The 2020-21 Men’s Basketball All-ACC accolades were announced Monday (March 8) and three University of Virginia basketball players were honored, highlight by redshirt senior forward Sam Hauser’s inclusion on the All-ACC First Team.
Hauser, who poured in a season-high 24 points, pulled down eight rebounds, and had two blocks in UVA’s regular season title-clinching win over Louisville last Saturday, fell short of ACC Player of the Year honors – he finished fourth in the voting for that distinction, which went to Georgia Tech forward Moses Wright – but earned All-ACC First Team honors along with Wright, Pittsburgh forward Justin Champagnie, Louisville guard Carlik Jones, and Duke forward Matthew Hurt. Hauser averaged a team-best 15.8 points per game, made 44% of his 3s, 52% of his field goals, and 88% of his free throws this regular season. He leads UVA in minutes per game with 34.13.
Virginia forward/center Jay Huff received All-ACC Second Team recognition along with Virginia Tech forward Keve Aluma, Georgia Tech point guard Jose Alvarado, Florida State guard M.J. Walker, and Clemson forward Aamir Simms. The 7’1” redshirt senior also garnered All-Defensive Team honors. Huff, who averaged 13.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks per game during the regular season (all career bests), received two votes for Most Improved Player and one vote for ACC Player of the Year.
Cavalier point guard Kihei Clark was one of seven players on the All-ACC Honorable Mention list. According to the official Atlantic Coast Conference press release, “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).” Clark was 10 points away from making the All-ACC Third Team – North Carolina forward Armando Bacot and Florida State guard Scottie Barnes made the Third Team with 41 points apiece. The 5’9” junior leads UVA in assists (104) and is averaging 9.5 points per contest in 2020-21.
Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year, All-Defensive Team, All-Freshman Team, Coach of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, and Sixth Man of the Year are determined by single votes. Below is a rundown of the voting for those awards, courtesy of the ACC.
ACC PLAYER OF YEAR
Name, School, Votes
WINNER: Moses Wright, Georgia Tech, 33
Carlik Jones, Louisville, 13
Justin Champagnie, Pitt, 13
Sam Hauser, Virginia, 5
Jose Alvarado, Georgia Tech, 4
Matthew Hurt, Duke, 3
Keve Aluma, Virginia Tech, 3
Jay Huff, Virginia, 1
ACC FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Name, School, Votes
WINNER: Scottie Barnes, Florida State, 53
Day’Ron Sharpe, North Carolina, 10
DJ Steward, Duke, 6
Jae’Lyn Withers, Louisville, 5
Kadary Richmond, Syracuse, 1
ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM
Name, School, Votes
Jose Alvarado, Georgia Tech, 69
Manny Bates, NC State, 62
Jay Huff, Virginia, 53
Jordan Goldwire, Duke, 43
Moses Wright, Georgia Tech, 34
ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
Name, School, Votes
Scottie Barnes, Florida State, 74
DJ Steward, Duke, 67
Day’Ron Sharpe, North Carolina, 63
Jae’Lyn Withers, Louisville, 58
Caleb Love, North Carolina, 32
COACH OF THE YEAR
Name, School, Votes
WINNER: Mike Young, Virginia Tech, 26
Leonard Hamilton, Florida State, 24
Josh Pastner, Georgia Tech, 16
Tony Bennett, Virginia, 6
Brad Brownell, Clemson, 2
Chris Mack, Louisville, 1
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Name, School, Votes
WINNER: Jose Alvarado, Georgia Tech, 35
Jay Huff, Virginia, 17
Manny Bates NC State, 13
Jordan Goldwire, Duke, 5
Aamir Simms, Clemson, 4
Keve Aluma, Virginia Tech, 1
MOST IMPROVED PLAYER
Name, School, Votes
WINNER: Matthew Hurt, Duke, 17
Isaiah Wong, Miami, 13
Moses Wright, Georgia Tech, 11
Justin Champagnie, Pitt, 11
RaiQuan Gray, Florida State, 10
Nate Laszewski, Notre Dame, 5
Quincy Guerrier, Syracuse, 3
Armando Bacot, North Carolina, 2
Jay Huff, Virginia, 2
David Johnson, Louisville, 1
SIXTH MAN OF THE YEAR
Name, School, Votes
WINNER: Scottie Barnes, Florida State, 39
Day’Ron Sharpe, North Carolina, 24
Nick Honor, Clemson, 6
Jordan Goldwire, Duke, 5
Nikola Djogo, Notre Dame, 1
MURPHY III REGAINS FORM IN MIAMI, LOUISVILLE WINS
Virginia wing Trey Murphy III started off the month of February in style, scoring 18 points in a 64-57 victory at NC State. After an 8-point performance in a win over Pitt, the 6’9”, 206-pound junior recorded three consecutive double-digit scoring efforts for the Hoos – 18 points in a win at Georgia Tech, 12 in a win over UNC, and 13 in a loss at Florida State.
