Three ACC Teams That Could Give Duke Issues Next Season

Over the past few seasons, the Duke Blue Devils have been the cream of the crop in the ACC.

The Blue Devils have a combined 36-2 record in league play over the last two seasons and have taken home both the ACC regular season and tournament titles in each of the last two campaigns. Duke has won three ACC Tournament crowns in four years under head coach Jon Scheyer.

Although, the ACC as a whole has been fairly lackluster over the last few seasons, with Duke being the only program displaying consistent success. The league got just four NCAA Tournament bids in 2025, and even with more in 2026, the conference didn't perform well at all.

The league sent eight teams to the Big Dance, but those teams went just 6-8 overall. Duke was the only team to make it out of the first weekend.

However, with transfer portal successes and retention across the ACC, there is real reason to believe the league could be back in 2026-27. As previously stated, the Blue Devils have been utterly dominant in league play over the last few years, but they could have some legitimate challengers this time around.

Let's break down the three ACC squads that could give Duke the most issues in 2026-27.

Louisville Cardinals

For the second year in a row, Duke and Louisville will enter the college basketball season as the clear-cut top two teams out of the ACC. However, Pat Kelsey's Cardinals underperformed significantly last season relative to their preseason expectations.

There was real debate that Louisville was the top team in the league entering the 2025-26 season after Kelsey inked one of the nation's top portal classes. However, while Duke went 35-3 and earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, Louisville went 24-11 overall, earned a No. 6 seed, and was bounced in the Round of 32.

The Blue Devils also took down the Cardinals in both head-to-head contests between the two clubs last season.

However, Kelsey attacked the portal once again, and the Cardinals could once again make a real push to dethrone Duke.

Louisville is bringing in the nation's No. 1 overall transfer portal class per 247Sports, headlined by the portal's No. 1 overall player in former Kansas forward Flory Bidunga. Duke was heavily interested in Bidunga when he entered the portal, but it was beaten out.

The Cardinals are also bringing in several other high-profile transfers, such as Jackson Shelstad from Oregon, Karter Knox from Arkansas, and Alvaro Folgueiras from Iowa. The program is also bringing back guard Adrian Wooley, who averaged 8.7 points in 22.5 minutes last year.

It's still largely unproven how consistently successful a team can be composed nearly entirely of transfers, but Kelsey is taking another swing at the portal approach.

Miami

Former Duke assistant Jai Lucas has done an absolutely fantastic job rebuilding the Hurricanes. After Miami went 7-24 in 2024-25, Lucas brought the program to a 26-9 record and a win in the NCAA Tournament as a No. 7 seed.

Similar to Kelsey, Lucas hit the portal hard.

Miami sits with the No. 5 overall portal class, according to 247Sports, headlined by several high-profile names, including Somto Cyril from Georgia, Acaden Lewis from Villanova, and DeSean Goode from Robert Morris.

The Hurricanes also retained rising sophomores Shelton Henderson, who was the team's third-leading scorer last season at 13.8 points per game, and Dante Allen, who averaged 23.9 minutes a night.

Lucas' turnaround of the Miami program has been pretty remarkable, as the Canes have a real chance to be a consistent AP Top 25 team just two years removed from a 7-24 season.

Virginia

UVA head coach Ryan Odom approached the offseason in the opposite way of Miami or Louisville, but it could be a better recipe for success. Instead of relying on portal additions, Odom focused on roster retention.

The Cavaliers are bringing back four of their top six scorers from last season in Thijs De Ridder, Chance Mallory, Sam Lewis, and Johann Grunloh. UVA also returned Elijah Gertrude, who averaged 1.7 points in 6.2 minutes last season.

De Ridder, the team's leading scorer and rebounder at 15.6 points and 6.2 rebounds per game, was an All-ACC First Team selection in 2025-26.

Virginia is also bringing in Christian Harmon, who averaged 12.8 points per game at Arkansas State a season ago.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow