Projected Duke Basketball Record in Conference Games

Duke basketball tips off its 2025-26 conference slate in exactly a week when fourth-year head coach Jon Scheyer and his No. 6-ranked Blue Devils (11-1), fresh off their first loss of the season, host the unranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (8-4, 0-0 ACC) in Cameron Indoor Stadium on New Year's Eve at 4 p.m. ET (ACC Network).

Leading up to its ACC opener, Duke remains the favorite to finish atop the conference standings for the second year in a row after Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, & Co. captured the 2024-25 regular season crown (19-1 record) and ACC Tournament hardware.

As of the latest updates to the College Basketball Power Index (BPI), "a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of performance going forward," the Blue Devils are projected to come out on top in 16 of their 18 regular season bouts versus conference foes. That's if rounding up the wins and rounding down the losses in Duke's projected ACC record of 15.7-2.3

The BPI currently forecasts the No. 16-ranked Louisville Cardinals (projected 14-4 record) to finish second in the conference, sitting above the unranked Clemson Tigers (projected 12-6 record), unranked NC State Wolfpack (projected 12-6 record), and No. 12 UNC Tar Heels (projected 11-7 record) in rounding out the calculated top five.

Despite the defeat at the hands of the now-No. 15 Texas Tech Red Raiders in Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, the Blue Devils' BPI rating of 24.3 continues to stand as the highest such mark in the country.

ACC POY Frontrunner Cameron Boozer Fueling Duke Basketball Efforts

With a beyond-his-years double-double average of 23.3 points and 10.0 rebounds per game across the Duke basketball team's loaded non-conference slate, freshman power forward Cameron Boozer is unquestionably the favorite to become the ACC Player of the Year. If that happens, it would mark the second straight season the award has gone to a Blue Devil, as Flagg earned that and national honors last go-round before coming off the board No. 1 overall at the NBA Draft.

Boozer, projected to get drafted somewhere inside the top five come summer, is also averaging 4.0 assists, 1.7 steals, 0.9 blocks, and only 1.9 turnovers in his team-high 30.7 minutes of action per outing, shooting 56.7 percent from the field, 33.3 percent beyond the arc, and 76.7 percent at the charity stripe.

He's already become ACC Player of the Week three times, not to mention ACC Rookie of the Week five times, across the seven times the conference has handed out its weekly honors thus far.

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