Tre Jones came back for his sophomore season at Duke to try and duplicate his brother Tyus’ achievement of winning a national championship with the Blue Devils.
While it’s still to be determined how he successful he is in pursuing that goal, Tre has already accomplished something Tyus didn’t during his short college career.
Monday, the Duke point guard was named ACC Player of the Year.
Jones received 34 first-place votes, twice as many as any other player, to easily outdistance Louisville’s Jordan Nwora with 17 votes and Notre Dame’s John Mooney with 11. Jones was also named the ACC’s Defensive Player of the Year, joining Virginia’s Malcolm Brogdon as the only players to win both awards in the same season.
A finalist for the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award and Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, Jones averages 17.8 points, 6.4 assists and 1.8 steals per game while carrying a plus-2.4 assist/turnover ratio.
His Duke teammate Vernon Carey was named the ACC’s Rookie of the Year, becoming the sixth Blue Devil in the past seven years to earn the award.
The 6-foot-10 center also won his award in a landslide by claiming 70 of the 75 votes for the award after a regular season in which he averaged 17.8 points and 8.8 rebounds while shooting 57.7% from the floor.
The voting panel of 15 head coaches and 60 select media members also chose Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton as Coach of the Year, the Seminoles’ Patrick Williams — a Charlotte native — as Sixth Man of the Year and North Carolina’s Garrison Brooks as the league’s Most Improved Player.
Brooks’ average of 16.4 points per game is more than double his production from a season ago when he averaged just 7.9 points. He is also pulling down 8.8 rebounds per game, which is third in the ACC.
All four state schools were represented on the three All-ACC teams named Monday.
Duke’s Jones and Carey were first-team selections, along with Nwora, Mooney and Syracuse’s Elijah Hughes, a transfer from East Carolina who led the conference in scoring 18.8 points per game.
Brooks and NC State’s Markell Johnson were selected to the second-team, along with the FSU duo of Devin Vassell and Trent Forrest, and Virginia’s Mamadi Diakite, while UNC’s Cole Anthony and Wake Forest’s Olivier Sarr were on the third team with Virginia’s Kihei Clark, Georgia Tech’s Jose Alvarado and Clemson’s Aamir Sims.
Carey, Anthony and FSU’s Williams were joined by Duke’s Cassius Stanley and Virginia Tech’s Landers Nolley on the ACC’s All-Rookie team.
