Hansbrough is All-ACC for 4th time

Lawson, Douglas, Henderson, McClinton also first-team choices

By: JournalNow Staff | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 10, 2009

Tyler Hansbrough added to his impressive list of accomplishments yesterday when he became the first player in ACC history to be unanimously selected to the all-conference team four times.

Ty Lawson, Hansbrough's teammate at North Carolina, also made the first team, along with Florida State's Toney Douglas, Duke's Gerald Henderson and Miami's Jack McClinton in voting by 76 members of the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association.

Hansbrough became the third unanimous three-time selection last season, joining N.C. State's David Thompson (1973-75) and Duke's Art Heyman (1961-63), and was the first to do it in his first three seasons in the league.

"It's quite an honor considering all the great players that have played in the ACC," Hansbrough said. "It's really a tough league, year in and year out. If it's not the best league in a given year, it's always one of the best.

"I don't think in terms of individual awards and accomplishments, but to do something that's never been done before in a league as great as the ACC is pretty cool."

Hansbrough, last season's national player of the year, leads the league in scoring (21.1 ppg) and will enter this week's ACC Tournament 52 points shy of J.J. Redick's ACC career record of 2,769 points.

McClinton, the only other repeat selection to the first team, is the ACC's leading 3-point shooter (46 percent) this season and ranks third in scoring (19.7 ppg).

Douglas was a near unanimous selection -- he received 226 of a possible 228 points in the voting. He averages 20.8 points a game, is the leading scorer in ACC games and has helped Florida State to the No. 4 seed and a first-round bye in the league tournament.

Lawson leads the ACC with 6.5 assists a game and an assists-to-turnover ratio of 3.3-to-1 and is 12th in scoring (15.9 ppg). Henderson, Duke's leading scorer, averages 16.6 points and scored at least 19 points in seven of his final nine games.

The three All-ACC teams were again balanced -- 10 of 12 teams had at least one player in one of the 15 slots.

Guard Jeff Teague of Wake Forest led the second team and was joined by Clemson's Trevor Booker, Boston College's Tyrese Rice, Duke's Kyle Singler and Maryland's Greivis Vasquez. Named to the third team were Wake Forest's James Johnson, Virginia Tech's Malcolm Delaney and A.D. Vassallo, North Carolina's Danny Green and Georgia Tech's Gani Lawal.

The league also announced its all-freshman and all-defensive teams, and they teams were dominated by players from FSU and Wake Forest.

Forward Al-Farouq Aminu of Wake Forest joined Virginia's Sylven Landesberg as unanimous selections to the all-rookie team. Also selected were Georgia Tech's Iman Shumpert, Florida State's Solomon Alabi and North Carolina's Ed Davis.

Alabi and Douglas also made the all-defensive team, and with Booker, Green and Wake Forest's L.D. Williams. Booker and Douglas led the defensive nominees with 67 votes apiece.