ACC Report Card
Defending National Champions Notre Dame was the preseason pick to win the ACC — and some picked them to win a second straight national championship.
Entering the second week of conference play, Notre Dame is the highest-ranked ACC team in the AP Poll at №1, and three other teams are in the Top 25. Louisville moved down to №4 after its loss to Notre Dame and NC State (№8) and Syracuse (№12) did not move. Florida State dropped out of the Top 25 after losing to Clemson. Four of the Top 15 teams in the country are from the ACC, something that will make for a lot of excitement as conference play continues.
There is a good chance that at least six of the NCAA Tournament teams come March could come from the ACC.
With a long way to go until standings are final, there’s plenty of time for teams to change the trajectory of their season.
Projected Final Standings
1.Notre Dame
2.Louisville
3.NC State
4.Syracuse
5.Florida State
6.Miami
7.Georgia Tech
8.Clemson
9.Virginia Tech
10.North Carolina
11.Pittsburgh
12.Duke
13.Wake Forest
14.Virginia
15.Boston College
I believe that Notre Dame will win both the regular season and tournament titles, however, the other teams at the top will not make it easy. You should not be surprised if the Irish fall late in the ACC Tournament. After all, their chances of beating Louisville on a neutral floor, the tournament is being held in Greensboro, NC, is pretty close to 50–50.
Some of these final standings might come as a surprise. Duke was picked to finish sixth in the preseason poll, however, they won just one of their first seven top 100 matchups, based on the HHS Rating. Georgia Tech was picked to finish ninth and while I have them picked to finish seventh this team has a lot to build on with freshman Elizabeth Balogun and Elizabeth Dixon.
Projected NCAA Tournament Teams
1.Notre Dame
2.Louisville
3.NC State
4.Syracuse
5.Florida State
6.Miami
Miami is flying under the radar for a lot of people, they have one two top 50 games according to our HHS Rating, including a 68–61 victory at home against Virginia Tech on Jan. 3. Georgia Tech could sneak into the tournament if it beats one or two of the teams towards the top of the conference down the stretch. Clemson likely does not have a shot of making the NCAA Tournament without winning the conference tournament, as their best non-conference win came against Belmont.
Projected Awards
- ACC Player of the Year: Arike Ogunbowale (Notre Dame)
Ogunbowale leads the conference in points per game, made field goals, and made free throws. She also ranks sixth in assists per game, eleventh in assist/turnover ratio and fifteenth in steals per game.
- ACC Rookie of the Year: Elizabeth Balogun (Georgia Tech)
Balogun has been named ACC Rookie of the Week three times with almost two months left to play. She is thirteenth in the conference in scoring with 14.7 points per game and makes 46.8% of her field goal attempts. She also averages 5.6 rebounds per game and 1.3 blocks per game.
- ACC Defensive Player of the Year: Regan Magarity (Virginia Tech)
Magarity leads the conference in rebounding with 13.1 rebounds per game and is third in the conference with 1.9 blocks per game.
- ACC Sixth Player of the Year: Kylee Shook (Louisville)
The junior from Colorado started 14 games in her first two years at Louisville, though this season has been by far her most productive. She is averaging 7.5 points and 5.9 rebounds in 17.6 minutes per game for a Louisville team that is not only competing to win the conference but also a number one seed come March.
- ACC Coach of the Year: Wes Moore (NC State)
NC State opened up the year at №17 and has slowly risen into the top 10. The team, which has never finished higher than fourth in the conference under Moore, are poised to make a run this conference season. The Wolfpack currently rank 11th in our HHS ranking and ninth in simple RPI.
Here’s the rest of our postseason awards. It was tough to leave off players like Emma Guy, Ivana Raca, and Valencia Meyers who have all contributed to their teams this season, off of these lists.
ALL-CONFERENCE FIRST TEAM
1.Arike Ogunbowale (Notre Dame)
2.Beatrice Mompremier (Miami)
3.Kiah Gillespie (Florida State)
4.Simone Westbrook (Clemson)
5.Jessica Shepard (Notre Dame)
ALL-CONFERENCE SECOND TEAM
1.Tiana Mangakahia (Syracuse)
2.Jackie Young (Notre Dame)
3.Aislinn Konig (NC State)
4.Nicki Ekhomu (Florida State)
5.Elizabeth Balogun (Georgia Tech)
ALL-CONFERENCE THIRD TEAM
1.Shayla Bennett (North Carolina)
2.Kylee Shook (Louisville)
3.Elizabeth Dixon (Georgia Tech)
4.Regan Magarity (Virginia Tech)
5.Janelle Bailey (North Carolina)
ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM
1.Brianna Turner (Notre Dame)
2.Regan Magarity (Virginia Tech)
3.Ona Udoh (Wake Forest)
4.Emese Hof (Miami)
5.Kobi Thornton (Clemson)
ALL-ROOKIE TEAM
1.Elizabeth Balogun (Georgia Tech)
2.Elizabeth Dixon (Georgia Tech)
3.Maeva Djaldi-Tabdi (Syracuse)
4.Elissa Cunane (NC State)
5.Marnelle Garraud (Boston College)
If you like this content, please support our work at Her Hoop Stats by subscribing for just $20 a year. All stats are compiled from Her Hoop Stats and theacc.com and are final as of Jan. 14.
All statistics are from Her Hoop Stats and theacc.com
