ACC 2024-25 Season | Page 3 | The Boneyard

ACC 2024-25 Season

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FanInNC said:
Well I think we can assume wake is pathetic. Syracuse is trending in that direction as well now losing to … Albany? Geez.

I’m not writing off the conference yet though. Notre Dame looks like a national title contender, I still have hope for Duke and State. I trust Louisville will end up respectable. FSU and UNC should still be tournament teams. Stanford I assume is fine - but I haven’t watched them at all so can’t really speak to them.

I’m also curious to see how GT and Miami shake out. Both dominating their in state rivals so far this year. Tech with wins over powerhouses like West Georgia, Georgia State and the Georgia (who lost to Georgia State!). Miami similarly has beaten fellow in state schools Stetson, FIU, Jacksonville and Florida. Although a step up in competition is coming for Miami as they welcome the fighting camels of Campbell down to south beach next! I’ll be torn on that one - conference pride or local pride? Win one for Wanda Watkins?

I do think the conference is in need of Duke, State, FSU, Louisville, Stanford - those type schools desperately need to step up and be a factor. Right now it’s ND at the top and then a bunch of schools who are showing good but not great.
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I agree with much of this. ND is clearly the class of the conference. To me, they have the best coach in the conference--and it isn't close. They may have up to the top four or even five players in the conference (!!!). They're not deep, but they are talented. Duke is about where I expected them to be (didn't expect them to beat a Maryland team on the road that is much improved and clearly has a better coach than we do--saying this begrudgingly, of course). NC State is a little behind, but you all have had to contend with injuries. They're well coached, so they'll get it together. Louisville looks better than their record suggests because they have a good coach (they're just really young).

I think it ends there for me, to be honest. Neither Georgia Tech nor Miami has impressed, IMO, and I don't think that either team is all that good. They've proven nothing so far. Maybe Miami can show something against Vanderbilt, but I would expect Vandy to beat them by double digits based on how Vandy is playing (and I know that Vandy hasn't played anyone yet, either--but they've looked much better than Miami so far). Stanford just lost to a mediocre (if we can even call them that) Indiana team by double digits. FSU still doesn't defend anyone and lost to a team of undersized ball hogs.
 
WBBTakeover said:
I agree with much of this. ND is clearly the class of the conference. To me, they have the best coach in the conference--and it isn't close. They may have up to the top four or even five players in the conference (!!!). They're not deep, but they are talented. Duke is about where I expected them to be (didn't expect them to beat a Maryland team on the road that is much improved and clearly has a better coach than we do--saying this begrudgingly, of course). NC State is a little behind, but you all have had to contend with injuries. They're well coached, so they'll get it together. Louisville looks better than their record suggests because they have a good coach (they're just really young).

I think it ends there for me, to be honest. Neither Georgia Tech nor Miami has impressed, IMO, and I don't think that either team is all that good. They've proven nothing so far. Maybe Miami can show something against Vanderbilt, but I would expect Vandy to beat them by double digits based on how Vandy is playing (and I know that Vandy hasn't played anyone yet, either--but they've looked much better than Miami so far). Stanford just lost to a mediocre (if we can even call them that) Indiana team by double digits. FSU still doesn't defend anyone and lost to a team of undersized ball hogs.
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That was pretty harsh lol. I have always maintained that there are many good coaches in wbb and a handful of great ones and the only coaches to prove that they were great coaches in the ACC have retired.

It's far too early in the season to pronounce any particular coach or team either way. As always, as Geno himself once said, "sometimes I think the only difference between us and the other team is we have more all-Americans". Winning breeds success and more winning and success feeds on itself. It attracts the top talent in the country and the cycle repeats itself - as long as you win with that talent once you get it. A great coach will win in years they have less talent and dominate when they have more. A good coach will make the tournament every year, sometimes make it to the Sweet 16 but rarely if ever get any further. Recruiting has a lot to do with success ultimately. Duke and Louisville are both full of young talented players but it will take time for them to develop. NC State has a problem of not having a quality post player and that problem is only going to get worse. NC has advanced on talent but with all of that talent has only managed one Sweet 16 appearance over the last 5 years.

