North Carolina basketball’s RJ Davis will be the first ACC guard to win player of the year in back-to-back seasons since Duke’s JJ Redick in 2005-06.
That’s the projection from seven writers who cover the league for the USA TODAY Sports Network. Each writer voted on various preseason awards and All-ACC teams.
Davis leads the network’s preseason All-ACC team and was picked as preseason player of the year. A fifth-year guard and All-American for the Tar Heels, Davis led the ACC in scoring last season at 21.4 points per game and was winner of the Jerry West Award as the nation’s top shooting guard.
Duke, which has 10 newcomers in its third season under head coach Jon Scheyer, is projected to have two award winners by the end of the 2024-25 season.
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Top-ranked Duke recruit Cooper Flagg, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, was selected to be the newcomer of the year. Duke junior Maliq Brown, an All-ACC defender at Syracuse before joining the Blue Devils, led the league in steals (71) last season with the Orange.
Louisville coach Pat Kelsey rounds out the award winners as the projected ACC Coach of the Year. Kelsey takes over a Cardinals program that won 12 games in the two seasons before his arrival. Louisville’s retooled roster includes several high-profile transfers.
Here are the preseason All-ACC teams and individual awards as chosen by the USA TODAY Sports Network’s ACC coverage team:
All-ACC first team
- G RJ Davis, North Carolina
- G Markus Burton, Notre Dame
- G Hunter Sallis, Wake Forest
- F Cooper Flagg, Duke
- F Ian Schieffelin, Clemson
All-ACC second team
- G Nijel Pack, Miami
- G Jamir Watkins, Florida State
- G Terrence Edwards Jr., Louisville
- F Baye Ndongo, Georgia Tech
- F Maxime Raynaud, Stanford
Coach of the Year
Pat Kelsey, Louisville
Player of the Year
RJ Davis, North Carolina
Newcomer of the Year
Cooper Flagg, Duke
Defensive Player of the Year
Maliq Brown, Duke
Staff writer Rodd Baxley can be reached at [email protected] or @RoddBaxley on X/Twitter.
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