After winning ACC regular season, North Carolina basketball grabs top league honors

ACC regular-season champion North Carolina produced the league’s top player and coach this men’s basketball season.

UNC’s Hubert Davis was the overwhelming choice for coach of the year, while senior guard RJ Davis is the player of the year, in voting announced Monday.

Hubert Davis led the Tar Heels (25-6, 17-3 ACC) back to the top of the conference one year after UNC began the season ranked No. 1 but finished 20-13 and failed to even make the NCAA Tournament. Davis added transfers Cormac Ryan and Harrison Ingram to the roster while also seeing freshman guard Elliot Cadeau reclassify to enroll a year ahead of schedule.

RJ Davis averaged 21.1 points per game this season while making 43.2% of his shots. He’s also dished out 3.5 assists per game.

RJ Davis was joined on the all-ACC’s first team by Duke’s Kyle Filipowski, Clemson’s PJ Hall, Wake Forest’s Hunter Sallis and Blake Hinson of Pittsburgh.

UNC center Armando Bacot headed up the second team, along with Virginia’s Reece Beekman, Judah Mintz of Syracuse, Boston College’s Quinten Post and Miami’s Norchad Omier.

RJ Davis received 68 first-place votes from the panel, while Duke’s Filipowski was next with three.

In the coach of the year balloting, Hubert Davis had 49 votes to easily outpace the second-place finisher, Pitt’s Jeff Capel with 12. Capel was last year’s coach of the year.

Hubert Davis is the first UNC coach to win the award since Roy Williams in 2011. This is the 13th time a Tar Heels coach has won the award — the most of any ACC school. Dean Smith won it eight times during his Hall of Fame career.

RJ Davis is the 16th Tar Heels player to win ACC player of the year. That’s second-most among any school. Duke’s had 18 ACC players of the year.

The last time UNC produced an ACC player of year was Justin Jackson in 2017.

Other ACC award winners this season are Notre Dame’s Markus Burton (rookie of the year), Virginia’s Beekman (defensive player of the year), Clemson’s Ian Schieffelin (most improved player) and Pitt’s Ishmael Leggett (sixth man of the year).

2023-24 All-ACC teams, awards

Note: All-ACC Team points are determined on a 5-3-1 system (five points for first team, three points for second team, one point for third team).

This story was originally published March 11, 2024 at 4:06 PM.

Steve Wiseman

The News & Observer

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Steve Wiseman was named Raleigh News & Observer and Durham Herald-Sun sports editor in May 2025. He covered Duke athletics, beginning in 2010, prior to his current assignment. In the Associated Press Sports Editors national contest, he placed in the top 10 in beat writing in 2019, 2021 and 2022, breaking news in 2019, event coverage in 2025 and explanatory writing in 2018. Before coming to Durham in 2010, Steve worked for The State (Columbia, SC), Herald-Journal (Spartanburg, S.C.), The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.), Charlotte Observer and Hickory (NC) Daily Record covering beats including the NFL’s Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints, University of South Carolina athletics and the S.C. General Assembly. He’s won numerous state-level press association awards. Steve graduated from Illinois State University in 1989.