Best Seat in the House column by Chris Graham
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Now that we have our women’s ACC ballot out of the way, it’s time to talk men’s hoops.
My ballot for the All-ACC men’s basketball team is due Sunday night at 9 p.m. And of course we have a lot of basketball to be played between now and then, so …
I think we can put two names down in indelible ink at the start. UNC center Tyler Hansbrough (23.4 points per game, 10.4 rebounds per game) and UVa. point guard Sean Singletary (19.8 ppg, 5.8 assists per game) are locks.
After that, well …
Tyrese Rice of Boston College deserves strong consideration. I mean, the kid is averaging 21.4 points and 4.8 assists per game and shooting 44.3 percent from the floor for a team that doesn’t have much else in the way of options.
Greivis Vasquez also should get some props here. The Maryland point is fourth in the conference in scoring (17.7 points per game) and the league-leader in assists (6.7 per game).
For those keeping score at home, we’ve now got a center and three point guards among our top four.
Er …
How about a couple of two guards – Miami’s Jack McClinton (17.0 ppg, an ACC-leading 2.9 three-point field goals per game) and UNC’s Wayne Ellington (16.9 ppg)?
(I’m just throwing out some suggestions here. Don’t hold me to anybody after Hansbrough and Singletary.)
Maryland power forward James Gist is a contender (16.1 ppg, 7.9 rebounds per game, 2.2 blocks per game).
We also have to do an all-freshman team. Top contenders there include Virginia Tech power forward Jeff Allen (12.4 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 2.2 steals per game), N.C. State power forward J.J. Hickson (14.5 ppg, 8.4 rpg, an ACC-leading 59.1 field-goal percentage) and Duke’s Kyle Singler (14.3 ppg, 6.0 rpg).
And we have to do Coach of the Year. My favorite at this point is Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg, whose Hokies are sitting on the NCAA Tournament bubble with six freshmen in the rotation after suffering some rather massive losses to graduation last year.
As you can see, I am going to need some help getting this right, so feel free to offer your suggestions by commenting below or by e-mailing me at [email protected].
The clock is ticking.
Chris Graham is the executive editor of The SportsDominion.