Duke’s Vernon Carey, Tre Jones lead all-ACC basketball team
Duke carries the No. 4 seed into the ACC tournament but the Blue Devils are well-represented on the all-ACC team announced Monday morning.
Freshman center Vernon Carey and sophomore point guard Tre Jones were both selected to the first team players, making the 10th-ranked Blue Devils (25-6) the only team with two first-team selections.
Jones won the league’s player of the year award and was named defensive player of the year. He is just the second player to win ACC player of the year and defensive player of the year awards in the same season, joining Virginia’s Malcolm Brogdon who accomplished the feat in 2016.
“Just looking at it, that only one other player has done it, that’s something I try to pride myself on is playing on both sides of the basketball -- offensively and defensively,” Jones said during an interview on the ACC Network’s “Packer and Durham” show Monday morning. “Obviously that’s something I’m proud of.”
Carey, who received the most voting points for the all-ACC team, was named the ACC’s rookie of the year. He’s the seventh Duke player in the last nine seasons to win the award.
Duke’s duo is joined on the first team by Louisville’s Jordan Nwora, Notre Dame’s John Mooney and Syracuse guard Elijah Hughes.
Jones averages 16.2 points, 6.4 assists and 1.8 steals per game this season. Carey leads Duke in scoring (17.8 points) and rebounding (8.8) this season. He’s produced 15 double-doubles this season.
Nwora, voted the ACC’s preseason player of the year last October, averaged 18 points and 7.7 rebounds for No. 15 Louisville (24-7).
Mooney leads all NCAA Division I players with 25 double-doubles this season for the Irish (19-12). He’s averaging 16.5 points and 12.8 rebounds.
Hughes, who began his college career at East Carolina before transferring to Syracuse (17-14), leads the ACC in scoring at 18.8 points per game.
Florida State, UNC, NC State
No. 4 Florida State (26-5), which won the league’s regular-season championship and is the No. 1 seed in the ACC tournament, landed two players on the second team in Devin Vassell and Trent Forrest. Seminoles coach Leonard Hamilton was voted as ACC coach of the year by an overwhelming majority.
Vassell and Forrest were joined on the all-ACC second team by N.C. State guard Markell Johnson, No. 17 Virginia’s Mamadi Diakite and North Carolina’s Garrison Brooks.
The third team includes Virginia’s Kihei Clark, Georgia Tech’s Jose Alvarado, Clemson’s Aamir Simms, North Carolina’s Cole Anthony and Olivier Sarr of Wake Forest.
Brooks was named the ACC’s Most Improved Player after averaging 16.7 points and 8.8 rebounds in the regular season.
Jones led the league’s all-defense team and was joined by Diakite and Forrest along with Georgia Tech’s James Banks and Steffon Mitchell of Boston College.
Carey was joined on the all-freshman team along with his Duke teammate Cassius Stanley. Anthony, Virginia Tech’s Landers Nolley and Patrick Williams of Florida State round out the team.
Williams won the ACC’s Sixth Man of the Year award after averaging 9.2 points and four rebounds a game.
The all-ACC team and award winners were determined by a 75-person selection panel consisting of the league’s 15 head coaches and 60 members of the media. All-ACC team points are determined on a 5-3-1 system (five points for first team, three points for second team, one point for third team).
2020 All-ACC Men’s Basketball Team
First Team
Vernon Carey Jr., Duke, 367
Jordan Nwora, Louisville, 359
John Mooney, Notre Dame, 351
Tre Jones, Duke, 348
Elijah Hughes, Syracuse, 305
Second Team
Mamadi Diakite, Virginia, 234
Devin Vassell, Florida State, 212
Garrison Brooks, North Carolina, 209
Trent Forrest, Florida State, 200
Markell Johnson, NC State, 101
Third Team
Kihei Clark, Virginia, 98
Jose Alvarado, Georgia Tech, 87
Aamir Simms, Clemson, 79
Cole Anthony, North Carolina, 69
Olivier Sarr, Wake Forest, 63
Honorable Mention
Landers Nolley II, Virginia Tech, 58
Michael Devoe, Georgia Tech, 48
Brandon Childress, Wake Forest 44
Chris Lykes, Miami, 32
M.J. Walker, Florida State, 22
Braxton Key, Virginia, 16
Dwayne Sutton, Louisville 15
Steffon Mitchell, Boston College, 11
ACC Player of the Year
Tre Jones, Duke, 34
Jordan Nwora, Louisville, 17
John Mooney, Notre Dame, 11
Elijah Hughes, Syracuse, 7
Trent Forrest, Florida State, 4
Mamadi Diakite, Virginia 2
Rookie of the Year
Vernon Carey Jr., Duke, 70
Landers Nolley II, Virginia Tech, 2
Cole Anthony, North Carolina, 2
Patrick Williams, Florida State, 1
All-Defensive Team
Tre Jones, Duke, 64
Mamadi Diakite, Virginia, 55
Trent Forrest, Florida State, 55
James Banks III, Georgia Tech, 34
Steffon Mitchell, Boston College, 30
All-Freshman Team
Vernon Carey Jr., Duke, 75
Cole Anthony, North Carolina, 55
Landers Nolley II, Virginia Tech, 54
Cassius Stanley, Duke, 36
Patrick Williams, Florida State, 29
Coach of the Year
Leonard Hamilton, Florida State, 62
Tony Bennett, Virginia, 12
Chris Mack, Louisville, 1
Defensive Player of the Year
Tre Jones, Duke, 45
Trent Forrest, Florida State, 18
Steffon Mitchell, Boston College, 8
Kihei Clark, Virginia, 3
Manny Bates, NC State, 1
Most Improved Player
Garrison Brooks, North Carolina, 17
Olivier Sarr, Wake Forest, 16
Devin Vassell, Florida State, 16
Buddy Boeheim, Syracuse, 10
Aamir Simms, Clemson, 6
Moses Wright, Georgia Tech, 6
Prentiss Hubb, Notre Dame, 2
DJ Funderburk, NC State, 1
Jay Huff, Virginia, 1
Sixth Man of the Year
Patrick Williams, Florida State, 35
Malik Williams, Louisville, 28
Dane Goodwin, Notre Dame, 9
Isaiah Wong, Miami, 3
This story was originally published March 9, 2020 at 9:02 AM with the headline "Duke’s Vernon Carey, Tre Jones lead all-ACC basketball team."