We are closing in on the finish to the regular season in college basketball. Who is leading the ACC COY race?
Pat Kelsey, Louisville
Pat Kelsey is the runaway leader for ACC COY. At 23-6 (16-2), Louisville is a lock for the NCAA tournament. He inherited a team that went 12-52 (5-35) under Kenny Payne the previous two seasons. We’re talking NET and RPI rankings in the 300s. Kelsey turned over the roster and there was optimism, but nothing like this could have been imagined. Despite several injuries including the loss of Kaseon Pryor, Louisville has been one of the ACC’s three best teams. The Cardinals were picked 9th in the pre-season, and exceeded every expectation, and they are still getting better. There was no mid-season collapse, the only way the award isn’t a slam-dunk is if the Cardinals lose their final 2 regular season home games to Cal and Stanford. That’s not happening.
Brad Brownell, Clemson
Clemson came into the pre-season picked 4th in the ACC, and has done nothing to disappoint. Clemson has a 24-5 (16-2) record with a win over Kentucky, and the only ACC team to beat Duke. The Tigers are two OT losses from being 26-4. Brownell has absorbed the departure of All-ACC player PJ Hall, and built this year’s team around the backcourt of Chase Hunter and Jaeden Zachary. The Tigers can come at you from so many different directions, that any player 1-8 can give you 10+ point scoring night. The award is Kelsey’s but Brownell’s fine job of coaching should be recognized.
Jon Scheyer, Duke
Duke was the favorite to win the ACC. Everybody knew the roster was talented, but we’ve seen plenty of talented rosters fail to meet expectations. At 26-3 (17-1), Scheyer has taken Duke from a top 10 team to arguably the best team in the country. Auburn is the only team I see in their class, and guess what Duke beat them. He learned from the early season error of over-relying on freshman phenom Cooper Flagg to getting contributions across the board, while still having Flagg in the national POY chase. Their defense is some of the best Duke has played in years, and Scheyer has coached around recent injuries to Maliq Brown and Tyrese Proctor. Fortunately, those aren’t season-ending injuries, and they will be back.
Damon Stoudamire, Georgia Tech
I feel like Georgia Tech’s Damon Stoudamire has earned a spot in this discussion even though the other 3 are your leading candidates. Stoudamire won’t win this award, but if you were giving an award since February it might be Stoudamires. We wrote about this last week. With 3 of his top 8 players still out, and at least 2 others missing some time during the month, Stoudamire’s Georgia Tech team has played NCAA tournament-caliber basketball going 6-2, with 3 Q1 wins including victories over Clemson and Louisville in back to back efforts. He won’t win ACC COY, but he’s done as good a coaching job as anyone in the ACC the last 4 weeks.
Other Candidates
SMU was pre-season picked 13th in the ACC, and SMU is 21-8 (12-6) and Andy Endfield has got the Mustangs thinking about the bubble when no one else did. Kyle Smith at Stanford has the Cardinals being a real headache in the ACC at 19-10 (11-7) after they were picked 17th in the pre-season. No, they won’t win the award, and are well back of Kelsey, Brownell, and Scheyer, but Endfield and Smith have done rock-solid jobs this year.
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