Miami Hurricanes basketball picked to finish 8th in ACC

The Miami Hurricanes finished last year with a woeful 7-24 record, going 3-17 in ACC play. There should be a nice move up this year in Jai Lucas’ first year. At least that’s according to the media poll off conference media day.

The results were released today, and Miami was picked to finish 8th in the conference. Duke was voted the preseason favorite (the Blue Devils are ranked No. 6 nationally in the preseason Associated Press poll). The media panelists selected NC State senior forward Darrion Williams as the ACC Preseason Player of the Year, while Duke’s Cameron Boozer was chosen as ACC Preseason Rookie of the Year.

Duke picked up 34 of the 49 first-place votes, accumulating 866 total points. Ranked No. 11 nationally in the preseason AP poll, Louisville took second in the ACC preseason prognostications with the remaining 15 first-place votes and 842 total points. North Carolina, No. 25 nationally in the AP preseason rankings, was third in the ACC poll with 741 points. Led by first-year head coach Will Wade, NC State (765 points) was picked fourth in the poll for its highest preseason ranking since the 2013-14 season. Virginia (623) was fifth, while SMU (616) was sixth, Clemson (510) was picked seventh and Miami (500) was 8th.

Syracuse was ninth in the poll and was followed in 10th through 18th, respectively, by Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Pitt, Florida State, California, Stanford and Boston College.

No Miami players were picked to preseason All-ACC teams in the media poll.

ACC Men’s Basketball:

• Has won 15 NCAA national championships.

• Teams currently in the ACC have combined to win eight of the last 24 NCAA crowns and 19 overall.

• The ACC has captured three of the last 10 NCAA Championships (Duke 2015, North Carolina 2017 and Virginia 2019).

• Since 2015, the ACC leads all conferences in Men’s Final Four appearances (10) and NCAA Tournament wins (116).

• Six different ACC programs have reached the Final Four since 2015 (Duke, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia, Syracuse) – the most schools of any league in that span.

• Since the tournament expanded in 1985, nearly half of the ACC teams that earned NCAA Tournament bids have reached the Sweet 16 (106 of 218).

2025 ACC Preseason Poll

School, Points

1. Duke (34), 866

2. Louisville (15), 842

3. North Carolina, 741

4. NC State, 710

5. Virginia, 623

6. SMU, 616

7. Clemson, 510

8. Miami, 500

9. Syracuse, 489

10. Notre Dame, 477

11. Wake Forest, 412

12. Virginia Tech, 355

13. Georgia Tech, 315

14. Pitt, 301

15. Florida State, 221

16. California, 156

17. Stanford, 138

18. Boston College, 107

First-place votes in parentheses; 49 total voters

2025-26 Preseason All-ACC Team

First Team

Name, School, Votes

Cameron Boozer, Duke, 46

Markus Burton, Notre Dame, 46

Darrion Williams, NC State, 45

Mikel Brown Jr., Louisville, 36

Ryan Conwell, Louisville, 36

Second Team

Isaiah Evans, Duke, 24

Boopie Miller, SMU, 27

J.J. Starling, Syracuse, 27

Baye Ndongo, Georgia Tech, 24

Caleb Wilson, North Carolina, 24

ACC Preseason Player of the Year

Darrion Williams, NC State, 23 votes

Cameron Boozer, Duke, 19

Markus Burton, Notre Dame, 2

J.J. Starling, Syracuse, 2

Donald Hand Jr., Boston College, 1

Baye Ndongo, Georgia Tech, 1

Caleb Wilson, North Carolina, 1

ACC Preseason Rookie of the Year

Cameron Boozer, Duke, 43 votes

Mikel Brown Jr., Louisville, 3

Caleb Wilson, North Carolina, 2

Neoklis Avdalas, Virginia Tech, 1