Before the focus is fully shifted to the next season, we will take the time to evaluate the 2024-25 men's college basketball season.

After the series with Big East begins, we outline the transcripts for each of the 18 ACC teams below.

Part of the process is simple: A good team as good as a good team will get great results, and a team as good as a bad team won’t. But this can be complicated for some teams. Some people have the dream of winning. Others hope to win only one game. Either way, we judge each team’s season based on preseason expectations while providing grace for any unfortunate mid-time game on a case-by-case basis.

Come back every Wednesday in May, we rate the rest of the Powers Conference with the Big Ten on May 14, May 21 and May 28 SECs. But, for now, let's dive into the ACC.

Note: Teams listed alphabetically under each hierarchy layer.

Jump to the team: Boston College | California | Clemson | Duke | Florida | Georgia Tech | Louisville | Miami | NC State | North Carolina | Notre Dame | Pittsburgh | SMU | Stanford Syracuse | Virginia | Virginia Tech | Wake Forest

score

grade: one

The Tigers lost two key contributors to a team that ran for eight elites in 2023-24: PJ Hall, who is the 2023-24 All-ACC first-team selection, now plays for the Denver Nuggets, and five-year veteran Joe Gillard III. But Brad Brownell can reorganize from turnovers and any coach in the United States. Chase Hunter and Ian Schieffelin became elite players in the ACC. Jaeden Zackery and Viktor Lakhin were a pair of transfers, becoming prominent figures for the Tigers who won 27 games, which led Duke to lose in the only ACC of the year and to earn five seeds in the NCAA Championship.

grade: one

Most head coaches embrace the transfer portal era by stacking rosters with seniors, but Jon Scheyer won his best season in his tenure among the first-year players led by Cooper Flagg, the lead of Cooper Flagg, the first place in the NBA draft in June - he became the fourth freshman to win the Woodden Award.

Duke dominated the ACC and entered the final four games, with the Blue Devils leading in Houston in the national semifinals. Although they didn't end up cutting the Nets as they liked, the Blue Devils entered the first finals of the Scheyer era and enjoyed part of the season to become the No. 1 team in the U.S.

grade: one

When Georgia Tech hired Damon Stoudamire in 2023, the yellow jacket has only participated in one NCAA Championship since 2010. The program’s vantage point in Atlanta has not given schools an advantage in the recruiting market in recent years, which is why Stoudamire makes yellow jackets relevant again nationwide. They scored 17-17 (eighth place) in the ACC with a 10-10 - the third .500 season since 2006-07.

Stoudamire's team made progress 7-3 in the last 10 ACC games.

grade: one

A year after a stumbling block at Wisconsin’s third season, Chucky Hepburn moved to Louisville to win the AP All-American Honors Award in his first campaign in the era of Cardinal Pat Kelsey.

Kelsey was so successful when he restarted the program that the "A" score was still not enough to measure his second place in the ACC: the Cardinals' second place in the first 27-win campaign in a decade, and eight games in the NCAA Championship. He quickly posted a name brand program that had struggled for years before he arrived, winning more games in his first season at the helm than the Cardinals won in their first three games.

grade: one

The Broncos experienced significant improvements after Andy Enfield arrived from USC. As part of the ACC, they ranked 13th in their first season, ending with a three-way tie with Wake Forest and fourth in North Carolina. They also scored the top 20 nationwide with three-point shooting percentage, and could be awarded the NCAA Championship if Boopie Miller (13.2 PPG) is not injured in the final month of the season.

grade: one

In Kyle Smith's first season as head coach, Stanford won 21 games for the first time in a decade. In the ACC’s pre-season poll, the Cardinal was selected to be ranked 17th out of 18 teams, but Maxime Raynaud (20.2 PPG, 10.6 RPG) grew to be one of the best players in the United States as they won 11-9 in their first season of the conference.

The Cardinal’s schedule is not particularly difficult, but it still exceeds expectations during the transition year of the program.

Level B

grade: b

Leonard Hamilton played legendary running at Florida State that included eight NCAA tournaments and made his way through 23 seasons with three sweet 16 runs and eight elite games. Still, the overall 17-15 record for the program is far from a collapse, with the Seminoles finishing second in the ACC after being selected as No. 15 in the league’s pre-season poll, a well-known effort given the announcement of Hamilton’s resignation in the mid-season.

grade: b

Tony Bennett was shocked by his unexpected retirement in October, winning the national championship in 2019. Until a month into the season, interim head coach Ron Sanchez fell into a unique and unfair situation as he tried to retune a team full of players who they thought they would play for Bennett.

