ACC POY Race

Men's Basketball
#1

I know we are still in the first third of ACC play, but wanted to see what everyone thought about the ACC POY race thus far…

A lot to settle, but right now I think someone from this group is leading/will end up winning:

Leaders:

  1. Matthew Hurt (Duke): 19.6 ppg, 8.5 rebounds

  2. Carlik Jones (Lville): 17.2 ppg, 6.6 rebounds, 4.7 assists

Next Tier:
3. MJ Walker (FSU): 15.8 ppg

  1. Keve Aluma (VT): 15.6 ppg, 7.0 rebounds

  2. Jay Huff: 12.9 ppg, 5.8 rebounds, 2.8 blocks

  3. Aamir Simms (Clemson): 12.6 ppg, 5.8 rebounds

Others: Sam Hauser, Devon Daniels (NC State), David Johnson (Lville), Jalen Cone (VT)

Hurt and the stats put him in the solid lead. Could definitely see Jay winning DPOY if he keeps up the block rate. I think first team is Hurt, Carlik Jones, MJ Walker, Huff and one other player from this group. I think Kihei ends up on second team.

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#2

It would be very amusing to me if Jay huff won DPOY. Don’t doubt he could win it, but lol would that be something

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#3

Hard to say right now with so many teams still with 0 or 1 loss. Would be a great story if Jones wins it.

#4

Even though his defense worries me it is getting better I wouldn’t count Hauser out yet.When the 3 starts dropping he is gonna be hard to handle. He is great in the mid post area

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#5

I’m predicting that Duke won’t finish with a good enough record or high enough in the standings for Hurt to win POY. And man, what happened to preseason POY Garrison Brooks?

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#6

Revisiting this- feeling pretty good about this 8 man lineup in contention for first team all ACC:

Jose Alvarado (GT)
Carlik Jones (Lville)
Justin Champagnie (Pitt)
Keve Aluma (VT)/ Sam Hauser / Matt Hurt (Duke)
Jay Huff

Am I missing anyone?

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#7

That feels like a pretty good list. I think Alvarado is the favorite considering what he’s done, what he means to GT and what GT has done. Sadly if he can show out tomorrow night and get them a win, that may be what puts him in the drivers seat, and I’m sure he knows that.

Champagnie is probably the most talented/complete/all around but Pitts record just isn’t good enough for him to be considered.

Aluma is an interesting choice, but I think he falls in the same bucket as Champagnie and the team success holds him back.

Huff and Hauser split each others votes. Who’s the more valuable/important player out of the two? You can make legit arguments for each one.

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#8

That’s a good list. Honorable mentions for me would be Moses Wright (GT), Aamir Simms (Clem), and Quincy Guerrier (Cuse).

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#9

Your 8th man :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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#10

I am curious to see whether Alvarado is able to keep his shooting percentages up for the remainder of the season. He’s shooting significantly better the he has the past couple of years, so there’s part of me wondering if he’ll revert to the mean a little. That said, he’s looked great, and it’s probably just that he made a measurable leap this year. Regardless, hope he at least has a rough game against us.

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#11

You’re right about his shooting it took a massive jump. But he’s in the top 10 in the NCAA in steals, and I think given how well he’s been shooting for the entirety of the season, it’s less of an anomaly and more of the real deal. He can probably cool off some and still score it at a good clip. I’ve said it a few times, he’s the one player in the league right now I hate seeing.

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#12

Alvarado is a good defensive player also. The last game against us he gave Hauser fits for most of the game and that was a huge difference in size.

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#13

I wonder if Alvarado’s demeanor will have any impact on the voting. Though it never seemed to hurt Bob Sura, and he set the standard for player obnoxiousness.

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#14

Hasn’t hurt a litany of Duke players over the years

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#15

I dunno, Hauser still had 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting with 4 threes in that game, so I wouldn’t be particularly worried if Alvarado defended him again on Wednesday. Alvarado does get a lot of steals, like BDragon pointed out.

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#16

Your are right. Hauser did adjust to Alvarado but he stole the ball several times and knocked it away on others. After Hauser figured out to get his body where he couldn’t get to the ball Hauser did great. I was mainly making that point in talk about the POY concerning Alvarado

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#17

FWIW the Torvik rankings for ACC Player of the Year. He has Jay and Sam sandwiched around Champagnie at the top.

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#18

Interesting. If you click Conference only things shift a little. Hauser and Huff are 1 & 2. I like that top five as the 1st team right now. Champagnie, Alvarado, and Aluma.

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#19

Huffzingis!

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#20

Really hope that the bias for scoring doesn’t work against our guys. Would hate for someone like Champagnie to win just b/c he’s putting up stats on a .500 team in an uptempo system.

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