ACC , Duke MBB

Duke Tops the ACC Preseason Poll Again, But the Chase Pack Is Closer Than It Looks

The Headline Numbers

Duke was voted the preseason favorite by a 48-member media panel, receiving 45 first-place votes and 861 points. It is the Blue Devils’ third straight year as the preseason pick and the 11th time in 14 seasons. Virginia, Louisville and Miami each got one first-place vote, finishing second through fourth, with North Carolina fifth.

Where the Poll Gets Interesting

Duke’s lead over No. 2 Virginia is 83 points (861 to 778), but the gap among the next three is tiny: Virginia 778, Louisville 758, Miami 753. That’s a 25-point spread covering three programs.

My read: Duke is the clear favorite, but the poll doesn’t show a clear second-best team. Any of the three could be considered the main challenger, and the single first-place votes suggest a few voters see a real path to an upset.

Individual Awards

Preseason Player of the Year: Thijs De Ridder, Virginia. He drew 30 of 48 votes, with Duke’s John Blackwell second (12), Louisville’s Flory Bidunga third (3), Miami’s Malik Reneau (2) and Duke’s Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje (1). De Ridder is Virginia’s first winner since Malcolm Brogdon before 2015-16.

The 6-foot-9 Belgian forward averaged 15.6 points and 6.2 rebounds as a freshman, shooting 50.8% from the field and 35.7% from three, and reached double figures in 28 of 36 games. He was also the only unanimous first-team selection.

Preseason Rookie of the Year: Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje, Duke, with 34 votes. Miami’s Caleb Gaskins had five, Duke’s Cameron Williams four, North Carolina’s Maximo Adams three, and Clemson’s Harris Reynolds and Duke’s Deron Rippey one each.

Boumtje Boumtje’s Résumé

The 7-foot-2 forward/center from Oviedo, Florida, is rated a five-star prospect by 247Sports and ESPN. Two MVP awards stand out:

  • 2026 adidas NextGen EuroLeague Finals: 19.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, leading U18 FC Barcelona to the title.
  • 2026 FIBA U17 World Cup: 19.6 points, 10.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game in a USA gold-medal run.

He also scored 19 points in Duke’s recent preseason scrimmage, so the hype has some early support.

Preseason All-ACC: The Portal Effect

First team: De Ridder, Bidunga, Blackwell, Miami’s Henderson and Patrick Ngongba II. Second team: Reneau, Shelstad, Chance Mallory, Amani Hansberry and Boumtje Boumtje. (The release spells Miami’s first-team forward “Sheldon” in the text and “Shelton” in the vote table, so I’ve left the first name out.)

Duke has three of the ten honorees. Notably, Bidunga (Kansas), Blackwell (Wisconsin) and Shelstad (Oregon) all earned all-conference honors at other schools last year. Nearly a third of the all-ACC picks, then, are newcomers whose reputations were built elsewhere.

What to Watch

The ACC’s 74th season opens Nov. 1, when Notre Dame plays Villanova in Rome. Thirteen teams open Nov. 2 and the other four Nov. 3. League play begins Dec. 29.

Key Takeaways

  • Duke’s favorite status is solid: 45 of 48 first-place votes.
  • The race for second is wide open: Virginia, Louisville and Miami are separated by 25 points.
  • Blackwell nearly challenged De Ridder for Player of the Year, and his 12 votes are second.
  • Transfers are shaping the ACC’s top talent.

Source and scope: This article is based on the ACC’s Oct. 13 release, theACC.COM, as pasted here. The release contains no direct quotes, so none appear below, and I haven’t verified the figures against anything beyond it. The analysis is my own.