The Ball-Knower's NCAA Season Preview: The ACC

Our Ball-Knower's preview series continues with the power conferences, starting with the ACC and the best teams looking to stake a claim to a regular season title.

Oct 30, 2025

With the NCAA Women’s Basketball season right around the corner, No Cap Space WBB is here to preview every end of the country. We started with a general mid-major preview then dove into the power conferences (Big East, SEC, Big 12, ACC and Big Ten), priming you for one of the most anticipated women’s basketball seasons in recent memory.

Last year, most analysts expected that the ACC team that would make the deepest NCAA Tournament run would be Notre Dame. Instead, Duke nearly shocked the world by advancing to the Elite Eight and hanging tough with South Carolina with a trip to the Final Four on the line. Now, with some new coaches and some of the lower rung schools in the conference and new talent augmenting the best programs, this year in the ACC might be one of the most interesting we’ve seen in awhile.

In case you missed it…

The Teams You Know:

Duke -

2025 Record & Result: 29-8 (14-4 ACC) NCAA Elite Eight

Kara Lawson’s Blue Devils took the leap many have been waiting for, taking home a conference tournament title and nearly making the Final Four. While it isn’t always pretty in Durham, Lawson’s teams know how to slow the game down, suffocate you defensively and get big shots when needed.

That’s going to look a bit different now that Oluchi Okananwa, a breakout star of that late season run, transferred to Maryland. But the Blue Devils still have plenty of talent starting with the duo of Toby Fournier and Ashlon Jackson. Both are Preseason All-ACC selections and Fournier was last season’s conference Rookie of the Year. We’re still waiting on that in-game dunk but I have a feeling we’ll get it from her this season.

NC State -

2025 Record & Result: 28-7 (16-2 ACC) NCAA Sweet Sixteen

Wes Moore had a bit of a rebuild on his hands last season as his Final Four backcourt of Ariana James and Saniya Rivers moved on to the WNBA. Zoe Brooks will step into the lead guard role and the Wolfpack are hoping to make another Sweet Sixteen.

This season, Brooks has some front court help in one of the biggest transfer gets of the cycle in Khamil Pierre. The former Vanderbilt superstar left Nashville over the summer and wound up back at a program that had recruited her since her high school days. Pierre’s projected front court mate, 6’6 Tilda Trygger, is another breakout player to watch. She showed flashes of an elite ceiling in her freshman year and, with Pierre taking plenty of defensive attention, Trygger could become a matchup nightmare.

North Carolina -

2025 Record & Result: 29-8 (13-5 ACC) NCAA Sweet Sixteen

North Carolina has established themselves as a reliably consistent NCAA Tournament entrant even if their ceiling is pretty clearly defined. Last season, Alyssa Utsby helped lead the Tar Heels to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2022. Now, it falls to a new group of players to keep that standard alive.

Reniya Kelly returns for her senior yer and will be the primary ball handler in this offense. UCLA transfer Elina Aarnisalo was an exciting bench piece in Westwood last year and I really hope we can see more of her this year in Chapel Hill. Louisville transfer Nyla Harris will be a big part of the front court as well.

Notre Dame -

2025 Record & Result: 28-7 (16-2 ACC) NCAA Sweet Sixteen

Last season was a strange one for Notre Dame. They looked the part of a Final Four contender when the season first started and, over time, the Irish appeared to unravel a bit. They lost a shot at an ACC conference tournament title and lost to TCU in the Sweet Sixteen. Shortly after that game, star guard Olivia Miles transferred to the, you guessed it, TCU. There’s a lot of change but that doesn’t mean the Irish won’t still be competitive this year.

Hannah Hidalgo is still going to be a National Player of the Year candidate and is the lead dog of this Notre Dame roster. And while her running mates won’t be O-Miles and Sonia Citron (now with the Washington Mystics), there’s ample opportunity for KK Bransford, Cassandre Prosper and Vanderbilt transfer Iyana Moore to step up. The front court depth is a question, with a couple D1 transfers filling out the depth chart.

