We held nothing back in predicting greatness for the Wahoos, but what do we see for the ACC as a whole? Here is where our writers get really creative (and usually wrong lol). In no particular order, here are our Bold Predictions for the ACC:

Kendall

1) I guess I have the exciting (sarcastic) job of being the one to buy on UNC this season. I think the Tarholes will be surprisingly good, and given last season’s disaster, the improvement reels in the major awards for Roy, Brooks, and Love. I don’t like it, though.

2) Jeremy Roach and D.J. Steward are both relative flops at lead guard for Duke, and the Blue Devils struggle as a result.

3) Six ACC teams advance to the Sweet Sixteen. Virginia, Carolina, FSU, Louisville, and two of Miami, Clemson, and Georgia Tech.

Val Prochaska

1. Coronavirus, and pandemic planning, will rule the ACC.

The day I am writing this, the country just recorded over 100,000 new cases for the fourth straight day. We’re heading into winter and the attending flu season, there are shocking stories coming out about people who’ve caught COVID for a second time (and it’s much worse in the rematch) and there’s a new mutation emerging. We all may be suffering from pandemic fatigue, and we are ready to be done with coronavirus, but coronavirus ain’t through with us. Games are going to be canceled and players are going to miss games, many of them being mysterious disappearances. The team and coach that does the best job maintaining the bubble is going to have a tangible advantage on the court.

2. It’s going to be a wild and woolly season.

Every team has serious holes. While I like UVa’s chances to claim the title — I’m expecting Clark to continue his near vertical improvement and the addition of Sam Hauser will give us a threat from distance — we did lose Mamadi Diakite and Braxton Key and I’m not sure that our freshmen will surpass their contributions this year. UNC has a monster front court but the backcourt is going to be freshmen. And they may look great, but the track record of freshmen winning the games that matter is speckled. Louisville and Florida State lost more than we did and for Duke, this looks like the least prominent collections of one-and-dones for Coach K. One of the mid-table teams — Miami, Georgia Tech, or Syracuse — will make a run for the top 3.

3. Chris Mack will gift another game to UVa via another bonehead technical.

Mack has been T’d up four times in the past five games versus Virginia. And they’ve been stupid technicals; if one of hisplayers pulled such a stupid move, Mack would yank him from the game. There’s no one to save Mack from himself.

Eugene Mulero

The ACC could become the premier league in basketball if UVA, Duke, and North Carolina meet expectations and dominate opponents by large margins. High-profile recruiting classes complement several programs that are anchored by sound coaching and other key metrics. While some doubts remain as to just how formidable the ACC could be in 2020-21, a positive point to assist the conference ascend to the sport’s highest ranks is going up against power conference-level competition (for instance UVA v. Villanova in December). Three projections for the ACC include:

(1) North Carolina’s strong winning record, putting behind last year’s disappointing performance;

(2) the best freshman class in the country;

(3) sending seven to nine teams to the national tournament.

StLouHoo

1) Elite youth movements at the Blue Bloods underwhelm. We’ve been conditioned by ESPN to expect 5-stars to arrive at power programs and dominate. But when I look across the ACC this year, the top freshmen by and large aren’t jumping out at me. At Duke, the only One-and-Done I see is combo forward Jalen Johnson…. The rest, even the 5-stars like Roach, I expect to need a second season before they really make a big jump. UNC brings in a loaded freshmen class, but while I expect point guard Caleb Love to play a ton, expect some up-and-down moments in Roy Williams’ systems that would really rather prefer a veteran in the backcourt. UNC’s other top freshmen are big men Day’ron Sharpe and Walker Kessler who will likely be stuck to some degree behind the returning bigs Garrison Brooks and Armando Bacot. My freshman of the year pick, Scottie Barnes at FSU, will likely excel as the ‘Noles’ latest one-and-done, but will he be able to carry the team?

There are some freshman guards around the league I like to provide meaningful contributions; UVA’s freshman trio has already been discussed, VT has a pair of 4-star guards in Darius Maddux and Joe Bamisile who could see early time. Demarr Langford at BC could be a player as well. But nowhere do I think we’re going to see a “diaper dandy” kind of season from any of the league’s major players; those clubs that do have to lean on their freshman classes are probably in some trouble (looking at you UNC).

2) Miami is this year’s breakout club. Georgia Tech is a trendy pick to be this year’s ACC party crasher after they fought through the cloud of sanctions last season (barred from the ACC and NCAA postseason due to recruiting violations) to finish 11-9 in ACC play, a surprising 5th in the league, and now bringing back most of that rotation intact. NC State and Syracuse are also teams expected by many to get back into the NCAA Tournament this season. But I think it’s Miami that surprises everyone and jumps into the fray for one of the league’s coveted ACCT double-byes, awarded to the top 4 league finishers.

They finished last year a paltry 15-16 (7-13), tied for 10th in an ACC that was frankly pretty mediocre by the league’s usually-lofty standards. But the potential for a turnaround is there. They’ve got seniors in the backcourt (Chris Lykes and Kam McGusty) and in the post (Rodney Miller and Nysier Brooks). They’ve got young talented wings (Isaiah Wong, Harlond Beverly, and Earl Timberlake). And Coach Larranaga has taken one team to a Final Four (George Mason) and taken these Canes to a couple of Sweet 16’s.

There are questions to be sure, as only the inexperienced sophomore Anthony Walker can fill that swiss-army-knife combo-forward role so en vogue these days, especially critical on defense, and the loss of Sam Waardenburg to season-ending injury this fall was a gut punch. But if Larranaga can actually get this team to play hard-nosed defense for the first time in a few years (a big “if”, I admit), there’s a good season in Coral Gables waiting to happen. The flip side? If Larranaga can’t win with these 4 seniors and a 4-star youth movement, maybe it’ll be time for the 71-year-old to think about his future.

3) Another bad year for Notre Dame leaves Mike Brey’s seat warm. The Irish won 20 games last year, finishing .500 in the ACC and even winning one of the few ACCT games played before cancellation. Maybe that’s not a bad year. But it would’ve been their 3rd straight year missing the NCAA Tournament, their longest cold-streak since 2004-2006. If they miss it again this year, it’ll be the longest Dance-less stretch of Brey’s 24 year career.

They’re not making it this year. They lose three incredibly steady and productive seniors in TJ Gibbs, John Mooney, and Rex Pfleuger. Guard depth took a hit when Robby Carmody injured his knee this fall, leading to a few missed months. They didn’t recruit any freshmen in 2019 and didn’t land any 4-stars in 2020. The only addition of note to this year’s roster is Stanford transfer Cormac Ryan. The bottom line is that, besides very good junior guard Prentiss Hubb, the Irish lack both top-end talent and quality depth. Recruiting continues to be weak (only one 3-star commit for 2021 as well), and one has to wonder if the Irish’s impact on the ACC has peaked under Brey.

Brey is a stand up guy and of course Notre Dame is a football school, so maybe NITs are enough to keep him employed. But if he misses the Dance again this year, expect some portion of the Notre Dame fan base to start looking towards the future.

Hooamp

1. No Duke in the top three of the standings; no UNC in the top four. For the second consecutive season, the two Tobacco Road bluebloods fall short of expectations and outside of the league’s top three. Virginia, Florida State, and one of the surprises of the season, Louisville, finish in the top three, with Duke taking fourth. North Carolina finishes fifth, a vast improvement over last season, but still not where the Tar Heels hope to be. The Blue Devils turn it on for the NCAA tournament and make a run to the Elite Eight before losing, but UNC wins one game in the bracket before bowing out in the second round.

2. Virginia Tech finishes in the conference’s top 10. The Hokies got off to a fast start last season but faltered down the stretch and finished .500 overall and 7-13 in the league. Their momentum will last longer in 2020-21, but they will still fade toward the end of the campaign. Nevertheless, it’ll be a good second year for coach Mike Young to build on, as Wabissa Bede is solid as a senior leader at point guard, and young players such as Jalen Cone, Tyrece Radford, and Nahiem Alleyne take nice steps forward. Additionally, transfers Cartier Diarra (Kansas State) and Justyn Mutts work out well and become key pieces. There’s even some early NCAA tournament bubble talk by some over-anxious Tech fans hoping to forget a subpar football season. That sort of hubbub is premature, but the Hokies do manage to get into the NIT.

3. The conference gets eight teams in the Big Dance. The ACC doubles its likely number of NCAA tournament entrants from 2019-20 (four), putting one more team in the bracket than the seven that made it in 2018-19. It’s not quite a return to form for a conference that had nine NCAA tournament programs in 2016-17 and 2017-18, but it’s a start. Virginia, Florida State, Louisville, Duke, North Carolina, and N.C. State all earn bids. Syracuse, despite going just a few games above .500, makes it and is just outside the First Four, as Jim Boeheim squads are wont to do. And, finally, Georgia Tech sneaks into the First Four as Josh Paster guides the Yellow Jackets to their first Big Dance since 2010. Or maybe he just pays off the selection committee.

Karl Hess (Not the Real Ref)

1. Leonard Hamilton finally breaks through to get the Noles to the Final Four. Florida State will join UVA in Indianapolis but only the Hoos advance to the national championship game. With both Hamilton and Bennett present, it becomes a real feel good event for college hoops.

2. After another disappointing season, Notre Dame shocks the hoops world and fires Mike Brey. After striking out on most of their top choices for the perceived snub of Brey, the Irish end up hiring Richmond’s Chris Mooney as the replacement. UVA nearly loses Jason Williford to the hometown school as Mooney’s replacement, but loyalty to the orange and blue wins the day.

3. Virginia Tech and Mike Young channel their inner Houston Rockets and eschew using a big man by the time conference play starts. Playing the role of PJ Tucker will be Delaware transfer Justyn Mutts. When Mutts is out of the game, Hunter Cattoor and Tyrece Radford draw the short straw and have to try to guard the opposition’s biggest player. The Hokies will then employ a crash the defensive boards hard and get up threes as quickly as possible strategy.

Seattle Hoo

1) Louisville will be better than most think. David Johnson is an All-ACC point guard as a sophomore, and Samuell Williamson was a 5* recruit who will blossom out from under the shadow of Jordan Nwora. The Cardinals have star power ready to emerge, and Chris Mack is the closest thing to Tony Bennett in the ACC in terms of getting his team to play disheartening defense.

2) Wake Forest will not finish last in the ACC. We all have neglected to take one law of college basketball into account in consigning Wake to the compost bin: the New Coach Bounce. That bounce will bump the Demon Deacons into fourteenth place. There are certainly good candidates to replace them at the bottom, and one of them will do it.

3) Pittsburgh makes the NCAA Tournament. Jeff Capel’s crew has a great backcourt in Xavier Johnson and Au’diese Toney, a rim protecting big in Terrell Brown, a dynamic forward in Justin Champagnie, and a collection of talented understudies ready to fill in the supporting roles. They’re going to grab a pelt from one of the ACC’s top teams – maybe even our own Hoos, notch a huge road win, and win that ACC Tournament game they need to ride their bubble into the Dance.

So there you have it: Our boldest forecasts for the ACC.