Welcome to Big Duke Ball’s third-annual Award Show. It’s time to hand out the hardware. The official ACC awards came out today, but I purposely avoided them so as not to be influenced by them. The fact is, I’ve known most of the first, second and third teams for a while now. In reality, there weren’t too many surprises, except the fact there is a noticeable absence of Tar Heels. Of course if Ed Davis didn’t get hurt, he would have landed on either the first or second team.

Enjoy.

ACC PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Greivis Vasquez, Maryland
The race for POY was a three-man race between Vasquez, Scheyer and Delaney, but as Virginia Tech faltered, the race became a two-man race. In the end, I had to just look at the numbers. Vasquez led Scheyer in points, rebounds and assists. Of course Vasquez’s habit of turning the ball over (a lot) hurts him, but it wasn’t enough to put him over the top. What was though was the fact that he was able to pass Jon in FG percentage. If Scheyer, who beats Greivis in three-point and FT percentage, was able to maintain the lead in FG percentage, then I would have probably given it to Scheyer.
* Runner Up: Jon Scheyer, Malcolm Delaney, Nolan Smith

COACH OF THE YEAR: Coach Mike Krzyzewski (Duke)
This may be my only controversial pick, as most everyone else will give it to Maryland’s Gary Williams. So I’m going to spend the most time arguing this decision. My problem with this award in general is that they only give it to coaches who’s teams are overachievers. Did Maryland over achieve? I would argue they didn’t. In a weak ACC, starting three seniors, including the league’s POY, they did what should have been expected of them. Do I reward Williams because the media, including myself, failed to recognize the talent on this squad and decided last year they weren’t a good team? I would argue that Maryland underachieved last year and performed on par this season.

So instead of judging a coach based on my preseason expectations, I’m going to look at the results. Duke and Maryland tied for the ACC, splitting their season series. But overall, Duke finished with a better record, while Maryland was just 10-3 outside the ACC, including a home loss to William & Mary.

Not only did Duke have a better overall record than Maryland, they did it playing a tougher schedule. Duke’s SOS is 4th in the nation, while Maryland’s is a respectable 26th. The Blue Devils are 5-3 against top-25 teams, 11-3 overall against top-50 teams. Maryland is just 2-3 against top-25 teams and 6-5 against top-50 teams. What I’m trying to say is, Duke’s resume is more impressive than Maryland’s resume.

Of course, the argument will be that Coach K and Duke have better players and Maryland had less to work with? My answer is, whose fault is that? The last time I checked, the head coach is responsible for recruiting. Why do we punish coaches simply because they recruited well and then those players went out and play well?
* Runner Up: Gary Williams, Seth Greenberg

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Chris Singleton (Florida State)
The reality is, this was the easiest individual award to make. Singleton finished tied for fourth in blocks (1.5 per game), but more impressively, led the conference in steals (2.3 per game), despite being a 6′9 forward. When the senior isn’t too busy swatting or swapping balls away, he’s also crashing the board, grabbing 5.1 defensive rebounds per game (8th in the ACC). And you wonder why FSU has the No 1 defensive team in the nation.
* Runner Up: Soloman Alabi, Nolan Smith

FIRST-TEAM ALL-ACC

G – Greivis Vasquez (Maryland) - Take him off Maryland and the Terps are muddled in the middle of the ACC.
G – Jon Scheyer (Duke) - Leads the ACC in minutes (36.5), FT shooting (89%), 3-pt shots made (2.9). He’s 3rd in scoring, 4th in assists and most importantly, he’s first in assist-to-turnover ratio at 3/1.
G – Malcolm Delaney (Virginia Tech) - He led the ACC in scoring at 20.9ppg, thanks to a stunning ability to get to the line. For the season, he took 249 free throws. The next closes person is Jon Scheyer. He took 72 less free throws.
F – Trevor Booker (Clemson) – He scored his typical 15.3ppg (5th in the ACC), but his rebounding dropped 1.4 per game from his junior season. Yet, he still finished 8th in the conference. His .519 shooting percentage was second best, while on the defensive end, he was 7th in blocks.
F – Al-Farouq Aminu (Wake Forest) – The only player in the ACC to average a double-double, 15.9ppg and 10.8 rebounds. Although, his 3.3 turnovers per game almost knocked him down to second team.

SECOND-TEAM ALL-ACC

G – Nolan Smith (Duke) - In reality, he really deserves first-team honors. I just couldn’t find anyone to knock off. He’s 4th in scoring (17.6) and is a surprising 9th in the conference in shooting percentage (.439). We also won’t overlook his impressive 1.7/1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
G – Sylven Landesberg (Virginia) - He led all true guards in field goal percentage (44%), scoring 17.3 per game. Not bad considering he was Virginia’s only real scoring threat.
F – Kyle Singler (Duke) – You could argue he’s been the best player in the ACC over the last three weeks and he belongs on the first-team, but overall, his FG % is still only at 41%. Of course, while Aminu averages over three turnovers per game, Singler hasn’t turned it over three times in a game in over seven weeks.
F – Tracy Smith (North Carolina State) – He gets overlooked because he’s on a bad team, but I refuse to ignore the kid (I’m such a good person). He leads the ACC in shooting percentage at 54%. He finished the season 7th in scoring and 7th in rebounds.
F – Gani Lawal (Georgia Tech) – For a long while, he was the ACC’s best big man. However, hiss numbers have dipped, thus he misses the first-team. Still 13.6ppg, 8.8 rebound and a .527 shooting percentage is nothing to sneeze at.

THIRD-TEAM ALL-ACC

G – Ishmael Smith (Wake Forest) - There are some ugly stats that go along with smith (50% at the free throw line, 22% from three), but he dishes out six assists per game (2/1 A/T