Yesterday the ACC released their schedule for the 2020-21 basketball season, which means today the media handed out their pre-season awards, and predictions. In a not so surprising decision, senior big man Garrison Brooks was selected as the pre-season ACC Player of the Year, and a ore-season 1st Team All-ACC member. Brooks is coming off a breakout junior season, where he averaged 16.8 points, and grabbed 8.5 rebounds per contest. His efforts last season were enough to earn him the ACC Most Improved Player award, and landed him on the 2nd Team All-ACC. In ACC play last year he led the conference in scoring, rebounding, and field goal percentage. Such a season like last year, has expectations high for him, as noted by the ACC media. In addition to being picked as the pre-season ACC POY, Brooks was also named to the Karl Malone watch list, an award given out to the best power forward in college basketball.
Despite having the pre-season player of the year on their team, Carolina was picked to finish fourth in the ACC, behind Virginia, Duke and Florida State. For what it’s worth, the media has correctly selected the regular season champion twice since 2010-11, both times occurring when they predicted the Tar Heels to win the ACC. Listed below are the full results from the pre-season predictions from the media:
Predicted 2020-21 ACC Standings:
1. Virginia (97), 2214
2. Duke (34), 2146
3. Florida State (15), 1973
4. North Carolina (7), 1933
5. Louisville (2), 1693
6. Syracuse, 1234
7. Miami, 1223
8. NC State, 1149
9. Georgia Tech, 1147
10. Clemson, 1057
11. Virginia Tech, 794
12. Notre Dame, 769
13. Pitt, 635
14. Boston College, 404
15. Wake Forest, 229
(Votes in parentheses. 155 total voters)
1st Team Pre-Season All-ACC Team:
Garrison Brooks, North Carolina, 137
Sam Hauser, Virginia, 89
Scottie Barnes, Florida State, 59
Jalen Johnson, Duke, 52
Aamir Simms, Clemson, 50
Chris Lykes, Miami, 50
2nd Team Pre-Season All-ACC Team:
David Johnson, Louisville, 46
Jose Alvarado, Georgia Tech, 43
M.J. Walker, Florida State, 38
Kihei Clark, Virginia, 37
Wendell Moore Jr., Duke, 32
ACC Pre-Season Player of the Year:
Garrison Brooks, North Carolina, 102
Sam Hauser, Virginia, 24
M.J. Walker, Florida State, 10
Wendell Moore Jr., Duke, 7
Aamir Simms, Clemson, 5
Matthew Hurt, Duke, 3
Chris Lykes, Miami, 3
Kihei Clark, Virginia, 1
ACC Pre-Season Freshman of the Year:
Scottie Barnes, Florida State, 64
Jalen Johnson, Duke, 60
Caleb Love, North Carolina, 9
Day'Ron Sharpe, North Carolina, 6
DJ Steward, Duke, 4
Reece Beekman, Virginia, 3
Jeremy Roach, Duke, 3
RJ Davis, North Carolina, 3
Mark Williams, Duke, 2
Cam Hayes, NC State, 1
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