Stanford, Miami, VT, Clemson, all have new coaches. Pitt's coach is in his 2nd year but lost his best player in the portal to ND. GT can't seem to get past mediocrity. FSU is do or die time this season. Their core group of players will be moving on and there isn't anyone coming up behind them. They lack height and a defense.

Most of the teams have the same problem : a lack of recruiting. BC, WF,Syracuse,Pitt,Virginia,and FSU are not getting more than ONE top-100 recruit in the 2025 class so I see them on a downward trajectory. Louisville and GT didn't do any better but they both had very good 2024 classes come in. I don't know enough about newcomers Cal or SMU to have an informed opinion at this point.

If ND has the coach you believe they have then anything less than a Final Four this year is a failure. Elite Eight at absolute minimum. Having said that, only getting one top-tier recruit each of the last two years does not a dynasty make. That needs to be corrected. Stanford, Duke, Louisville, NC, and NC St are the next level with potentially Miami, Cal, and GT behind them. And those will be your 8 or 9 tournament teams in to the future.

With this many new coaches and the portal things could change of course but there has to be a reason for that to happen - which means winning NOW. My crystal ball for this year is a bit hazy in that regard so I'm waiting until I see more games against quality opponents and the start of conference play before planting any flags.
 
Rooster C. said:
That was pretty harsh lol. I have always maintained that there are many good coaches in wbb and a handful of great ones and the only coaches to prove that they were great coaches in the ACC have retired.

It's far too early in the season to pronounce any particular coach or team either way. As always, as Geno himself once said, "sometimes I think the only difference between us and the other team is we have more all-Americans". Winning breeds success and more winning and success feeds on itself. It attracts the top talent in the country and the cycle repeats itself - as long as you win with that talent once you get it. A great coach will win in years they have less talent and dominate when they have more. A good coach will make the tournament every year, sometimes make it to the Sweet 16 but rarely if ever get any further. Recruiting has a lot to do with success ultimately. Duke and Louisville are both full of young talented players but it will take time for them to develop. NC State has a problem of not having a quality post player and that problem is only going to get worse. NC has advanced on talent but with all of that talent has only managed one Sweet 16 appearance over the last 5 years.

Stanford, Miami, VT, Clemson, all have new coaches. Pitt's coach is in his 2nd year but lost his best player in the portal to ND. GT can't seem to get past mediocrity. FSU is do or die time this season. Their core group of players will be moving on and there isn't anyone coming up behind them. They lack height and a defense.

Most of the teams have the same problem : a lack of recruiting. BC, WF,Syracuse,Pitt,Virginia,and FSU are not getting more than ONE top-100 recruit in the 2025 class so I see them on a downward trajectory. Louisville and GT didn't do any better but they both had very good 2024 classes come in. I don't know enough about newcomers Cal or SMU to have an informed opinion at this point.

If ND has the coach you believe they have then anything less than a Final Four this year is a failure. Elite Eight at absolute minimum. Having said that, only getting one top-tier recruit each of the last two years does not a dynasty make. That needs to be corrected. Stanford, Duke, Louisville, NC, and NC St are the next level with potentially Miami, Cal, and GT behind them. And those will be your 8 or 9 tournament teams in to the future.

With this many new coaches and the portal things could change of course but there has to be a reason for that to happen - which means winning NOW. My crystal ball for this year is a bit hazy in that regard so I'm waiting until I see more games against quality opponents and the start of conference play before planting any flags.
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ND observers and fans are very much aware that after getting Hidalgo-Prosper-Risch in 2023, Coach Ivey has only gotten one in 2024 (Kate Koval) and 2025 (Leah Macy). Ivey will be bailed out a bit, ironically, by injuries: Risch and KK Bransford will gain extra years to help man the backcourt; while I'm betting Kylee Watson will take this season to recuperate her ACL injury and join Koval and Macy in the frontcourt. But with a shrinking Transfer Portal (in part due to the lack of Covid years), Ivey can't rely on that to fill out rosters on a consistent basis. The Class of 2026 is absolutely critical.

In the meantime, I'll enjoy this year, particularly once Maddy Westbeld and/or Liza Karlen come back. Ivey has improved markedly as a developmental and game coach, IMHO, and with that full crowd, I think she can make a run to Muffetesque territory.
 
