The ACC basketball season has reached its midway point.
While the race for the league’s regular season championship and the battle to get on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble is just beginning, it can be argued that the league’s 3 most important postseason awards have already been decided.
It should come as no surprise that runaway frontrunners for Player, Rookie and Coach of the Year come from Duke and Louisville, the ACC’s best and most surprising team through the first half of the 2024-25 campaign.
Here’s a look at their credentials, along with the midseason leaders for the conference’s other major honors, Sixth Man of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year:
Player of the Year
Cooper Flagg, Duke: The hype began before the nation’s top-ranked recruit stepped foot on campus. And it was fueled by none other than LeBron James, who after facing the then 17-year-old freshman at a camp preparing Team USA for last summer’s Olympics, proclaimed that “Cooper Flagg (is) going to be a big-time player.”
Although Flagg is a different kind of talent than another former Duke phenom, Zion Williamson, the expectations were just as high. It’s hard to imagine anyone living up to that standard.
But somehow, Flagg has exceeded them.
His numbers are impressive enough on their own merit. He leads the Blue Devils and ranks among the top 10 in the ACC in scoring (20.0 ppg), rebounds (8.0), assists (4.2), steals (32), blocked shots (26) and field-goal percentage (.484).
The 6-9 wing has the ability to produce SportsCenter highlights, as he did with a vicious tomahawk dunk against Pitt, and take over games as he did in setting an ACC freshman record with 42 points (on 11-of-14 shooting, 4-of-6 3-pointers and 16-of-17 free throws) in an 86-78 win against Notre Dame.
But he’s also remarkably unselfish, with an innate knack for knowing what his team needs him to do and when it needs him to do it.
As impressive as his ability to stuff a stat sheet might be, and it is impressive, that’s not even close to being the most meaningful contribution to Duke’s quest to win its first NCAA Tournament title since 2015.
It’s the fire with which he plays.
“There are a lot of attributes he has. But to me, the most unique one is how competitive he is,” Pitt coach Jeff Capel, a former Blue Devil, said of Flagg. “You rarely see that, especially from a young guy. In my opinion, that’s what makes this Duke team different from last year’s. When your best player is like that, it permeates through the whole team.”
Coach of the Year
Pat Kelsey, Louisville: It doesn’t matter what happens the rest of the way, Even if Jon Scheyer and Duke run the table and become the first ACC team to go 20-0 in the conference. Or if Brad Brownell and Clemson set a program record for wins in a season (the Tigers are 18-4; the 1989-90 Tigers won a record 26 games).
Kelsey has already locked up the award for the remarkable job he’s done in cleaning up the mess left for him by his predecessor Kenny Payne.
He’s done more than just return the Cardinals to respectability. He has them back in the national rankings. And while they had their 10-game winning streak snapped by Georgia Tech on Saturday, he has them on track for their first return to the NCAA Tournament since 2019.
With 16 wins already, he’s earned 4 more victories in his first 3 months than Payne did in his 2 full seasons.
But as if building a roster from scratch with 12 transfers wasn’t enough, the job he’s done is even more noteworthy considering that he was forced to reinvent his team on the fly after an early injury epidemic left it undersized and undermanned.
“It took a little bit for it to get our footing back and to figure out our new way,” Kelsey said. “But I really feel like our guys adapted well and we have some good momentum going right now.”
Rookie of the Year
Flagg: This is even a bigger no-brainer than Player of the Year.
The Duke star has won or shared the ACC’s Freshman of the Week award 8 times in 12 weeks so far this season, including the past 4 straight. He’s also won Player of the Week 3 times, making him the first player to sweep both weekly awards that many times in a season. And he still has half the league schedule to go.
Flagg is in position to become the 4th ACC freshmen to sweep POY and Rookie of the Year honors. The previous 3 were Duke players as well: Jahlil Okafor (2014-15), Marvin Bagley (2017-18) and Williamson (2018-19).
Sixth Man of the Year
Chuck Harris, SMU: Harris started all 32 games as the Mustangs’ point guard last season. But with the arrival of new coach Andy Enfield and Wake Forest transfer Boopie Miller to lead the transition from the American Athletic Conference to the ACC, Harris was asked to take on a new role coming off the bench.
It’s a change a lot of veteran players wouldn’t have accepted. But Harris did. And it’s paid off for both the player and his team. Even though he’s started only 6 times in 22 games thus far, the 6-4 senior is still SMU’s 2nd-leading scorer. Just as he was a year ago. He’s scoring at nearly the same clip (12.3 ppg compared to 13.4 in 2023-24) while shooting 3s at a significantly higher percentage (45.3 compared to 40.7) for a team that’s tied for 4th in the conference at 8-3 and on pace to make the NCAA Tournament at 17-5 overall.
Defensive Player of the Year
Chucky Hepburn, Louisville: Kelsey has referred to Hepburn as “kind of the straw that stirs the drink for us.” But it’s not just because of the spark the 6-2 Wisconsin transfer provides on offense by leading the team in scoring and the ACC in assists. Equally important to the Cardinals’ surprise success this season has been his work as a tone-setter on the defensive end of the court.
Hepburn leads the ACC in steals with 53 (2.4 per game). But it’s his relentless on-the-ball pressure and anticipation that earned him a spot on the Big Ten’s All-Defensive team last season and made him such a disruptive force to opposing offenses in the ACC this year.
All-Conference Team
Flagg: 20.0 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 4.2 apg, 26 blocks, 48.4 FG%
Maxime Raynaud, Stanford: 20.4 ppg, 11.8 rpg, 48.1 FG%
Hepburn: 15.1 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 6.4 apg, 2.4 spg, 33.3 3PT%
Hunter Sallis, Wake Forest: 18.3 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 2.5 apg, 47.5 FG%
Chase Hunter, Clemson: 17.2 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 2.3 apg, 49.6 FG%, 44.8 3PT%
Cooper Flagg, Duke, Louisville dominate the ACC’s midseason awards Saturday Down South.
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