University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Mailbag
March 10, 2009 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
March 10, 2009
By Adam Lucas
Two quick items of business before we get to All-ACC ballots. First, if you've ever wanted to have your question on the air with the Tar Heel Sports Network, this is the best time to send it. Woody, Jones and Eric will be doing every single game in Atlanta this weekend, which means at least six Mailbag segments over four days. Most of the Tar Heel Sports Network affiliates will pick up their call of all games. In the Triangle, WRDU airs Carolina games only and WRBZ airs most of the non-UNC games on Thursday and Friday. So, send in those questions now. Make sure to include your name and hometown.
Second, a reader sent us an interesting link to a story about the advantage of being behind at halftime. Yes, the advantage. The writer of that piece has Tar Heel ties, and it's an interesting bit of research.
Now, on to the ballots. As we've done for at least the last five years, each Tuesday before the ACC Tournament we reprint our All-ACC ballot. As always, the awards are voted on by the members of ACSMA. That sounds like a really professional organization, but they let me join, so it can't be that great. Basically, if you're a member of the media and you pay the yearly membership fee, you can vote--regardless of whether you actually attend games or even watch them on television. That often leads to some unusual voting patterns, so I've always thought it was a good idea if everyone made their ballot public. It's always interesting to hear reader takes on which picks you liked and which picks you didn't.
Everyone votes differently, so here's how I vote. First, what I see in person matters the most. That means the unbalanced schedule is a problem, because if a player has an off night on the one night the Tar Heels play his team (Trevor Booker), it skews my view of his value. Second, what the player does in conference games matters more than what he does in overall games. I don't care how many points someone scored against UNC-Asheville in December. Third, how well the team performs matters. And fourth, seniority matters.
First-team All-ACC: Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Gerald Henderson, Toney Douglas, Jack McClinton.
The first three are fairly obvious, and I would put Douglas in the fairly obvious category, also. The fifth spot was a tough one. McClinton eventually got my vote because he finished second in the league in scoring in conference games. He's the ACC career leader in 3-point field goal percentage. He takes some horrendous shots, but for some reason they go in. As late as last Wednesday, when the Hurricanes dropped another must-win game, I was going to leave him off because his team wasn't very good. But it came down to this: when Carolina plays Miami, McClinton is always the primary concern.
According to the final vote totals, two voters left Lawson off their first team. It certainly would be interesting to find out the logic that went into those picks. One other tidbit about the voting: the last four times Carolina has had two players on the All-ACC first team, the Tar Heels have advanced to the Final Four (2005, 1998, 1995 and 1993).
By the way, Hansbrough was unanimous for the fourth straight year, which is incredible. But that doesn't necessarily mean he'll win Player of the Year when that award is announced Tuesday afternoon. The All-ACC team and Player of the Year votes are separate.
Second team All-ACC: Greivis Vasquez, Tyrese Rice, Jeff Teague, Trevor Booker, A.D. Vassallo.
Vasquez is a hard one to pick, because he could have a triple-double one night and commit eight turnovers the next night. One thing's for sure, though--he's going to impact the game one way or the other. He did finish second in the league in assists in ACC games and was one place outside of the top 10 in scoring in ACC games, and to be honest his terrific performance in College Park against Carolina probably weighed more than it should have. Teague and Booker could have easily made the first team. They were the other two I considered for McClinton's place. It's worth remembering the job Deon Thompson did on Booker when Carolina faced Clemson earlier this season. Vassallo might be a bit of a stretch on the second team, but I like the way he plays. He's got a little bit of old school in him, and that midrange runner is very hard to defend.
Third team All-ACC: James Johnson, Wayne Ellington, Kyle Singler, Malcolm Delaney, Danny Green.
Ellington had a very good case for second team. In ACC games, he finished 9th in scoring, 7th in field goal percentage, and 17th in rebounding--which doesn't sound that impressive until you consider that he tied at that spot with Gerald Henderson. Johnson is another player I had a tough time leaving off the second team. He does a little bit of everything for Wake Forest.
Singler also had a case for second team, but in both meetings with Carolina this year he has visibly wilted in the second half. I'd be interested to see a first half/second half breakdown of his stats in big games.
I left this part of the ballot blank until late Sunday night. I was choosing between Henderson and Lawson and thought Sunday's game might provide some clarity. It didn't, because Lawson was hurt. In the end, I had an easier time imagining Duke without Henderson--who is doing his best Vince Carter '98 impersonation on many different levels--than Carolina without Lawson.