Murphy III closed out February with quiet performances in losses at Duke and at home against NC State. He attempted only two shots versus the Blue Devils, making both but finishing with four points, two rebounds, one assist, one block, and one steal in Durham. Murphy III was 1-of-5 shooting with two points against the Wolfpack. He fouled out in the 7-point home loss.
The Durham (N.C.) native did not have to look far for motivation following the NCSU game, and he responded with 12 points, six boards, and three steals versus Miami and 17 points, six rebounds, an assist and a block versus Louisville.
“Not much different just, I would say like a mentality and a mindset,” Murphy III said of his bounce-back performances against Miami and Louisville. “I was just thinking I need to be more aggressive because if I’m not aggressive, it’s going be a lot harder for us to win. I know I got a lot of confidence from my teammates. They were all telling me ‘we need you to score.’ Coach Bennett, he’s telling me he wants me to be aggressive and make plays and really, I just thank them for it, and also my mom. She was talking trash to me too, so that helped motivate me to get back to what I was doing.”
“See, the thing is, my mom, she’s one of those mom’s that’s like super-biased and will be like, ‘Oh, you played well’, even when I know I didn’t play well,” Murphy III said when asked to elaborate on his mother’s “trash” talk. “But after the NC State game, she literally said to me, ‘Yeah, you suck’. I was like, ‘I can’t have that happen’. I’ve got to pick this up. I think that fired me up to make some more plays and put the ball in the basket.”
In his first season at UVA, Murphy III, who transferred to Charlottesville after two years at Rice, is averaging 11.1 points (third on the team) and 3.4 rebounds per game. He has made 51.8% of his field goals, 44.6% of his 3s, and 91.9% from the free throw line. What makes his performance all-the-more impressive is that Murphy III learned the night before the season opener that he was eligible to play, so he has been learning the Pack Line sort of on the fly. Coach Bennett has been pleased with his progress and performance on both ends.
“He’s improved. He really has on both ends, defensively and offensively,” Bennett said of Murphy III. “Obviously, teams have played us differently some more switching, some not. We are, he is continuing to find ways to be effective. He’s being more assertive and just trying to impact the game. As a team, I think you grow when you struggle and you say, ‘Okay, what can I do to be better and learn from that.’ I think he has. I didn’t realize that his mom and told him he was struggling or something to that extent, so nothing like a firm word from a mom or dad to straighten you out if that’s the case so perhaps that was it. But he has improved and yeah, he’s important, but everyone is. What was I think important is the game we beat Louisville, our bench came in and gave us big contributions, and they played a crucial times. That was important for us to see Justin (McKoy), and Tomas (Woldetensae) and Casey (Morsell). Papi (Francisco Caffaro) didn’t play in that game, but a game before, Papi did. Nine guys, those guys were important in key stretches. And that, it brought energy, it brought life, you could feel the bench. We knew what was at stake in that game and I thought that was really important. All that injected life at a time when we needed energy and so it’s good. Trey has improved and he will continue to.”
