ACC Women’s Basketball Preview: Duke Favored To Repeat As Champions

Duke dug itself out of an early hole with an injury-shortened roster to win another Atlantic Coast Conference title and get within a game of the Final Four again. A bit more depth might help the fourth-ranked Blue Devils take another step this time around. Kara Lawson’s Blue Devils are the preseason favorite to win the ACC, headlining a race featuring No. 7 Louisville, No. 12 North Carolina, No. 13 Notre Dame and No. 25 N.C. State. Duke won a second straight ACC Tournament title and the regular-season crown despite a 3-6 start against a brutal nonconference slate and injuries that whittled the rotation to seven players. The Blue Devils (27-9) reached the Elite Eight before falling to eventual champion UCLA. “Winning the league with seven, and winning the (ACC) tournament with seven and getting to the Elite Eight with seven is a good learning experience for me,” Lawson said. “There’s no set number you have to have to be successful. You’ve just got to find a group that’s willing to buy into each other and play hard.” The Blue Devils return preseason all-ACC pick Toby Fournier (team highs of 17.3 points and 7.9 rebounds) along with fellow starters Delaney Thomas and Riley Nelson. The Cardinals (29-8) are picked as the Blue Devils’ top challenger after losing to Duke in overtime in last year’s ACC title game. Preseason all-conference pick Tajianna Roberts (11.5 points, 3.1 assists) returns among five of the top seven players from a Sweet 16 team. “They want to be pushed, they want to be great, and that’s what we try to provide for them,” coach Jeff Walz said. “We’re going to be honest. Sometimes they like it; sometimes they don’t. But it’s a great group.” The mission for the league’s top tier is getting the league back to a Final Four. The ACC had three teams get there in 2022 (Louisville), 2023 (Virginia Tech) and 2024 (N.C. State), but have missed the past two years. “There’s a handful of teams in our league that can get to a Final Four, but you have to do it, and that’s what we’re at,” said UNC coach Courtney Banghart, whose team has reached two straight Sweet 16s. “We’ve got to keep cracking at it, and I don’t think we’re far off.” Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo is the ACC’s biggest name as she enters her senior season. The preseason Associated Press All-American has been ACC player of the year the past two years and league defensive player of the year in all three of her college seasons. The 5-foot-7 guard ranked third nationally in scoring (25.3) and led the country in steals (5.6) last year. The league returns its top five scorers, including Virginia fourth-year guard Kymora Johnson (19.5) after she helped the Cavaliers become the first women’s First Four team to reach a Sweet 16 last year. That list includes Georgia Tech guard Talayah Walker (17.5) and N.C. State forward Khamil Pierre (16.7, league-best 11.9 rebounds). The ACC added three transfers ranked among ESPN’s top 20 nationally, headlined by former Texas guard Aaliyah Crump’s move to Duke. The list includes guard Zamareya Jones moving within the league from N.C. State to Louisville, while Notre Dame guard Madison St. Rose (Princeton) and UNC forward Achol Akot (Oklahoma State) are notable additions. North Carolina made a recruiting splash when it landed point guard Kate Harpring, ranked No. 1 nationally by 247Sports and No. 4 by ESPN. She’s the highest-ranked recruit among six incoming McDonald’s All-Americans in the league, including Notre Dame forward Jacy Abii, and the Duke duo of point guard Autumn Fleary and guard Bella Flemings. Virginia’s hiring of Aaron Roussell stands out as the biggest of three coaching changes in the league. The Cavaliers were coming off that unexpected Sweet 16 trip when they abruptly fired Amaka Agugua-Hamilton, then hired Roussell from nearby Richmond after he led the Spiders to three straight NCAA Tournaments. Pittsburgh has hired Robin Harmony after her stops at Lamar and College of Charleston, building teams that won regular-season league championships at each stop and last year included the Cougars reaching the NCAAs. Harmony replaces Tory Verdi, who was fired after three losing seasons that included off-court concerns. Boston College hired Kate Popovec-Goss, who took a Bradley team from a 4-28 record in 2022-23 to a 20-win season last year. She replaces fired coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee, who was unable to get the Eagles to the NCAAs in eight seasons. The Associated Press contributed to this report.