CONFIDENCE: Duke Basketball Powers to Top ACC Predictions

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

This is The Locked On Podcast Network, celebrating 10 years of your team every day.

JJ Jackson (0:11)

Okay, folks, the word is officially in, Duke men's basketball and even women's basketball, picked to win the ACC. Hi, everybody, Duke Vytel.

Raul Clement (0:21)

Hey, make sure you listen, man, The Locked On Blue Devils with JJ Jackson. He's awesome, baby.

SPEAKER_1 (0:33)

You are Locked On Blue Devils, your daily podcast on the Duke Blue Devils, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

JJ Jackson (0:44)

Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of The Locked On Blue Devils podcast. My name is JJ Jackson. Thanks so much for being here with us today on Wednesday, October 14th, 2026 Locked On Blue Devils is your one-stop shop where we discuss everything going on inside the life of Duke Athletics. On today's show, my very good friend Raul Clement from the Devil's Den podcast. You could see him here with us now, hanging out to talk about the Stukman's basketball team picked to win the league. We are going to focus solely on men's basketball this season, but it is fun to also note that the women's basketball team, after winning the ACC last year, picked to defend their title victoriously.

Obviously, you got to go out and win the games themselves. But fun, fun stuff that we get to discuss throughout the course of today's show. Raul, great to see you, my man. How are you doing?

Raul Clement (1:32)

Great, man. I'm excited that we finally got to see Duke play another team. So that was fun.

JJ Jackson (1:37)

Yeah. That's another thing we get to kind of break down and react to is Belmont of it all and what it looks like for the Blue Devils now, less than a week away from taking on Tennessee. So we're pretty much halfway done in the time between the Belmont game that was played on October 8th and October 20th. The day in which Duke will take on the Tennessee Vols. But first, we lead with Duke Basketball being picked to win the conference at the top of the league after Duke has won it in consecutive seasons. They have a combined 70-7 overall record over the last two years. They hardly ever lose an ACC game.

Here they are again, Raul, picked to win the whole thing.

Raul Clement (2:19)

Not just by a little bit either. Duke, I think, got 45 first place votes, it looks like, and every other team, Virginia, Louisville and Miami, got one, so almost unanimous there.

JJ Jackson (2:31)

Yeah, the fact that so many people feel confident in what they've seen out of Duke Basketball over the last few seasons, I think that's what's most impressive to your point because last season, there were a couple of people that maybe were buying a lot of hype in what Louisville had done in the off season in Virginia, some of these other programs, right? But this year, to your point, it was much more obvious who people were selecting to be at the top of their preseason poll because of how good the ACC and how good specifically Duke has been over the last couple of years, the roster construction of it all. So ultimately, I guess we're not really surprised that this is how it went, right?

Raul Clement (3:14)

Not entirely, but I will say that the ACC is supposed to be a little bit stronger this year. So it's even more of a vote of confidence in Duke's talent as well as John Scheyer as a coach. I think that's the big thing is after the last two seasons, how can you vote against Scheyer, right?

The voters probably should have given him coach of the year in 2025, but he finally gets it in 2026 after losing two games in the ACC over the stretch of two years. So I think that's still in the back of voters minds and they're going to go with the safe choice here and pick Duke.

JJ Jackson (3:47)

Good choice by them. It's exciting stuff. Again, we thought that this was going to be the way in which they went, but anytime it becomes official, it feels good to be able to look at. So on the screen here, we've got the preseason poll predicted order of finish. Again, 45 first place votes for Duke. Virginia, Louisville, and Miami each had one first place vote, and that's the order in which they were picked to win the league. North Carolina rounds out your top five. The Tar Heels led by Michael Malone, 658 points. Again, if you were voted first, you got 25 points towards your total. Anywhere else, you were put in the ballot, then that's how you got that number. So 18, you were picked with, I guess it'd be 18 points, excuse me, because there are 18 people, the way that this is seeded through. And then Georgia Tech picked as the worst team in the conference this season. Boston College there at 17 So the surrounding schools with where Duke is at here, was anything surprising to you, Raul?