{"id":6793,"date":"2014-03-10T01:25:24","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T05:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=6793"},"modified":"2014-03-10T18:04:22","modified_gmt":"2014-03-10T22:04:22","slug":"cliff-barnes-all-acc-basketball-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=6793","title":{"rendered":"Cliff Barnes’ All-ACC basketball ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cliff<\/a>
Cliff Barnes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nPicking the first team All-ACC was actually easier than I thought it would be this year. But picking the other 26 spots on the ballot – from the all defensive team to the most improved player – proved difficult. There is plenty of room for disagreement. I even question a couple of my picks but I think all I chose were deserving – unfortunately so were other players.<\/p>\n

Here is the ballot I submitted Sunday.<\/p>\n

First Team All-ACC<\/strong>
\nTJ Warren, NC State
\nMarcus Paige, UNC
\nJabari Parker, Duke
\nCJ Fair, Syracuse
\nKJ McDaniels, Clemson<\/p>\n

(Lamar Patterson was the only other player I really considered for the first team.)

\"Marcus<\/a>
Marcus Paige.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Second Team All-ACC<\/strong>
\nLamar Patterson, Pittsburgh
\nJames Michael McAdoo, UNC
\nTyler Ennis, Syracuse
\nMalcolm Brogdon, Virginia
\nRodney Hood, Duke<\/p>\n

(Some may put Ennis on the first team because he has such national stature but he wasn’t better than teammate Fair and he made some bad rookie turnovers in key spots. I error on the side of experience and those who have paid dues.)<\/p>\n

Third Team All-ACC<\/strong>
\nOlivier Hanlan, Boston College
\nDaniel Miller, Georgia Tech
\nEric Atkins, Notre Dame
\nPat Connaughton, Notre Dame
\nGarrick Sherman, Notre Dame<\/p>\n

(I considered Hanlan, the ACCs third leading scorer, and Miller, an all-around solid player, for second team. A lot of voters will overlook Notre Dame entirely but Atkins, Connaughton and Sherman are the league’s 14th, 15th and 17th top scorers. In ACC games, Connaughton, at just 6-5, is second only to Parker in defensive rebounds and he is eighth in three-point baskets. Meanwhile, Sherman is second only to Warren in field goal percentage and fifth in rebounding. Atkins is second only to Ennis in assists. I suspect that Atkins might be the only Irish honored but they are all deserving.)<\/p>\n

All Defensive Team<\/strong>
\nDaniel Miller, Georgia Tech
\nKJ McDaniels, Clemson
\nTyler Ennis, Syracuse
\nJabari Parker, Duke
\nTJ Warren, NC State<\/p>\n

(Some will question my having Parker and Warren on the team rather than maybe Akil Mitchell of Virginia or JP Tokoto of UNC. But Parker is tops in the league in rebounding and seventh in blocked shots while Warren is fourth in the league in steals – first in ACC games – and 10th in rebounding.)<\/p>\n

\"Jabari<\/a>
Jabari Parker.<\/figcaption><\/figure>All Rookie (Freshman) Team<\/strong>
\nJabari Parker, Duke
\nTyler Ennis, Syracuse
\nDevin Wilson, Virginia Tech
\nKennedy Meeks, UNC
\nAnthony Barber, NC State<\/p>\n

(I thought about putting London Perrantes of Virginia on the team. He is deserving as a ball handler for the No. 1 team in the conference but I ended up going with the guys that score more. On a different day, I easily could have included Perrantes and suspect he will make the team.)<\/p>\n

Rookie of the Year<\/strong>
\nJabari Parker, Duke<\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/a>
Daniel Miller.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nDefensive Player of the Year<\/strong>
\nDaniel Miller, Georgia Tech<\/p>\n

(Miller will probably be overlooked by a lot of voters but he is second in the league in blocked shots – first in ACC games- and third in the league in rebounds. Teams game plan specifically against him due to his defensive presence inside. He even makes the steals list at No. 20. McDaniels of Clemson was my second choice.)<\/p>\n

\"Ian<\/a>
Ian Miller.<\/figcaption><\/figure>Sixth Man of the Year<\/strong>
\nIan Miller, Florida State<\/p>\n

(Not sure really why he only started a handful of games as he certainly put in enough minutes to be a starter. Then again, a couple of years John Havlicek came off the bench for the Celtics yet still made the all-star team. Miller is the league’s 16th top scorer, the best three-point field goal shooter in league games and the third best free throw shooter. I considered UNC’s Brice Johnson and Virginia’s Justin Anderson but thought Miller was more consistent.)<\/p>\n

\"Rion<\/a>
Rion Brown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>Most Improved Player<\/strong>
\nRion Brown, Miami<\/p>\n

(I thought about Marcus Paige for this award and I imagine he will get a lot of support for it. But I think his improvement was a natural progression for a starter. When I think of most improved, I think of a player that doesn’t play a lot one year or doesn’t play well and then looks really good the next year. Brown was basically the seventh best player on the Canes last year and this year was the best player and captain. Now, that’s improvement. He scored six points a game a year ago and he scored 15 points a game this year – good enough for eighth in the league. Brown may not have been good enough to make an All-ACC team but he certainly should be considered for Most Improved.)<\/p>\n

\"Tony<\/a>
Tony Bennett.<\/figcaption><\/figure>Coach of the Year<\/strong>
\nTony Bennett, Virginia<\/p>\n

(This will come down to Bennett or UNC’s Roy Williams. I see this award as an expectation award. Virginia far exceeded expectations and Bennett put together a true team with a lot of solid moving parts. He did it with Joe Harris, a preseason All-ACC pick, having a so-so year for him. Williams, in changing the Heels’ fortune during the year, may very well have done one of his best coaching jobs but Carolina ended up about where people thought they would.)<\/p>\n

\"TJ<\/a>
TJ Warren.<\/figcaption><\/figure>Player of the Year<\/strong>
\nTJ Warren, NC State<\/p>\n

(On probably every ballot, this comes down to Warren, Jabari Parker and Marcus Paige. I simply think Warren was the most consistently excellent player in the league. Duke and Carolina certainly did better than NC State and that should weigh into the decision. But Erick Green of a below-average Virginia Tech team won the award last year and Warren is better than Green. All three can take over games and are complete players but Warren, a sophomore, was the league’s top scorer and had a higher field goal percentage than either Parker or Paige. If the award were just for second-half play, Paige would win. If the award were for NBA potential, Parker would win. But this is Warren’s time to shine.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Picking the first team All-ACC was actually easier than I thought it would be this year. But picking the other 26 spots on the ballot…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,79,81,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-duke-blue-devils","category-featured-stories","category-n-c-state-wolfpack","category-north-carolina-tar-heels","wpcat-82-id","wpcat-79-id","wpcat-81-id","wpcat-80-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6793"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6830,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6793\/revisions\/6830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}