Rush The Court

After an eventful and tumultuous season, the two writers on the ACC microsite retreated to our respective Fortresses of Solitude and engaged in ritual fasting, meditation, and research to come up with lists for your enjoyment and edification. Specifically, we are talking about the traditional conference awards, headlined by the Player of the Year Award and the All-Conference teams. Yesterday, the official awards came out, voted on by the ACSMA, which is all fine and good if you like your awards determined without the use of sweat lodges and divination. Spiritually cleansed, we are now ready to present our version of the awards.

Conference Player of the Year

Matt says:

The Player of the Year choice was a very tough one for me. In the end it came down to relative importance. Without Mike Scott, Virginia would be lucky to finish in the top half of the ACC. Without Tyler Zeller, North Carolina still finishes top two. The fact is that Mike Scott was the most efficient offensive player in the ACC by a wide margin. It wasn’t his offensive numbers that made me think twice about my pick. It was defense. Zeller is one of the best post defenders in the league; that’s why he received North Carolina’s award for best defensive player last year over John Henson (the ACC Defensive Player of the Year). But in the end, Scott is a slightly better defensive rebounder (he doesn’t block shots) on a very good defensive team, so I gave him the very slight edge.

Kellen says:

So here’s the thing: offensive efficiency all comes down to how you count it. Looking at Ken Pomeroy’s Offensive Efficiency ratings, Zeller clocks at 121.4 while Mike Scott manages 117.4. This is pace-adjusted so you don’t have to worry about Virginia’s slower tempo. Zeller is a better offensive player (though admittedly Scott carries a heavier load) as well as a better defensive player. Zeller dominated Scott in head-to-head matchups. But really, the reason I give Zeller the nod is simple: if the teams of the ACC were broken apart and we had a draft to pick a team, Zeller is easily the first to go in the draft.

First Team All-Conference

Matt says:

The two first-teamers that merit an explanation are Kendall Marshall and Michael Snaer over Austin Rivers and Harrison Barnes. Marshall is the most valuable player on North Carolina’s roster and set the team’s all-time record for assists in a season. Sure, his defense isn’t tremendous. But he’s gotten much better, and you can’t ignore the role he plays running Roy Williams’ offense. Barnes is having a very good year scoring, but he’s not the best in the conference, and he hasn’t been a good enough rebounder or defender to justify a first team selection. Marshall is much more important to North Carolina’s success. As for Snaer, it’s a toss-up between him and Jontel Evans for the best on-ball defender in the league. He’s also realized a lot of his offensive potential this season, becoming Florida State’s primary option and most effective scorer. To me his defense pushes him over Barnes or Austin Rivers. Again, this is really, really close. You could flip Rivers and Snaer without much argument for me, but Marshall has to make that first team.

Kellen says:

There are about a handful of very good shooting guards and small forwards who have very similar numbers.  Harrison Barnes, C.J. Harris, Michael Snaer, Austin Rivers, and Erick Green all had outstanding years. Barnes stands out for his scoring efficiency and rebounding prowess, and I don’t mind others picking him for the first team. Yet, when push comes to shove, he’s not much better than the other candidates in terms of this year’s accomplishments. Barnes is often an indifferent defender while Snaer is one of the best in the conference. Yet, out of all of these worthy players I picked Green for the first team.  Green has freakishly similar statistics to Austin Rivers though he generally has the edge in most categories. He’s a good defender and plays heavy minutes out of his natural position on a team that is otherwise starved for talent. Green did more with less, under worse circumstances and still succeeded. That ought to be worth something, even for players on bad teams. That said, I think all of the players I listed had very worthy seasons.

Second Team All-Conference

Third Team All-Conference 

Matt says:

The second team is probably the most potent offense in the ACC (assuming you could get any of them to pass). The only choice that was really close was CJ Harris over Bernard James. James is a terrific player, and Florida State would struggle a lot without him on both ends of the floor. But he’s just too liable to disappear (a trend you’ll see on the third team).

Kellen says:

I think Lorenzo Brown is the second best pure point guard in the conference with underrated defense and the most balanced scoring vs. assisting sense in the conference. Likewise, Kadji is a revelation who played the most effective inside-outside game in the entire conference. Richard Howell is third or fourth in practically every important big man statistic while Tanner Smith had a quietly awesome all-round season in Clemson that had him doing a little bit of everything to help his team win.

 All Defensive Team

Matt says:

 I couldn’t choose between Zeller and Andre Young. Young is a sneaky-good defender with great hands. In the end I copped out and chose both with Henson winning Defensive Player of the Year.

Kellen says:

John Henson is the no-brainer choice for defensive player of the year. Yet the brains of plenty of wise people seem to indicate that Tyler Zeller is actually probably the better defender (taking a charge is more valuable to a team than a block). I still prefer Henson, but I am aware that I could very well be wrong. This category always strikes me as silly, because more than anything else, good defense is a team endeavor and this individual approach short-changes how awesome Virginia and Florida State were on the defensive end as a whole unit.

Who Else Would It Be?

All Freshman Team

Matt says:

Finally for the All-Freshman team. Really this group should only have two players: Austin Rivers and Ryan Anderson. Based on non-conference performance, PJ Hairston would be in the running, but he really fell off production-wise once ACC play started. Nick Faust saw plenty of minutes but couldn’t shoot or distribute; Dorian Finney-Smith was a total nonfactor on offense but a strong rebounder.

Kellen says:

This was not a great year for freshmen in the ACC. I can’t vote for Nick Faust in good conscience and I can barely pick Ryan Anderson. Though both got better as the year wore on, they were terrible scorers and probably hurt their team more than helped. Faust in particular was maybe the worst point guard in the league. Anderson’s rebounding proved his saving grace, but his scoring his still suspect. Since my conscience forbids me from picking Faust, I went with K.J. McDaniels as a purely speculative pick. In limited time, McDaniels showed some really excellent flashes of talent. He may not have made substantial contributions to helping his team this year, but at least he didn’t actively hurt his team like Faust.

Oh, and Austin Rivers is obviously Freshman of the Year for the conference. Because, duh.

Coach of the Year

Matt says:

Mike Krzyzewski wins by a hair over Leonard Hamilton and Steve Donahue. All three are deserving. Donahue made something out of the least talent I can ever remember on an ACC roster; having down Wake Forest and Georgia Tech teams certainly helped, but that doesn’t take away from the work he did this year. Hamilton lost his primary scoring options, Derwin Kitchen and Chris Singleton, from a Sweet Sixteen team that already struggled to score. The Seminoles responded by making a run at the ACC regular season title that included wins at Duke and against North Carolina. Historically, not many teams sweep the North Carolina teams, but Hamilton’s team did this year. But in the end, I think Coach K deserves the award for somehow keeping Duke at that top tier despite a large drop off in experience and talent from last year. One sign of a well-coached team is the “grit” a team shows when it gets down. No ACC team has shown more grit than Duke this year. North Carolina got blown out at Florida State, the Seminoles took a horrible loss at Boston College and Virginia never got over that hump. Duke took a beating against the Tar Heels Saturday, but it’s tough to question the team’s effort after they clawed back from a 26-point deficit to cut the lead to 11 with two chances at cutting it to single digits with around five minutes to play. The shots ended up not falling, and North Carolina pushed the lead back to 18. But Duke never gave up.

Leonard Hamilton just led Florida State to possibly the school’s best season since Sam Cassell played in Tallahassee. The continual upward trajectory of this program, despite losing talented players every year and without attracting top talent recruits is a testament to what Hamilton has managed to build. I was also tempted to give the award to Tony Bennett. Virginia has had its best season in years and Bennett certainly deserves a lot of credit for that. If it weren’t for misgivings about how many players have transferred away from Virginia this season and last, and if Florida State hadn’t snagged the big wins, Bennett would have easily gotten the nod from me.