ACC Basketball: 10 storylines/questions heading into 2024-25
The 2024-25 season is nearly upon us as the month of September slowly creeps to an end. ACC basketball has become interesting as ever, especially with the transfer portal, as we take a look at 10 burning questions and storylines with tip off a few months away.
10) Welcome three new teams to the ACC!
There's some new blood in the ACC basketball landscape with the additions of the SMU Mustangs, California Golden Bears, and Stanford Cardinal. These three teams haven't needed too much help from the transfer portal while relying on the traditional recruiting route to maintain their rotations. But with conference realignment upon us, they've virtually had to re-construct their rotations.
Stanford is probably the strongest squad out of the trio given most of their talent is returning, though Maxime Raynaud is the only one with a ton of experience. Derin Saran (UC Irvine), Chisom Okpara (Harvard), Oziyah Sellers (USC), and Jaylen Blakes (Duke) will join Raynaud (15.5 points per game in 2023-24) as they look to prove themselves in their inaugural season.
The SMU Mustangs will have a familiar face to the ACC in Kevin Miller in Year 1. He spent this past season with Wake Forest where he averaged 15.6 points, 3.5 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game. He'll look to push the Mustangs in the conference as one of seven additions out of the transfer portal to know.
Head coach Andy Enfield takes over for them after going 15-18 with the USC Trojans in 2023-24. It's worth noting he's got six NCAA Tournament appearances under his belt with two different teams.
California is another team that will rely heavily on the transfer portal in Year 1 under second-year head coach Mark Madsen. 10 new faces out of the transfer portal led by BJ Omot, DJ Campbell and Andrej Stojakovic will face their rotation in 2024-25 as they look to make noise as one of the two teams from the West in the ACC.
Madsen went 1-2 against Stanford this past season, including the conference tournament, which ironically comes along with the Golden Bears into the same conference next season. California finished in a tie for sixth place in their final regular season in the Pac-12. It will be interesting to see how things go under Madsen in their first year in a new conference.