UNC Nearly Sweeps ACC Awards, Can't Place Anyone on First Team

I can't say I had all that much interest in the various postseason awards the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association hands out. I figured Roy Williams would win Coach of the Year, and he did, getting 52 of the 75 votes. After both the turn around from last season and the defections this year, guiding the team to a top regular season finish made him essentially a shoe-in. The nearest contender, Brad Brownell, received 8 votes. (Also, in a sheer bit of insanity, Mike Krzyzewski got 3; three people who think steering the defending national champs to a second place finish is the best coaching job of the year. Huh.)

Harrison Barnes also walked away with the Rookie of the Year, with 64 votes. It was such a rout that the second place finisher was Kendall Marshall, with 7 votes. Yes, UNC players took 71 of the 75 ballots. Henson taking the Defensive Player of the Year wasn't much of a surprise, either. Defensive statistics are pretty sparse, so it's no surprise the conference's leader in blocks won the voting, with the steals leader taking third, and Chris Singleton, second in steals and no slouch in blocks himself, taking second. Nolan Smith, unanimous first-team All-ACC and conference scoring leader took Player of the Year with 73 votes. One of the two other votes went to his teammate Kyle SIngler, which just goes to show you there's at least one member of the media who hasn't seen a game since January.

And of course, despite all of this hardware, UNC didn't place a single player on the first team All-ACC. They did have the sixth, seventh, and eighth vote getters, in Tyler Zeller, Henson and Barnes, respectively. It's one of those situations where I really wish the ballots were published, even if the names were stripped, because I'd love proof that Carolina Player Voter Thinks Is Best was a unanimous selection. As it is, no ACC Regular Season Champion has ever failed to put a player on the 1st team, and yet UNC has four players on the three teams over all (Kendall Marshall made the third team, as well as the All-Freshman Team) the most since the 2005 Champion team did the same. As it turns out, this is more of a fluke and a nice little bit of bulletin board material for the Heels going into the tournament.

But seriously, ten voters though Mason Plumlee deserved an All-ACC spot? Really?