Notables & Quotables
– Virginia head coach Tony Bennett said on his “Coach’s Corner” radio show on Monday (March 8) that reserve Justin McKoy had been sick following the Miami win and only practiced the day before Louisville. He was unsure if the sophomore forward would be available for the season finale. Fortunately for the Cavaliers, he was, and he contributed four points and six boards, the second straight game in which he has provided a spark off the bench. All four points came during the second-half stretch in which UVA was able to push a 4-point lead to 11 with Sam Hauser and Jay Huff on the bench.
Continued production from the 6’8” McKoy and other reserves could be key in determining how much UVA can accomplish this postseason.
– Coach Bennett told his team about having “title fights” in the pregame message before Louisville. How he began his pregame speech may surprise you.
“I started the pre-game talk, I said, ‘How many of you have seen ‘Dumb & Dumber’?,” Bennett said on his radio show. “I said, ‘You guys know who Lloyd Christmas is when he said to the lady, ‘What are the chances of a girl like me and a guy like you’. She says, ‘about one in a million’. And his famous line is, ‘So you’re saying there’s a chance’. I said, ‘We’ve got more than a chance to win an ACC Championship’. I said, ‘We’ve got more than a chance’, and then I talked about why I took the job, about title fights. I went through a few of our ACC conference tournament championships, ACC regular season – the Syracuse game, and even in that same venue a couple years ago, a chance to get to the title fight for a national title fight the chance to get to a Final Four. I said that’s what this is about.”
Click here to watch the latest “Coach’s Corner”. (CTB’s pregame speech discussion begins around the 8:45 mark.)
– No. 1 seed Virginia will face the winner of the 8/9 game, which pits Syracuse versus NC State. This will be the third meeting of the season between the Orange and the Wolfpack. Syracuse won both regular season contests, but NC State is on a five-game winning streaking heading into tournament play.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi and CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm include Syracuse, which is 2-7 on the road and has played zero neutral site games, in the “Final Four Out” category in their 2021 NCAA Tournament projections. NC State, which has won five straight road games to even its 2020-21 road record at 5-5, is not in Lunardi’s “Next Four Out” category, so the Wolfpack may have to claim an NCAA berth by winning the ACC Tournament outright.
Bottom line, whether it is Syracuse or NC State, Virginia will face a motivated team trying to earn a spot into the big dance.
In regular season play, UVA blew out Syracuse, 81-58, at John Paul Jones Arena. The Cavaliers split the two-game regular season series with the Wolfpack, claiming a 64-57 victory in Raleigh but falling 68-61 at home. The Hoos struggled mightily offensively against NC State in the second matchup, falling behind 24-10 with six minutes left in the first half. State has also been able to score inside against the Hoos, racking up 30 points in the paint in each of the two regular season matchups.
UVA versus either Syracuse or NC State is scheduled to tip on Thursday (March 11) at noon. Coach Bennett says the team will practice at JPJ on Tuesday before bussing down to Greensboro.
– Now, for some Quotables:
Sam Hauser on “tournament mentality”
“Well, you kind of got to play like it’s you either win or you’re done,” Hauser said. “That is kind of a mentality for a lot of teams coming into this tournament. So, every possession matters even more, this time of the year, and we know that. I guess you just kind of have to just come in and play free, and just the chips fall where they fall you have you live with it but obviously you want to win.”
Jay Huff on watching ACC Tournaments growing up
“My family attended a lot,” Huff recalled. “I remember going to some with my dad in high school, skipping class. Then I also distinctly remember the teachers putting it up on the big screen during class because they knew nobody was going to be able to pay attention anyways, or students were looking over someone’s shoulder. I never did this personally, but I would watch people and over their shoulders they had the ACC tournament on their laptops.”
Kihei Clark on the mindset heading into the 2021 ACC Tournament
“I just don’t really pay attention to the seedings because this conference is so good and there’s so much talent around,” Clark said. “Each team is capable of beating everybody. We just go out and prepare the best we can for each game and just continue going forward that way.”
