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There are a lot of great basketball players in the ACC, and as each season concludes they are properly recognized and rewarded. But why should those guys hog the attention and the hardware just because they have talent? Hardly seems fair.
The Ekene Ibekwe Award
For hideous shooting during conference play
Nominees:
| Player (School) | eFG% |
| Pe'Shon Howard (UMD) | 25.0 |
| Reggie Johnson (Miami) | 36.0 |
| Tyler Cavanaugh (Wake) | 35.5 |
|
Dennis Clifford (BC) |
37.5 |
The awards committee went back and forth for a while on this one--debate raged into the wee hours of the night. On the one hand, we have a guard who was just astoundingly bad at the entire point of basketball. On the other, forwards who couldn't hit anything despite being in closer proximity to the rim than many of their peers. In the end, though, Pe'Shon Howard's brilliant showing was simply too much to pass over.
Howard made 12 of 54 field goal attempts in 16 conference games, including three of 25 three-point attempts. What's truly remarkable is that his workload was light, so it wasn't like he was out there hoistin' up a bunch of shots with no regard for human decency. And yet still this happened.
The Quentin Thomas Award
For the most turnover-prone player during conference play
Nominees:
| Player (School) | TO% |
|
Reggie Johnson (Miami) |
27.7 |
|
Madison Jones (Wake) |
38.5 |
|
Montay Brandon (FSU) |
37.8 |
|
Jontel Evans (UVA) |
30.6 |
We could have inserted more forwards whose style of play is best described as "how do my arms work?", but we wanted to be sensitive to their plight. Those big guys probably don't know what the heck their arms are doing all the time. Heck, we aren't sure C.J. Leslie had control of his arms for more than 28% of any given game. Those dudes just have more arm to contend with than most of us. The occasional shoe-bound dribbles or outlet passes into the third row are inevitable.
Madison Jones doesn't have any excuses of that nature.
The Tunji Soroye Hole In The Lineup Award
Free lunches
Nominees:
| Player (School) | %Poss |
| Tyler Thornton (Duke) |
10.0 |
|
Paul Jesperson (UVA) |
12.8 |
| Dennis Clifford (BC) |
12.9 |
|
Marquis Rankin (VT) |
12.2 |
Dennis Clifford attempted a mere 24 shots in 226 minutes. Realizing that scoring isn't his game and that he turns the ball over a bunch, he would defer to others as often as possible, hoping to postpone the ticking time bomb of bad outcomes otherwise known as Dennis Clifford.
The Anthony Harris Award
For the most inefficient player during conference play
Nominees:
| Player (School) |
O Rtg |
|
Robert Brown (VT) |
70.5 |
| Pe'Shon Howard (UMD) |
68.1 |
|
Rod Hall (Clemson) |
81.2 |
| Jontel Evans (UVA) |
85.9 |
Robert Brown made 32% of his twos and 28.9% of his threes in league play as a freshman in 2012. Did he learn anything from that? Shit no. Shit no he did not. In fact, the solution that Brown came up with was to shoot more often as a sophomore. Now, we are all well aware that Virginia Tech had no options beyond Erick Green, but we have to think that the coaches could have put their heads together and found an alternate strategy. Something that didn't involve the guy with the 32.8 effective field goal percentage taking almost 23% of the Hokies' shots. One idea we had was to just be like "hey, Robert, don't do that."
The Impressively Short Tall Guy Award
For rebounding like a girl during conference play
Nominees:
| Player (School) | DR% |
|
Josh Hairston (Duke) |
8.9 |
|
Boris Bojanovsky (FSU) |
9.1 |
|
T.J. Warren (NCSU) |
9.8 |
| Joey van Zegeren (VT) |
11.0 |
THESE PLAYERS MAKE US SICK. NO ONE WINS. GOOD DAY.