ACC Tournament Predictions, Betting Odds, Favorites to Win 2023

• The 2023 ACC Conference Tournament will be hosted at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina.

• The Virginia Tech Hokies are the reigning ACC Tournament Champions after beating Clemson, Notre Dame, North Carolina, and Duke to claim the title as a No. 7 seed.

• Virginia, North Carolina, and Duke should enter the ACC Tournament as favorites to win in 2023.

After last season’s shocking ACC Conference Tournament result, what can we expect heading into this season’s tournament? The Virginia Tech Hokies rattled off four-straight wins in impressive fashion, including two wins over teams that would end up being Final Four teams, in order to secure the ACC Tournament title. 

This season, expect more of the same. The ACC is much weaker than last year and potentially has more parity than it has in a long time. The favorites heading into the ACC Tournament will probably be the Virginia Cavaliers, Duke Blue Devils, and North Carolina Tar Heels; however, every one of these teams has proven to be beatable.

2023 ACC Tournament Predictions

Duke Blue Devils

It has not been the sort of season that Jon Scheyer was hoping to have for his first year of head coaching at Duke University. However, there is still time to right the ship, especially with the amount of talent this roster possesses. As a matter of fact, Duke came into the season with one of the most talented recruiting classes of all time, featuring several players who were either consensus five stars, or hovering around that status, including Dariq Whitehead, Dereck Lively II, Kyle Filipowski, Mark Mitchell, and Tyrese Proctor. Other recruits included four-star Jaden Schutt and three-star Christian Reeves.

To add to an already loaded roster, the Blue Devils hit the transfer portal hard, bringing in Jacob Grandison, Ryan Young, and Kale Catchings; they also returned Jeremy Roach, a key player from last season’s Final Four squad. So, what is the problem with Duke? With all of that talent, why aren’t the Blue Devils winning more? 

Firstly, their lack of poise and experience has given them trouble on the road this season. While their home record is extremely impressive, they look completely different away from Cameron Indoor. Regardless, this team could turn it around before the end of the season and the beginning of the conference tournament, especially with Jeremy Roach and Kyle Filipowski leading the way. Filipowski is a double-double machine who is too quick for centers to defend but too strong for forwards. He is an utter mismatch at the collegiate level. Additionally, anytime Jeremy Roach is on the floor, Duke can win; he has that much impact and poise. 

While the ACC Tournament this season should be filled with close games, especially with no team being too far ahead of the other, Duke still has a solid shot at coming out as tournament champions, especially if it continues to grow with each other.

North Carolina Tar Heels

Much like the Duke Blue Devils, this has been a season to forget for North Carolina, the consensus No. 1 team in the nation heading into this year. UNC tumbled from the Top 25 in just the first few weeks and has struggled to regain any type of traction since then. 

It is difficult to diagnose why North Carolina has not been able to carry last season’s momentum, which nearly resulted in an NCAA Championship despite being a No. 8 seed, into this year. The Tar Heels returned virtually everyone, including All-American Armando Bacot, Caleb Love, R.J. Davis, Leaky Black, Puff Johnson, and several others. They only lost their stretch four, three-point shooting sniper Brady Manek. However, they replaced him with a transfer from Northwestern, Pete Nance, another stretch four.

North Carolina didn’t have a great start to the season in 2021-22 either, so it would be foolish to rule it out as a legitimate contender for an ACC Tournament Championship. In a weaker ACC conference than usual, UNC should have a great chance at finding its momentum in March, much like it did last year.

Virginia Cavaliers

You can always count on head coach Tony Bennett to put out a competitive team on the floor, even if he is in what many would have considered a “down year.” It didn’t matter for Bennett and the rest of the Cavaliers, as they have reached as high as the No. 2 team in the nation this season and have hovered around the top ten for most of it. The Cavaliers have an incredibly impressive non-conference showing, beating Michigan, Baylor, and Illinois. They also took one of the best teams in the nation, Houston, down to the wire.

Armaan Franklin, the former Indiana Hoosier, is the leading scorer for Virginia, although scoring is so well spread out that it is difficult to game plan for this team. Hoosier fans can only wonder what would have happened in Franklin stayed in Bloomington. Experienced guard, and National Champion, Kihei Clark, Reece Beekman, Jayden Gardner, and Ban Vander Plas all hover around 10-12 points per game to lighten the load on Franklin’s back.

As always, this Virginia squad prides itself on the defensive end of the floor, but now also boasts a steady offensive attack that makes it quite dangerous. Expect Tony Bennett and the Cavaliers to have a legitimate shot at an ACC Conference Tournament championship and a deep NCAA Tournament run. 

Miami Hurricanes

One of last season’s most fun Cinderellas, which actually was overshadowed by the Saint Peter’s Peacocks, was undoubtedly the Miami Hurricanes. The Hurricanes entered March Madness with a No. 10 seed after a decent season but found their groove in March, climbing all the way to the Elite Eight before losing to the eventual champions: Kansas. 

Miami used an up-tempo offense and havoc-wreaking defensive tactics to catch opponents off guard, similar to how Syracuse uses a 2-3 Zone, even though no other team consistently uses one. This played to the Hurricanes’ benefit as they were able to knock off No. 2 seed Auburn, No. 7 seed USC, and No. 11 seed Iowa State.

Miami has a slightly different look in 2023, but many things have remained the same, including its high-octane offense, which is one of the best in the country, as well as elite tandem Jordan Miller and Isaiah Wong, who provide a large portion of the scoring. The Hurricanes also brought in Nijel Pack, a terrific guard who transferred from Kansas State.

The Hurricanes are going to be a tough team to play against come March, even though their defense is marginal; they rank outside the top 100 in KenPom’s Adjusted Defensive Efficiency. Still, every team turns up the pressure on defense once conference tournament season rolls around. Expect them to do that again this year.

Clemson Tigers

Clemson being a legitimate ACC contender in both the regular season and conference tournament was not on my 2023 “Bingo” card. Yet, here we are. The Tigers have rolled through the first half of conference play, flashing an uber-impressive 9-1 record against ACC opponents. So much for Clemson just being a “football school.” 

This has all happened extremely fast, as the Tigers went from a sub-.500 team in conference play that missed the NCAA Tournament, to a true contender in the conference and a likely tough “out” during March Madness. 

The Tigers are led by senior forward Hunter Tyson, who has averaged right around a double-double, leading them in points and rebounds nightly. Tyson’s impressive shooting at 6-foot-8 makes him tough to defend, as perimeter players are simply too small, but frontcourt bigs are too slow. Other key contributors joining Tyson are his frontcourt partner, PJ Hall, and guards Chase Hunter, Brevin Galloway, and Alex Hemenway.