Watching Duke. This is a fun Duke team to watch. A lot better offensively than they've been the past couple years. I know a lot of teams say this but their second 5 is really close to being as good as their first five (big difference is on the wings). But when I've watched them this season every time Fournier and Wood come in the game, they up their level.
 
jdote33 said:
Watching Duke. This is a fun Duke team to watch. A lot better offensively than they've been the past couple years. I know a lot of teams say this but their second 5 is really close to being as good as their first five (big difference is on the wings). But when I've watched them this season every time Fournier and Wood come in the game, they up their level.
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Next week is our chance to see if we belong in the top 10 or not.
 
jdote33 said:
Watching Duke. This is a fun Duke team to watch. A lot better offensively than they've been the past couple years. I know a lot of teams say this but their second 5 is really close to being as good as their first five (big difference is on the wings). But when I've watched them this season every time Fournier and Wood come in the game, they up their level.
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Not disagreeing just pointing out that the starting 5 accounted for only 28 points. Good thing they have Fournier , Okana and Wood in reserve. This is a young but deep and talented team that will only get better as the season progresses imo
 
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Always interesting to hear outsiders opinions - I’m curious how you all view Wes Moore? @WBBTakeover said Ivey is far and away the best coach in the conference, @Rooster C. laid out sort of a scale of how to rank or categorize coaches - Wes ranks 2nd in the women's game as far as most wins among active coaches, 4th if you include men's coaches. He's 18th on all time winningest women's coaches of all time and has coached the fewest years of anyone on that list.

I realize he has spent the majority of his coaching career at smaller schools, but he has a pretty impressive resume. COY honors 8 times in 3 different conferences. When he took over at State the Pack had made the NCAA tournament once in the previous 8 years. He's made the tournament 9 out of his 11 years with the Pack. Made 3 Sweet Sixteens, 1 elite 8 and 1 Final Four and won the conference tournament 3 times. He's finished with a top 10 national ranking 5 times (something only done 7 total times in program history before his arrival). He doesn't necessarily recruit at an elite level, Zoe Brookes and Zam Jones who were signed over the last 2 classes are the only 2 McDonalds AA to commit to State out of HS.

I realize I'm in a Wolfpack bubble of sorts, but curious as to why he wouldn't be in the same discussion as Ivey at ND for best coach in the ACC? Ivey has accomplished a lot in a short time, but she's been conference champion 1 time and has 3 sweet sixteens under her belt but never beyond (in fact was knocked out by Wes Moore in one of those).
 
Rooster C. said:
Almost forgot to post tonight's games but the ACC went 3 - 0 as Duke, Louisville, and NC State took care of inferior opponents at home.
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I actually sat courtside at the State game (my seats are usually upper level) - State's offense looked fantastic last night. Great ball movement, finally got Hayes involved (18 points on 7-10 from the field) Azaiah was her usual dominant self (21 points 8-13 shooting) and freshman Devyn Quigley had a break out game going 4-7 from 3 and 8-13 from the field for 20 points.

Really like this freshman class at State. The bigs are going to take a while to round into form but I think this class will be really good if they stay healthy and together for the next 4 years.
 
Tonight's ACC match-ups:

Campbell(3 - 1) at Miami(4 - 0)
Lamar(1 - 1) at SMU(2 - 3)
Florida(3 - 1) at FSU(4 - 1) This should be fun
Auburn(3 -1) at Cal(5 - 0) This should be interesting.
Morgan State(4 - 3) at Stanford(4 - 1)
 
Rooster C. said:
Tonight's ACC match-ups:

Campbell(3 - 1) at Miami(4 - 0)
Lamar(1 - 1) at SMU(2 - 3)
Florida(3 - 1) at FSU(4 - 1) This should be fun
Auburn(3 -1) at Cal(5 - 0) This should be interesting.
Morgan State(4 - 3) at Stanford(4 - 1)
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And it's on the ACC Network. Friday night entertainment instead of watching reruns for me. Yippee!
 
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ACC went 5 - 0 but not without some drama. Miami made it closer than it should have been, SMU escaped in OT, and Cal defeated a tough Auburn squad by 4. Auburn has been on a west coast swing losing by 2 to Oregon Wednesday. Florida under-performed at in-state rival FSU.