Preseason expectations are preseason expectations, but Sanchez takes advantage of the chaos he has given, which is under preseason expectations, given the expectations announced by Bennett.

C-level

grade: c

Mark Madsen won 13 games in California’s first season and the Bibers (2022-23) won 10 games. But in the program's first campaign in the ACC, he was unable to do it in 2024-25 statistics. Off-road treks are a challenging tweak for Cal and rival Stanford. North Dakota transfer BJ OMOT missed four games due to injury. Despite this, the bear did not continue to improve, which is the goal of reconstruction.

grade: c

After a scattered defeat to Louisville in February, Micah Shrewsberry claims Notre Dame will prove the skeptics are wrong. "A lot of people gave up on this team," he said at the time. "They have given up on me. I really don't deserve to die." But his team didn't make a big leap in the second season as his leading scorers Max Burton (21.3 points) and Braeden Shrewsberry (14.0 ppg) missed 15 combined games due to injuries.

grade: c

Pete shot, not catching the moment.

After a 12-2 start (including 3-0 in the ACC game), early bracket predictions predicted a clear path to the NCAA Championship. The Panthers then lost 12 of the next 17 games. Despite the huge losses to quality win opportunities against Clemson, Louisville and North Carolina, they ruined their resumes in the final weeks of the season, losing 75 Kenpom teams.

The healthy Damian Dunn (missed 16 games) may make a difference.

grade: c

Adrian Autry's second season lows were much higher than highs. Syracuse won 14 games only after winning 20 games in his first season after succeeding legendary head coach Jim Boeheim. Eddie Lampkin Jr. (11.5 ppg, 9.6 rpg) is a star transfer from Colorado that can't help orange avoid turbulence. Donnie Freeman (13.4 points, 7.9 RPG) was injured.

Syracuse's bars are much higher than the five-game loss suffered by Kenpom's No. 90 or worse team.

grade: c

In his sixth season at Virginia Tech, Mike Young had to use two entry portals and four of the five five starting players who graduated, which was the case for many coaches this season, but achieved different results. In the pre-season poll, Hokies ranked 14th in the pre-season poll, ending with a multi-position of ninth, surpassing the forecast. However, losses to Jacksonville, Boston College and Carl also indicate that the team has fallen from last season.

Level D

grade: d

Earl Grant lost his top five in the team that won 20 games in 2023-24, with his worst season in his tenure. Donald Hand Jr. (5.0 PPG in 2023-24) is the highest scorer in the lineup led by the new face. However, this turnover is common in college basketball, with Boston College sending 4-16 times in the ACC, which sent only four teams to the NCAA Championship for more than a decade.

grade: d

North Carolina State’s entry into the final four games is the most amazing story in the 2024 NCAA Championship. Wolfpack won nine straight wins to reach the national semifinals by defeating Duke twice. Jayden Taylor and Ben Middlebrooks are the only returnees on the team, but Wolfpack is 5-15 and 12-19 in conference games. North Carolina State ranked eighth in the ACC's pre-season poll and 16th out of the conference's 18 teams, resulting in Kevin Keatts' expulsion.

grade: d

By North Carolina standards, there are insufficient teams this season. Tar Heels, who won 11 votes in the ACC's pre-season poll, did not compete with Duke for the conference title as expected, took fifth place in the standings and was largely considered the least worthwhile general team on Sunday's pick.

RJ Davis is the only AP All-American team to return to the country, and has not even received an honorary referral. Although Cooper Flagg missed the last game, North Carolina also lost all three games with 33 combined points.

grade: d

The Demon Deacon seems to be able to participate in conference competitions. Hunter Sallis, a first-team All-Asia first-team trial, returned to the group that matched last season's 21 wins. But they didn't compete in the NCAA Championship because the last chance of the season missed out on their chances, losing to Florida, North Carolina State and Virginia in the final weeks of the 2024-25 campaign.

In the bland ACC, Wake Forest failed to win enough to impress the election committee.

Level F

grade: f

There is no silver lining here.

The Hurricane was selected as No. 6 in the ACC's pre-season poll and then collapsed in a disastrous season where Jim Larranaga resigned in late December. The injury to the outstanding Nijel Pack who competed only nine games has put them in a difficult position - but Larranaga's departure forced them to step on the water for three months, completing only two seasons at the bottom of the ACC, breaking away from their first quarter-time trip when they seemed to thrive in the current college basketball climate.