Coach of the year: Al Skinner
This one also came down to two individuals, as I picked between Skinner and Leonard Hamilton. Hamilton had a first-team All-ACC player on his team, plus two All-Defense players and two candidates for All-Freshman (Chris Singleton was the other) on my ballot. Skinner had Tyrese Rice. And while this might not be the most fair way to pick an award like this, if one of these coaches had to coach my team in one game, I'd pick Skinner.
Rookie of the Year: Sylven Landesberg, Virginia
This might have been the toughest slot to pick. I could easily support Al-Farouq Aminu for this one, and his team was significantly better. Plus, Landesberg didn't do much against Carolina. I could go either way on this one.
All-Rookie: Landesberg, Aminu, Ed Davis, Solomon Alabi, Iman Shumpert.
I'm not sure there's much to argue about here.
Defensive player of the year: Toney Douglas
He makes everything difficult on the perimeter.
All-defensive: Douglas, Henderson, Alabi, Trevor Booker, Aminu
I tried to get some feedback from UNC coaches about players that present a problem defensively. The defensive awards are the toughest to pick because every team values different parts of defense. Duke's defense is very different from Wake Forest's defense, for example, and what they ask their players to do is very different. What the Tar Heel coaches might chart as an error could actually be a plus for Duke. Douglas, Henderson, and Alabi were easy picks. Booker is so strong that he makes the paint very crowded, and Aminu was basically a wild-card pick and admittedly might be based more on potential than anything else. Plus, I was feeling guilty about the whole rookie of the year thing (see, I told you this wasn't scientific).
The notable UNC omission here is Danny Green. If you're going by blocked shots and steals, he should be on this team, but in the context of Carolina's system, he has struggled defensively at times this year. His six team defensive awards are roughly half of the team leader (Bobby Frasor with 11). Green did make the official version of the team, however, and--very surprisingly--Ty Lawson (five team defensive awards, if you're curious) was the sixth-leading vote getter.
Brownlow's Down Low
FIRST TEAM
Jeff Teague, Wake Forest
Toney Douglas, Florida State
Gerald Henderson, Duke
Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina
SECOND TEAM
Jack McClinton, Miami
Danny Green, North Carolina
Kyle Singler, Duke
James Johnson, Wake Forest
Trevor Booker, Clemson
THIRD TEAM
Wayne Ellington, North Carolina
K.C. Rivers, Clemson
Malcolm Delaney, Virginia Tech
Gani Lawal, Georgia Tech
Tyrese Rice, Boston College
The most contentious spot for me came down to Jeff Teague, Toney Douglas and Jack McClinton. Teague and McClinton's shooting percentages were much better, but Douglas was averaging more points and for me, he locked up a first-team spot with his clutch performances at Duke and against Virginia Tech, to go along with the way he has carried that team to a fourth-place finish this season. Teague beat out McClinton when Wake Forest locked up the No. 2 seed in the Tournament, not to mention his huge plays down the stretch at Maryland and in quite a few other games. Miami finished in the nine-spot and that's the only thing that kept McClinton off the first team.
Danny Green made my second team over Wayne Ellington because of the "stat-stuffing" aspect of Green's game and the way he has made big plays down the stretch of Carolina's game. Ellington has had a fantastic year but Green's blocks against Miami at home, three-point play against Florida State on the road and defense on Gerald Henderson gave him a little bit of the edge, though I switched the two more than once.
Tyrese Rice played solid basketball all year but his shooting percentage and turnovers were enough for me to put him on third team, particularly with the talent left on the top teams and with the way he finished his season struggling from the field. Malcolm Delaney and A.D. Vassallo were on my third team because of where they finished as well.
COY: Al Skinner, Boston College
Defensive Player of the Year: Toney Douglas, Florida State
Freshman of the Year: Sylven Landesberg, Virginia
Player of the Year was between Henderson, Douglas, Hansbrough and Lawson. I looked at consistency, clutch play, second-half play (of games, not of the season) and things like percentages and turnovers. Based on that, I eliminated Henderson, who has struggled in the second half, and Hansbrough, who has at times struggled shooting the ball. Lawson gets the nod over Douglas because he's the most important player on the best team and has averaged nearly double the number of assists as Douglas, not to mention turning it over much less frequently.
Boston College was picked to finish at the bottom of the league and even though they finished sixth, the Eagles had a very good season and beat two of the league's top three teams. Skinner is a very good tactician and he took a young team and did what he could to keep their heads on straight. What he said after their win over North Carolina impressed me quite a bit about how it wouldn't matter if they lost their next game, which of course they did, to Harvard. But the way some coaches act like they have won the NCAA championship when they beat Carolina, I thought his perspective was important.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.
