ACC - how we feeling?

[u/CommunicationSad7394]

I’m at the NC State exhibition game against High Point, seeing lots of new names and faces for the Wolfpack.

How’s turnover on your team? How are you feeling about your team this upcoming season? About the conference as a whole?

I think Duke is going to be great this year. Curious about Notre Dame in HH’s senior year, and curious how Zam will work out at Louisville 😒

But I don’t know much about the composition of those teams or any other teams in the ACC, interested in your takes!

[u/Roasted_Green_Chiles]

I was devastated to lose Lanie and Aarnisalo, but UNC still has a lot of young talent and brought in a lot of veteran transfers (that I've heard are good but I haven't watched much of them).

Super excited to see what Nyla Brooks does in Year 2, and hopefully a healthy senior year for Reniya. Of course, it would be great if Harpring is as good as advertised and hits the ground running.

[u/Resident-Worth-2425 → u/Roasted_Green_Chiles]

I believe Harpring is as good as advertised. Excited to see her play. Nyla too she was so good last year.

[u/carolinallday17 → u/Roasted_Green_Chiles]

man i'm still sad about Lanie being gone. i think it is going to be the Harpring show early.

[u/CrownTownLibrarian]

I think my squads are gonna be decent

[u/Resident-Worth-2425]

My niece had a volleyball game tonight so I couldn’t go to the exhibition game but will go to the one on the 24th against UNCW. From the box score I know we have work to do but I’m looking forward to the season. Pierre had a good game and Lunan seemed strong. They have to Gel as a team since as you said lots of new faces. Did you go if so how was Zoe I couldn’t tell much from the box score.

[u/CommunicationSad7394 → u/Resident-Worth-2425]

Hard to say, lots of different lineups and she didn’t seem to play that many minutes. Though at one point she went into the paint, everyone collapsed on her, she still tried go up for a layup, and you could hear Wes yell “PASS THE BALL.”

As far as consistency from last year to this year for the team as a whole, our offense still can’t handle zone defense 🥲

[u/gmills87]

as Tony the Tiger would say, Grrrrrrrreatttt. Our rotation was very young the last two seasons. This year we are a junior laden squad with tons of experience. We brought in complementary transfers to give us quality depth along with one ready to play frosh in Peanut.

Look out for Grace Mbugua this seasons. She is ready to explode onto the scene. Her upside scared off Hardy, who transfered to ND for more minutes. That says a lot because Hardy is pretty good herself.

[u/Mission_Ambitious2]

ND is absolutely going to be Hannah and the freshmen (with a couple of transfers). But I’m excited to see how they do! Recruiting has been kind of stagnant in the past few years, so it’s going to be fun to see all the new talent in the current freshmen class, as well as the 2027 freshmen.

[u/Evening-Spray-4304]

Considering we had a complete coaching staff change, we actually managed to hold onto most of our players that could return. IIRC we lost 2 players that played meaningful minutes, Gabby White back to her mom at UNC, and S'Myah Smith to OU.

But still, graduation bit us pretty hard, we are very unproven at forward. We lost 3/4 of our bigs, 1 to the portal, 1 to an ACL, and the other to graduation. That being said, I think we're gonna have one the better backcourts in the conference between Kymora and VCU transfer Mary-Anna Asare (who I have heard great things about)

Honestly I have no idea how good we'll be, gonna need some players who weren't given much chance to shine under Mox to step up big time (McGhee and Hurd)

[u/CommunicationSad7394 → u/Evening-Spray-4304]

Man I forgot about the UVA coaching staff turnover!

[u/paintedtoesandelbows]

Duke: A little unproven at guard (loved Mair and Jackson), but Riley Nelson can step into a starting role. I’m expecting Toby Fournier to take another leap into first team AA conversations. Excited about Delaney Thomas’ continued growth and Arianna Roberson’s sophomore leap. Very interested in seeing the freshman PGs in action.

VT: Gone from being thin in the post to a post-heavy team. Carleigh Wenzel is the star guard, but Samyha Suffren could be a break out perimeter star. Expect Alyssa Latham to be a frontcourt star. I’m interested in seeing how PG Kate Sears fits in.

[u/FeelingWrongdoer4286 → u/paintedtoesandelbows]

VT fan. This has to be our best backcourt since Kitley was here with both Latham and Dimaro. I am a bit worried by Duffys ‘PG by committee’ comments but trying to be hopeful the coach has a plan. Historically, Wenzel turns over the ball a bit too much to be a starting PG and does better as a SG.

[u/paintedtoesandelbows → u/FeelingWrongdoer4286]

I hear ya, but having a “PG by committee” approach is better than having a PG who, allegedly, wasn’t all the way committed.