The Teams to Watch:

California -

2025 Record & Result: 25-9 (12-6 ACC) NCAA First Round

Charmin Smith finally delivered on her multi-year rebuild in Berkeley, guiding the Golden Bears to an NCAA Tournament berth last season. While they lost a key piece in Marta Suarez (transferred to TCU), they return leading scorer Lulu Twidale and bring in a pair of SEC transfers in Mjracle Sheppard (LSU) and Sakima Walker (South Carolina) to help shore up their starting lineup and bench.

Clemson -

2025 Record & Result: 14-17 (6-12 ACC)

Last season was a de facto year zero for the Shawn Poppie era as the former Virginia Tech assistant spent a season just figuring out the state of his program. Now there’s some continuity as well as a a couple interesting transfers like All-MAAC forward Morgan Lee and longtime Tulsa wing Hadley Periman.

Louisville -

2025 Record & Result: 22-11 (13-5 ACC) NCAA Second Round

It almost seemed as though Jeff Walz was going to once again get away with it but the Cardinals ran out of gas near the end of the ACC regular season title race. It’s felt like for a couple of years that Louisville has just lacked the star power they used to regularly have but there are some players here that could shine. Tajianna Roberts is electric while St. Joe’s transfer Laura Ziegler could be an All-ACC caliber player.

Stanford -

2025 Record & Result: 16-15 (8-10 ACC) WBIT First Round

Kate Paye’s first season at Stanford saw the end of one of the longest NCAA Tournament streaks in the history of the sport. But that doesn’t mean the Cardinal are permanently dead on arrival. There’s still a question about their point guard spot and who the answer is but the Stanford front court is, as always, loaded. Keep an eye on freshmen Lara Somfai and Alexandra Eschmeyer.

SMU -

2025 Record & Result: 10-20 (2-16 ACC)

Adia Barnes left Arizona and took over an SMU program that has not historically had a ton of success but is getting a huge cash injection thanks to moneyed donors being allowed to throw their weight around a little more again. It’s a down-to-the-studs rebuild but there’s enough here that improving on a 10-20 record from last year should be pretty easy. There’s some fascinating transfers here from Paulina Paris and Sahnya Jah, who came to SMU with Barnes, to former Stanford guard Jzaniya Harriel and Arizona State’s Tyi Skinner.

Virginia -

2025 Record & Result: 17-15 (8-10 ACC)

Every season it feels like Coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton’s Virginia Cavaliers are on the verge of a breakthrough. Even though I’ve been fooled in the past, I’m still willing to expend some capital to urge you to watch them. UVA pulled multiple transfers including LSU’s Sa’Myah Smith and NC State’s Caitlin Weimar (a former Patriot League Player of the Year). But the star to watch here is, and has been for the last couple years, guard Kymora Johnson. She’s one of the funnest players you haven’t watched yet.

Virginia Tech -

2025 Record & Result: 19-13 (9-9 ACC) WBIT Second Round

All things considered, Megan Duffy did a really good job with a Virginia Tech team that lost their cornerstone stars (Georgia Amoore and Liz Kitley), head coach (Kenny Brooks) and all the players that transferred to Kentucky with him. With a year under her belt and her leading scorer, Carleigh Wenzel, back, the buildup has begun. Unlike other upper half teams in the ACC, Duffy has built this roster pretty organically. How they develop will be key.

The Rest of the Field:

Boston College -

2025 Record & Result: 16-18 (6-12 ACC)

At the expense of sounding apathetic, Boston College has just kind of been floating around .500 in the ACC for a few years now. If they have a top end player, they typically get gobbled up in the portal which is why we’ll be waiting and seeing if the Eagles can show us anything of interest this year.

Florida State -

2023 Record & Result: 24-9 (13-5 ACC) NCAA Second Round

Brook Wyckoff lost Ta’Niya Latson to the transfer portal and Makalya Timpson to the WNBA so the expectation this year is for a serious rebuild to take place in Tallahassee. But that might be good for the Seminoles, who still have O’Mariah Gordon and some other fun pieces to build around.

Georgia Tech -

2025 Record & Result: 22-11 (9-9 ACC) NCAA First Round

Nell Fortner’s departure to become the head coach of the Canadian national team sent shockwaves through the ACC and the Yellowjackets stars went running. Karen Blair will have her work cut out for her in stabilizing the roster and results. Keep an eye on their transfers, Long Beach State’s Jada Crawshaw and Charleston Southern’s Catherine Alben, to lead the way.

Miami -

2025 Record & Result: 14-15 (4-14 ACC)

Tricia Cullop is going to get this program moving in the right direction, if her tenure at Toledo is any indication. There’s a lot of mid-major transfers on this roster that are taking the step up but, luckily for UM fans, they’ve got the juice. Gal Raviv is the 2025 MAAC Player of the Year while Amarachi Kimpson (UNLV) and Vittoria Blasigh (USF) were both conference Freshmen of the Year in 2024.

Pittsburgh -

2025 Record & Result: 13-19 (5-13 ACC)

Tory Verdi managed to climb out of the basement last season but things at Pitt are still kind of…meh. It’s tough because within certain conferences there are some programs, especially at the power level, that are just going to be perpetually in hard situations until they show a devoted investment. Pitt is in that situation so the ceiling is hard capped each year.

Syracuse -

2025 Record & Result: 12-18 (6-12 ACC)

Felisha Legette-Jack’s Orange had a bit of a step back last season but I’m fascinated by Syracuse this year. Not only did she bring on former Arizona State head coach Natasha Adair on staff but she also went out and pulled a couple really interesting transfers. Former USC guard Dominique Darius and LSU guard Angelica Velez are back in the northeast while I’m particularly curious in how former Michigan and Texas guard Laila Phelia plays this year.

Wake Forest -

2025 Record & Result: 9-20 (2-16 ACC)

Megan Gebbia started her tenure with a 17-17 record at Wake and has gone a combined 16-45 in the two seasons since. Worse still is that her ACC record is 4-32 in that span. Not the best situation. There’s some interesting talent here but it will be an uphill climb for Wake the same way it is for Pitt and BC. The Deacs do have one of the coolest player names on any roster in college hoops: Australian guard Opal Bird.

The Three Best Players You Know:

Hannah Hidalgo - Notre Dame

Love or hate Hannah Hidalgo, you watch. The diminutive guard has been electric since her very first game in a Notre Dame uniform and now, given the keys to the entire machine, she’ll be asked to level up in a way that will be nothing but entertaining for us.

Khamil Pierre - NC State

The former Vanderbilt star is now going to be running the floor in Wes Moore’s motion offense. We saw a certain version of Pierre in the SEC — a double-double machine that could beat you inside — but I’m curious how her game evolves in a different type of conference with a different style of play.

Ashlon Jackson - Duke

With Oluchi Okananwa at Maryland, Jackson is going to the the Blue Devils big star. If she can improve her shooting percentages (37.2% from the field last season) then there’s no reason to believe that she can’t be an All-ACC first teamer when the year is done.

Share No Cap Space WBB

The Five Best Players You Need to Know:

Zoe Brooks - NC State

The Wolfpack’s lead guard was solid last season and will look to continue her upward trajectory this season. From freshman to sophomore year her scoring average jumped to 14.2 points per game from 9.0. Now, with some more autonomy in initiating the offense and a solid pair of forwards to play off of, expect Brooks to have a big season.

Kymora Johnson - Virginia

A bit of a bargain-bin Hannah Hidalgo when you think about it. She’s got a lot of the same skill and flash that the Notre Dame superstar does without the marketing push that ND provides. Johnson hasn’t yet been able to singehandedly turn around UVA but if there were ever a year for her to jump into the public consciousness, it’s this one.

Toby Fournier - Duke

One of the future faces of Canadian women’s basketball, Fournier is going to be asked to be one of the faces of Duke right now. She’s a three level scorer that has the ability to impact the game on both ends, can dunk on solo breakaways and will be a huge part of the Blue Devils goals this year.

Nunu Agara - Stanford

Quietly one of the better front court players in the conference, Agara has gotten somewhat lost in the shuffle of what’s been happening at Stanford on a more macro level. But when you get granular and watch the Cardinal possession-to-possession you can see that Agara has all the goods.

Laura Ziegler - Louisville

The Danish former St. Joe’s star is stepping up a level into high-major play. There’s a lot of international flavor on the Louisville roster this year and Jeff Walz does do well with building around versatile front court talents.

Available for iOS and Android

Cinderella Story: