko, while Federiko raises the ceiling significantly for the Panther’s defense, Hinson does the same for their offense. After spending two seasons at Ole Miss and then two years as a medical redshirt at Iowa State it seems like Hinson finally found his home this past season with Pitt. In over 30 minutes per game, Hinson Averaged a team-leading 15.3 points, alongside 6.0 rebounds per game as well from the forward position. Hinson was second on the team in field goals attempted per game behind Jamarius Burton, so now with Burton leaving he will also leave the keys to the offense almost completely to Hinson.
A majority of Hinsons 11.8 shots per game came from behind the line, where he shot an efficient 38% and ended up leading the entirety of the conference with 97 threes made on the season. The 2023-24 season should allow Hinson to prove again that he is one of the best true shooters in all of college basketball and attempt to lead the Panthers back to the NCAA tournament.
Duke
In 2023, Duke made the NCAA tournament for the first time in 39 years led by someone other than Coach K. Jon Scheyer was able to find success in just his first year as the new Blue Devils head coach, and with the amount of talent that is returning next season, there is a clear reason why they are sitting atop many ACC power rankings lists.
Of course, the team is losing quality pieces of the rotation in both Dariq Whitehead and Dereck Lively, but despite these losses, the team has been able to maintain a majority of a roster that was already amongst the best in the ACC. Of course, with how many players the Blue Devils are slated to bring back I could break down each returning player, but that merits its own article due to the amount of talent on the team. Instead, here I will just detail the returning players in the biggest positions for Duke. This includes Mark Mitchell, Tyrese Proctor, Jeremy Roach, and ACC Rookie of the Year Kyle Filipowski(these are 4 of the top 5 scorers from Duke’s roster).
Mark Mitchell showed his worth for Duke throughout his freshman season in more ways than one. As a 6’8 forward, he was able to add 9.1 points on an efficient 47% from the field while also hauling in 4.5 rebounds per game. Now with a year of experience at the college level under his belt, it can easily be expected he will only continue to improve and use this experience to show why Duke is rated so highly by most.
Tyrese Proctor was another young player that was brought in and was able to live up to the lofty expectations that were attached to his name. Now with Proctor alongside the veteran guard in Jeremy Roach Duke easily has one of the best backcourts in the ACC and all of college basketball. Along with his 9.4 ppg for the Blue Devils Proctor was also able to lead the team in assists with 3.3 per game.
Jeremy Roach is easily among the most important returning guards in college basketball, and Duke’s Veteran floor general will be surrounded by a plethora of talent in this upcoming season. After averaging 8 points per game through his first two years on the roster Roach finally made the jump many experts predicted he could in his third year. He rocketed all the way to 13.6 points per game while having his most efficient season from both behind the arc and at the free throw line. Throughout all three seasons, Roach has proved he can be level-headed in every situation and has shown growth in each stage of the game. His overall abilities match perfect to be the leader of a team prepping up for a special season.
All ACC Second Team as a freshman is no small feat at all, and last year Kyle Filipowski made it look easy while leading one of the best teams in the ACC in both scoring (15.1 per game) and rebounding. (9.0 per game) But over the offseason some concerns have been raised surrounding Filipowski’s health. The freshman star had surgery on both hips earlier in this offseason, but assuming that he’s able to play the entirety of the season he will easily become one of the two most important returners in the ACC.
Clemson
On the offensive end Clemson had 4 players that made deep impacts for their team last season, and now going into next season they’ve lost 2 of those 4 players in Hunter Tyson and Brevin Galloway. Both Galloway and Tyson Averaged double digits as starters for the Tigers last season, and Tyson was also All ACC First Team in a season where he showed he was one of the best rebounders and scorers in the conference.
Despite losing two significant pieces of their team they have still been able to return a plethora of talent they can use including one of the best shooters in the nation in Alex Hemenway, and the efficient combo forward Ian Schieffelin who made 22 starts for the team last season. Plus with those two they were able to return key players in Chase Hunter and PJ Hall who will surely keep this team in ACC contention.
Chase Hunter played a large role in the success that Clemson was able to find offensively last season, he scored double digits in 26 of 31 contests that he played in and also posted a career-high of 26 points once. On top of his improved scoring output, he was also able to lead the team in assists. Overall, this season showed that Hunter can handle a bigger load offensively than he had in his first three years for the Tigers.
PJ Hall will be able to ensure that the Tigers have a post presence among the best. For his second year in a row, Hall was able to average over 15 points and 5.5 rebounds and this season he was able to remain consistent with his statistics while bumping his field goal percentage from 49 percent all the way to 53 percent. He also worked his true shooting percentage to above the 60 percent mark. He also added over 4-win shares over the season for the team while racking up enough votes to be a part of the ACC Third Team.
Virginia
Virginia found a lot of success in the past season (outside of the NCAA tournament) and can likely be expected to find more success in the upcoming season. Tony Bennett always seems to max out his team’s potential and it’s likely he will be able to do the same next season, but I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the overall lack of returning power that the Cavaliers retained.
With players like Armaan Franklin leaving for the draft, and Kihei Clark finishing up his fifth and final year with the Cavs (even though it felt like he was there for an eternity) they are losing a majority of their top players during this off-season. But despite losing a majority of their star players they have been able to return sox pieces, including one of the best players on last year’s roster in Reece Beekman.
Among the returning players there is Isaac McKneely, Ryan Dunn, Taine Murray, Tristan How, Leon Bond, and the aforementioned Reece Beekman. Tristan How made the team as a walk-on last season, and only scored three points on the year, and coming into next season it is likely he will have a similar role for coach Bennett. Taine Murray is going into his third season playing for UVA.
Through his first two seasons, he has had very limited playing time, and despite a slight boost in playing time this March, it is likely that his role will only slightly increase for the Cavs despite the departures. Leon Bond will come into the season as a redshirt freshman this season after the Cavs opted to redshirt the former 4-star recruit in his first year with the team. Bond is expected to play a significant role as a wing this upcoming season. Coming out of high school his athleticism was noted as one of his strong suits alongside his defensive versatility, two attributes Coach Bennett often grows to new heights in his young players. As for the other three returning players, you can expect much more production in the near future.
This past season, Ryan Dunn played in 12 minutes per game, and in those 12 minutes he put up 2.6 points and 2.9 rebounds, and while these numbers seem very lackluster it’s on the other end of the court where Dunn shines. Last season, Dunn became just the second ACC Basketball freshman in over 15 years to have a block rate over 10% while also having a steal rate over 2%. He also proved to make his entire team better as when he was on the court Virginia gave up 6.7 points less per 100 possessions. This means when Dunn was on the court the best defense in the entire conference got even better.
Isaac McKneely is another player looking to make a jump into a more prominent role next season. McKneely proved himself to be a very capable player as well as a great fit for Virginia last season. He played his role very well inside of the Tony Bennett system. While he doesn’t have quite the defensive impact of many of his teammates he held his own defensively throughout the entirety of the past season, and he proved to be a large threat offensively for opposing teams despite only averaging 6.7 points.
McKneely shot a team-leading 39% from beyond the three-point arc while attempting 3.9 per game. This shooting ability should help Virginia find much more spacing than they have grown accustomed to having, and help Coach Bennett use this spacing to create an offense that works with their slow pacing.
Arguably the biggest news of the offseason for UVA came when it was announced that Reece Beekman would be coming back for his fourth season. Beekman has already established himself as one of the best players to dawn the Cavaliers jersey in recent memory. The reigning ACC DPOY may not be the most electric player when it comes to scoring, but both his court vision and defense ability are among the best in the entire conference.
He averaged the second most assists on the team at 5.3, while also winning Defensive Player of the Year for the conference due to his ability to lock down the other team’s best guard in almost every matchup he faced. He sits inside the top 10 for the program history in both assists and steals and he will only work his way further up these ranks over the next year.
Miami
Miami is coming off of the best season in program history, and they’re doing this after losing both of their top two scorers. After losing to Uconn in the Final Four the losses have continued for Miami as they lost the ACC Player of the Year in Isaiah Wong and a do-it-all forward in Jordan Miller. These losses are significant enough that it would be irresponsible not to note them when talking about this team but there is still light at the end of the tunnel for the Hurricanes. This light comes in the form of their other three starters. Wooga Poplar, Norchad Omier, and Nijel Pack.
Poplar will be entering his third season for the Hurricanes after he was able to make a jump into the starting spot this past season where he started in 36 of 37 games played. Now with Isaiah Wong gone we can expect Poplar to get an increased usage as one of two wing starters returning for the team. While Poplar may not be the best player returning for this Hurricanes team, fans should be able to expect him to put up double digits scoring in this upcoming season and do so efficiently.
What Norchad Omier gave to Miami as a player this past year cannot be overstated. He came in as a transfer from Arkansas State and made an immediate impact on the dynamic of the Hurricanes team. He took a slight hit in his statistics while making the jumbo from Mid-Major to Power 5, but the emphasis in that sentence is on the word slight. He came in and showed that with his talent he can play basketball at any level with his abilities to both score and rebound. Omier may be a bit shorter than a lot of other forwards in the ACC, but his muscular build and strength allow him to bully small defenders around the rim, and use his positioning to gather rebound after rebound.
Nijel Pack was the other big impact first-year transfer that Coach Laranaga was able to land prior to the 2022-23 season. In his first three years playing College Basketball, Pack has shown that he was one of the best true shooters in all of college basketball. With three seasons under his belt, he has now averaged at least 12 points per game each year while also shooting over 40% from the line in each season. Now Coach Laranaga will be able to center an offense around Pack’s ability to extend the floor with his shooting and pair this with the dominant force inside that Norchad Omier has proven to be.
Overall, as always the ACC is set to impress. It’s been one of the best conferences in basketball for many decades, and that is not set to change any time soon. Some of the best players in all of college basketball are making their way back to the ACC, which will keep this fantastic conference among the most important to keep your eye on come March.