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2024 ACC Basketball Awards

2024 ACC Basketball Awards

By Josh Burton


With the ACC regular season officially over, it is now time to hand out this year's awards. Let's take a look at who I believe is deserving this season.

Rookie of the Year

I believe this year's Rookie of the Year should be Markus Burton. The Notre Dame freshman has been electric, finishing the year averaging 17.3 points and 4.3 assists per game, both ranking sixth in conference. Burton also got stronger as the season went on, finishing the year scoring 24 or more in four of their last five games.

 

 

Other Contenders: Jared McCain and Baye Ndongo. Duke freshman McCain also had a very good year, averaging 13.6 points and 5 rebounds. I don’t really think this should be a close vote, but players on better teams do often come into play.

The Hoos got an up close look at the talented Baye Ndongo to close out the season. Ndongo averaged 12 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, also recording 6 double-doubles on the year.

ACC Defensive Player of the Year

Who else other than Reece Beekman? The fourth-year has been incredible for the Wahoos all season long, averaging 2.1 steals while constantly taking on opposing team's best perimeter player. Reece is now the UVA career leader in steals and is the reigning ACC Defensive Player of the Year. I am expecting him to add more hardware this offseason as the awards begin to roll in.

 

 

Other Contenders: Ryan Dunn and Maliq Brown. Ryan had a huge year for the Cavaliers, leading the league with 2.4 blocks per game. But a lot of his damage is done from the help-side, he hasn’t really had to carry the load of shutting down the top options as Reece has had to for UVA to be successful. I also wouldn’t rule out Reece winning the ACC award and Ryan picking up potential national merits, he’s been that good.

Maliq has been great as Mr. Do-Everything for a resurgent Syracuse team. He averaged 2.2 steals per game and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s a distant third in voting.

ACC Coach of the Year

This one I believe could (and probably should) go in a different direction, but I am expecting Hubert Davis to win it. UNC finished out the regular season with a win at Duke to clinch the title and put themselves in position to earn a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament. It’s been quite the season in Chapel Hill as they picked up their first win in Charlottesville in over a decade, I’m expecting Hubert to pick up the hardware here.

There's a case for Tony Bennett as well. Some lackluster showings down the stretch take away some of the shine for Tony, but where this team finished compared to where they looked at the first of the calendar year is nothing short of remarkable. As the ACC has learned over the last decade, never count out Tony Bennett.

However, Pitt’s Jeff Capel is my choice. I truly believe he is the most deserving. The Panthers were projected to finish 9th in the preseason and ended up getting the final double-bye, finishing 4th. But Capel won the award last season, so I wouldn’t be at all surprised and honestly expect voters to go with the different option.

ACC Player of the Year

This may be the easiest race to call, as UNC guard RJ Davis has been head and shoulders above the competition for most of the season. RJ averaged 21.1 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists for the league-winning Tar Heels and was the only player to average over 19 points per game this season. Oftentimes the best player on the best team is in great position to win this award.  When that player also leads the league in scoring by a decent margin, it becomes essentially a lock. 

 

 

Other Contenders: Blake Hinson and PJ Hall. Pitt’s Hinson was a major reason they were able to get to the double-bye. Blake averaged 18.8 points per game.  When he was knocking down shots, the Panthers could hang with anyone. He led them to wins both at UVA and at Duke, a tough task no matter the year.

PJ Hall also had a very good senior season, although Clemson did fall short of what were pretty high expectations entering conference season. PJ averaged 18.8 points and 6.8 rebounds for the Tigers who have already locked up an NCAA tournament bid according to all bracketologists.

My All-ACC first-team would be: 

RJ Davis, UNC

Blake Hinson, Pitt

PJ Hall, Clemson

Reece Beekman, UVA

Hunter Sallis, Wake Forest

Kyle Filipowski, Duke

(Featured Image Credit: Josie Drumheller/UVA Athletics) 

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