Today's ACC games:

Davidson(2 - 2) at WF(3 - 2)
Robert Morris(2 - 2) at Pitt(4 - 1)
Elon(3 - 1) at VT(4 - 1)
BC(5 - 1) at Holy Cross(3 - 2)
#6 Notre Dame(4 -0) at #3 USC(4 - 0) ** The BIG GAME
#16 NC(3 - 1) at Ball State(4 - 0) could be trouble
GT(4 - 0) at S.Dakota St.(3 - 1) problem for GT

Prediction: ACC goes 4 - 3 :(
 
In other ACC news, we could possibly start the conversation about Rose Micheaux (VT) and All-ACC honors. Still got a long way to go, however.
 
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Today's Games:

S.Fla.(4 - 2) at #25 Louisville(3 -2) Jury still out on Louisville
Villanova(4 - 1) at #16 NC(4 - 1) Too close too call
Bethune-Cookman(2 - 3) at Virginia(4 -1)
 
ACC games today : Lots of games today!

#16NC(6 - 1) vs Indiana(4 - 2) Could be interesting
#20 NC St.(3 - 2) vs Southern(0 -7)
Clemson(3 -1) vs UAB( 3 - 1)
#13 Duke(5 - 1) vs #9 KSU( 5 - 0) Does Duke have an answer for Ayoka Lee ?
#18 Ole Miss(3 - 1) vs BC(6 -1)
Syracuse(2 -3) vs Missouri(5 -2)
#21 Oregon(6 - 0) vs GT(5 - 0) interesting match up
Ark.Pine-Bluff(2 - 4) at SMU(3 -3)
Cal Poly(3 -3) at Stanford(5 - 1)

The conference went undefeated last two days. Can the win streak continue? Nah
 
Rooster C. said:
ACC games today : Lots of games today!

#16NC(6 - 1) vs Indiana(4 - 2) Could be interesting
#20 NC St.(3 - 2) vs Southern(0 -7)
Clemson(3 -1) vs UAB( 3 - 1)
#13 Duke(5 - 1) vs #9 KSU( 5 - 0) Does Duke have an answer for Ayoka Lee ?
#18 Ole Miss(3 - 1) vs BC(6 -1)
Syracuse(2 -3) vs Missouri(5 -2)
#21 Oregon(6 - 0) vs GT(5 - 0) interesting match up
Ark.Pine-Bluff(2 - 4) at SMU(3 -3)
Cal Poly(3 -3) at Stanford(5 - 1)

The conference went undefeated last two days. Can the win streak continue? Nah
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1). I was thinking the same but sadly it wasn't. :confused:

2). I think the better question would have been, does KSU have an answer for Ashlon Jackson??!!?? 12/19 FG and 6/9 3FG! Good thing too as Duke's bigs didn't have much success per the box score.
 
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nwhoopfan said:
Handily too. Was Oregon just fooling everybody so far, or maybe Georgia Tech is sneaky good?
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A little of both I think, but Georgia Tech’s guard rotation of Morgan/Dunn/Carnegie plus some effective undersized post play from Smith/Blackshear are good enough to be a top-7 or -8 team in the ACC.
 
GoChips20 said:
A little of both I think, but Georgia Tech’s guard rotation of Morgan/Dunn/Carnegie plus some effective undersized post play from Smith/Blackshear are good enough to be a top-7 or -8 team in the ACC.
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I think the 6'6" Spaniard helped a little bit
 
So the ACC with yet another dominant day going 8 - 1 overall! Only BC lost to a much better #18 Ole Miss squad.

Starting to believe in the ACC after NC's dismantling of Indiana, GT's impressive win over Oregon and Duke's victory over KSU. NC State, Clemson, Syracuse, SMU, and Stanford all with lopsided wins over inferior opponents.

Three great days in a row for the conference going 18 - 1 overall!!
 
Today's ACC match-ups: Only 3 games on the slate today but all intriguing contests. Let's see if the ACC can keep it going.

Cal(6 - 0) vs Mich. St.(6 - 0) Time to find out who's for real
Clemson(4 - 1) vs #23 Alabama(7 - 0) Can Clemson win?
Syracuse(3 - 3) vs Creighton(3 - 2) Can Syracuse win?
 
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