RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) North Carolina forward Justin Jackson is The Associated Press player of the year in the Atlantic Coast Conference and Georgia Tech’s Josh Pastner is its coach of the year.
Jackson, one of three unanimous selections to the AP all-ACC team also announced Monday, earned five votes for the top individual honor – one more than Wake Forest forward John Collins – following a vote of 15 journalists who cover the ACC throughout the league’s nine states.
Jackson averaged 18.3 points , 4.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists while leading the Tar Heels (26-6) to their 31st ACC regular season title . They hold the top seed in the ACC Tournament that begins Tuesday in Brooklyn, New York. His scoring average is the highest by a North Carolina player since Tyler Hansbrough in 2009.
He was joined on the first team by Collins, Louisville guard Donovan Mitchell and the two other unanimous picks – Duke guard Luke Kennard and Notre Dame big man Bonzie Colson. Kennard led the ACC in scoring with 20.1 points per game, while Colson is the league’s top rebounder at 10.4 per game.
North Carolina State guard Dennis Smith Jr. , chosen the league’s newcomer of the year, leads a second team that also includes Joel Berry II of North Carolina, Ben Lammers of Georgia Tech, London Perrantes of Virginia and Michael Young of Pittsburgh. Smith is the only player in ACC history with two triple-doubles in the same season and had a league-best four 30-point games.
Pastner, in his first season with the Yellow Jackets , took a team picked in the preseason to finish 14th in the league and guided it to a 17-14 record that included upsets of three Top 25 teams – North Carolina, Florida State and Notre Dame. He received seven votes, one more than North Carolina’s Roy Williams.
The 2017 AP All-ACC team, with players listed alphabetically with name, school, height, weight, class and hometown (”u-” denotes unanimous selections):
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FIRST TEAM
John Collins, Wake Forest, 6-10, 235, Soph., West Palm Beach, Florida
u-Bonzie Colson, Notre Dame, 6-5, 225, Jr., New Bedford, Massachusetts
u-Justin Jackson, North Carolina, 6-8, 200, Jr., Tomball, Texas.
u-Luke Kennard, Duke, 6-5, 202, Soph., Franklin, Ohio.
Donovan Mitchell, Louisville, 6-3, 200, Soph., Greenwich, Connecticut
SECOND TEAM
Joel Berry II, North Carolina, 6-0, 195, Jr., Apopka, Florida
Ben Lammers, Georgia Tech, 6-10, 227, Jr., San Antonio.
London Perrantes, Virginia, 6-2, 197, Sr., Los Angeles.
Dennis Smith Jr., North Carolina State, 6-3, 195, Fr., Fayetteville, North Carolina
Michael Young, Pittsburgh, 6-9, 235, Sr., Duquesne, Pennsylvania
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Coach of the year – Josh Pastner, Georgia Tech
Player of the year – Justin Jackson, North Carolina
Newcomer of the year – Dennis Smith Jr., North Carolina State
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AP All-ACC Voting Panel:
Julian Benbow, The Boston Globe; Rick Bozich, WDRB-TV-Louisville, Kentucky; Lauren Brownlow, WRAL.com, Raleigh, North Carolina; Chris Carlson, The Post-Standard of Syracuse, New York; Christy Cabrera Chirinos, The Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale; Safid Deen, The Orlando (Florida) Sentinel; Laken Litman, The Indianapolis Star; Craig Meyer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Jerry Ratcliffe, The Daily Progress of Charlottesville, Virginia; Grace Raynor, The Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina; Stephen Schramm, The Fayetteville (North Carolina) Observer; Daniel Shirley, Macon (Georgia) Telegraph; Bob Sutton, The Times-News of Burlington, North Carolina; David Teel, The Daily Press of Newport News, Virginia; Brant Wilkerson-New, The News & Record of Greensboro, North Carolina.
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Follow Joedy McCreary at http://twitter.com/joedyap.
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More AP college basketball: www.collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25.
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