Duke basketball: The projected ACC standings for next season
By Matt Giles
Where will next season’s Duke basketball squad finish in the ACC standings?
Yes, it’s early. Sure, some rosters are not yet set in stone due to the delayed NBA Draft — i.e., underclassmen now have until Aug. 3 to withdraw their names — in addition to possible late commitments from reclass candidates in the 2021 class. Plus, many Duke basketball faithful and others still refuse to get their hopes up about indoor college sports happening at all.
Even if there are games, they could all take place on neutral courts somewhere and/or without a full flock of fans in the stands, which could have all sorts of impacts, including some unpredictable ones. Nevertheless, let’s predict the 2020-21 ACC standings anyway. After all, we can always go back and make updates, hopefully not to include deleting the whole thing as a result of a canceled season.
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To come up with the ranking of the conference’s 15 hoops members, we’ll take into account 1) each head coach’s track record, 2) each roster’s expected key players, and 3) what each group’s general storyline looks to be. We’ll also note each program’s ACC clip last season while forecasting for each the number of conference wins and losses next season.
Now, let’s get started with the lone cellar-dweller — the 2019-20 season saw a three-way tie for that dishonor — and then work our way to No. 1…