By STEVE REED AP Sports Writer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The No. 6 ranked Duke Blue Devils have been picked to repeat as Atlantic Coast Conference champions despite losing Cooper Flagg and four other players to the NBA draft, while N.C. State senior forward Darrion Williams was pegged as the conference’s Preseason Player of the Year.
Duke received 34 of 49 first place votes from the panel of media voters.
No. 11 Louisville, which lost to the Blue Devils in the 2025 ACC championship game following a stunning bounce back season under first-year coach Pat Kelsey, received the other 15 first-place votes and was selected to finish second.
North Carolina, N.C. State and Virginia rounded out the to five. SMU was chosen to finish sixth, followed by Clemson, Miami, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, Florida State, California, Stanford and Boston College.
“I’ve seen great hunger, which is what gives me great confidence for this team,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said last week at the ACC media days in Charlotte. “So do I wish we had a little bit more experience? Yeah, of course. But at the end of the day, you want the best combination of skill sets complementing one another, but then also, you need really good talent that fits for how we’re going to play, which I believe we have.”
Williams, who averaged 15.1 points and 5.5 rebounds last season for the Wolfpack, received 23 first-place votes to win the ACC Preseason Player of the Year, edging out Duke’s Cameron Boozer by four votes. Boozer was named Preseason Rookie of the Year, receiving 43 votes.
Williams was named first-team All-ACC along with Boozer, Notre Dame’s Markus Burton and Louisville’s Mikel Brown Jr. and Ryan Conwell.
SMU’s Boopie Miller, Syracuse’s J.J. Starling, Duke’s Isaiah Evans, Georgia Tech’s Baye Ndongo and North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson were named to the second team.