My (38th) All-ACC Basketball Ballot:
2025 Player/Coach Of The Year & More
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
There are plenty of ways to approach an All-Atlantic Coast Conference ballot — some smart, some not — and reasonable voters often reach different conclusions, but there’s only one appropriate way to handle this year’s race for the league’s Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year honors.
Write down “Cooper Flagg,” immediately, and move on.
Flagg might receive the National Player of the Year award, too, and deservedly so, but that’s another ballot (in my case, for the United States Basketball Writers Association, among others) for another time.
In the ACC, there also are three (and only three) absolutely outstanding candidates for Coach of the Year, plenty of fun options for Most Improved Player and Sixth Man of the Year, and several brilliant alternatives for Defensive Player of the Year, although Flagg may be the runaway winner in that category, too.
Although the 2024-25 ACC basketball season understandably has generated plenty of criticism toward the league, it also has offered up the Kentucky Derby of Coach of the Year contests.
Consider the following statements, which require no hyperbole:
First-year Louisville coach Pat Kelsey (24-6, 17-2 ACC) took over a program that had been by far the worst in the conference for two years running, created his initial team entirely from scratch (zero scholarship returnees), smoothly guided it through some early rough patches and injuries, and ultimately developed a keeps-getting-better, top-15 squad that’s 18-1 since mid-December.
Third-year Duke coach Jon Scheyer (27-3, 18-1 ACC) overcame an 11-man, four-starter player exodus (seven transfers, two early NBA entries, two seniors) that represented the largest in program history, quickly cultivated a freshman-heavy rotation that dominated most of its much older and much more experienced opponents, and gradually built a well-oiled machine that’s 23-1 since Thanksgiving and ranks in the top four nationally in both offensive and defensive efficiency.
Last but not least, 15th-year Clemson coach Brad Brownell (25-5, 17-2 ACC) beautifully blended four key returnees with three tactically selected transfers to form a well-balanced, well-coached group that is ranked #11 nationally and just posted perhaps the best regular season in program history. The Tigers have earned only one regular-season title during their 72 years as an ACC member, and even that 1990 team (under coach Cliff Ellis) never rose higher than #17 in the national rankings.
Elsewhere in the ACC, SMU’s Andy Enfield and Stanford’s Kyle Smith also did admirable jobs of squeezing NIT-caliber results out of solid but unspectacular rosters, but for anyone who wants to celebrate true excellence, this Coach of the Year conversation is a three-man race.
While there is no “wrong answer” this year among Kelsey, Scheyer and Brownell, the backdrop, circumstances and details behind Louisville’s unique journey rank as next-level extraordinary.
Scheyer had two backcourt returnees, including third-year starter Tyrese Proctor, to serve as building blocks. Brownell had several such players. Kelsey had none.
Whereas Clemson has been mostly healthy this season, and Duke’s biggest medical headache has involved an off-the-bench role player (forward Maliq Brown), Louisville lost one of its most talented, versatile and productive players (forward Kasean Pryor) just seven games into the season and didn’t miss a beat.
The Cardinals’ best player, point guard Chucky Hepburn, had been a three-year starter at Wisconsin, but he never made first-, second- or third-team All-Big Ten. Kelsey’s system and staff helped transform Hepburn very quickly into a first-team All-ACC performer, as Hepburn has taken his game to an entirely new level (especially as a 16 ppg scorer) as a perfect fit for the Cards, both offensively and defensively.
All of these things are signs of an absolutely outstanding coaching job.
MY 2024-25 ALL-ACC BALLOT (PART ONE)
Player of the Year: Cooper Flagg, Fr., Duke
Coach of the Year: Pat Kelsey, Louisville
Defensive Player of the Year: Cooper Flagg, Fr., Duke
Rookie of the Year: Cooper Flagg, Fr., Duke
Sixth Man of the Year: Ian Jackson, Fr., North Carolina (14 ppg, 41% threes)
Most Improved Player: Jaylen Blakes, Sr., Stanford
(three Duke seasons: 9 mpg, 2.2 ppg, 0.8 apg, 36% FG, 73% FT)
(one Stanford season: 31 mpg, 13 ppg, 5 apg, 43% FG, 83% FT)
