The 2025-26 Syracuse Orange men’s basketball season is just weeks away from tipping off, and the new ACC poll has the team finishing right in the middle of the conference this year.
Syracuse was picked
to finish the year ninth in the ACC in the conference’s preseason poll, which was released Tuesday. The select media panel tasked with making the picks chose Duke as the conference favorite.
Louisville was the only other team to earn first-place votes. North Carolina, NC State and Virginia round out the top-five in the poll. Syracuse is also behind SMU, Clemson and Miami. The Orange sit ahead of Notre Dame, Wake Forest and Virginia Tech.
Last year, Syracuse was picked to finish 11th in the ACC. The Orange finished 14-19 overall, 7-13 in conference play and 14th in the ACC standings.
Here are the full results from this year’s preseason poll:
- 1. Duke (866, 34 first-place votes)
- 2. Louisville (842, 15 first-place votes)
- 3. North Carolina (741)
- 4. NC State (710)
- 5. Virginia (623)
- 6. SMU (616)
- 7. Clemson (510)
- 8. Miami (500)
- 9. Syracuse (489)
- 10. Notre Dame (477)
- 11. Wake Forest (412)
- 12. Virginia Tech (355)
- 13. Georgia Tech (315)
- 14. Pitt (301)
- 15. Florida State (221)
- 16. California (156)
- 17. Stanford (138)
- 18. Boston College (107)
Voters also picked returning Syracuse guard J.J. Starling in a couple of categories. Starling earned a spot on the All-ACC preseason second team. He’s entering his third year with the program and fourth of his collegiate career. Starling is coming off a 2024-25 campaign where he averaged career-highs in points, minutes, shot attempts, rebounds and assists. His play was good enough to land him as an All-ACC honorable mention last season.
Starling is joined on the preseason second team by Duke’s Isaiah Evans, SMU’s Boopie Miller, Georgia Tech’s Baye Ndongo and North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson. The ACC’s preseason first-team includes Duke’s Cameron Boozer, Notre Dame’s Markus Burton, NC State’s Darrion Williams and Louisville’s Mikel Brown Jr. and Ryan Conwell.
Starling also received two votes for ACC Preseason Player of the Year. He was one of seven players to receive votes in the category and one of four to receive more than one vote. Williams is the narrow favorite with 23 votes, followed by Boozer with 19 votes.
Syracuse’s first exhibition game is on October 25 versus Buffalo. The Orange’s first official game of the 2025-26 season is against Binghamton on November 3.
