Corridor named First Group All-ACC, Schieffelin ACC’s Most Superior Player
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) – North Carolina senior guard RJ Davis has been voted the Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Player of the Year, while the Tar Heels’ Hubert Davis earned ACC Coach of the Year honors, highlighting the 2023-24 All-ACC Men’s Basketball Team and award winners.
The 2023-24 All-ACC Team was determined by a 75-member panel consisting of the league’s 15 head coaches and 60 members of the media.
Virginia’s Reece Beekman notched ACC Defensive Player of the Year laurels for the second straight season, while Notre Dame’s Markus Burton earned ACC Rookie of Year honors. Clemson’s Ian Schieffelin claimed the ACC’s Most Improved Player, while Pitt’s Ishmael Leggett was picked as the Sixth Man of the Year
RJ Davis was the overwhelming pick from the voting panel as Player of the Year, earning the nod on 68 of 75 ballots. Davis is averaging a league-leading 21.1 points per game this season as well as 3.6 assists per game, which is 11th in the league. The native of White Plains, New York, is a finalist for the John R. Wooden Award, presented to the nation’s most outstanding player. He also is a finalist for the Jerry West Award for the top shooting guard in the country. Davis has scored at least 20 points 19 times this season, which is the most 20-point games in a season by a Tar Heel since Justin Jackson also had 19 in 40 games in 2016-17, which also marked UNC’s last ACC Player of the Year honoree. He is on pace to become the first Tar Heel to lead the ACC in scoring since Tyler Hansbrough in 2007-08 and record UNC’s highest scoring average since Hansbrough averaged 22.6 that same season.
In his third season at the helm of his alma mater, Hubert Davis led the Tar Heels to their first outright ACC regular-season title since the 2016-17 campaign. He is UNC’s first ACC Coach of the Year honoree since Roy Williams in 2011. The Tar Heels have racked up a 25-6 record, including a 17-3 mark in league play, and hold the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament this week. UNC’s 17 ACC wins tied the ACC record for regular-season wins (Virginia was 17-1 in 2018-19).
Beekman became just the third player to earn back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year honors since the award was instituted in 2005, joining Duke’s Shelden Williams (2005-06) and North Carolina’s John Henson (2011-12). He is the sixth Cavalier to win the award in the last 10 seasons. A senior from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Beekman ranks second in the ACC in steals (66 total, 2.13 per game) while leading the ACC’s top-ranked scoring defense at 59.1 points per game. Also named a Second-Team All-ACC honoree, he averaged 14.3 points per game (14th in ACC) and a league-leading 6.0 assists per game.
The first member of the Fighting Irish to earn ACC Rookie of the Year, Burton has scored a Notre Dame freshman record 535 points this season, averaging 17.3 points per game, which is sixth overall in the ACC and third nationally among all freshmen. He also is averaging 4.3 assists per game, which ranks sixth in the ACC, and 2.0 assists per game, which is fourth in the ACC. The Mishawaka, Indiana, native Burton could potentially become the first player in program history to finish a season averaging at least 17.0 points, 4.0 assists and 2.0 steals per game and currently is the only freshman in the nation to boast those averages.