Ty Lawson who averaged 15.9 ppg, 6.5 apg, 2.0 spg and had a ATO of 3.32 while shooting 47% from three point range was named ACC Player of the Year by the ACC media. Lawson received 31 votes and beat out FSU's Toney Douglas by four ballots. Tyler Hansbrough was in 3rd place.
Lawson's journey to this point mimics the Heels ACC regular season run. After the 0-2 start people questioned whether Lawson was even the best PG in the ACC after he struggled versus Tyrese Rice of BC and Wake Forest's Jeff Teague. Like the rest of the team Lawson got things rolling and really made his case for the award with the game winner against FSU and then a tremendous 2nd half performance versus Duke then Miami. If he did not have it wrapped up before Sunday, he closed the deal with his near triple double performance on an injured toe to help beat Duke and win the ACC regular season.
This also marks the first time since Phil Ford in 1978 that a point guard has been ACC POY. Ford and Lawson are also the only two PGs in league history to share the honor.
Here are the rest of the awards:
Coach of the Year: Leonard Hamilton, FSU*
Defensive POY: Toney Douglas, FSU
Rookie of the Year: Sylven Landesberg, UVa
*Roy Williams had two votes. Mike Kryzewski for all of the talk about him being a serious candidate for COY has zero votes.