Duke’s Cooper Flagg, Louisville’s Pat Kelsey headline list of AP all-ACC award winners
Freshman star Cooper Flagg of top-ranked Duke is The Associated Press player of the year and newcomer of the year for the Atlantic Coast Conference, while Louisville’s Pat Kelsey is coach of the year.
The AP announced its individual awards and All-ACC honors Tuesday for the 2024-25 season after voting by media members covering the league.
The 6-foot-9 Flagg was the unanimous choice for player of the year in a season that has seen him live up to the hype that followed him from his home state of Maine. He is a likely candidate to be the No. 1 overall NBA draft pick whenever he does make the jump.
He is averaging 19.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.3 blocks for the Blue Devils, showing off a versatile game that made him a factor at both ends and from just about anywhere on the court. His year included going for an ACC single-game freshman record 42 points in January against Notre Dame, as well as being chosen the league’s rookie of the week a record 12 times.
Kelsey has led a rapid rise in his first year with the No. 13 Cardinals, taking over a team that had won just 12 games over the past two seasons while losing 35 of 40 league regular-season games. But Louisville (25-6) claimed the 2-seed for this week’s ACC Tournament and has lost just once since mid-December.
Stanford big man Maxime Raynaud joined Flagg as unanimous first-team selections, while the regular-season champion Blue Devils also had a second-team pick in freshman forward Kon Knueppel.
No. 10 Clemson was the only other team to have multiple AP all-ACC picks with first-teamer Chase Hunter and second-teamer Ian Schieffelin.
First team
u-Cooper Flagg, Duke, 6-9, 205, Fr., Newport, Maine
u-Maxime Raynaud, Stanford, 7-1, 245, Sr., Paris, France
Chucky Hepburn, Louisville, 6-2, 190, Sr., Omaha, Nebraska
Chase Hunter, Clemson, 6-4, 202, Gr., Atlanta
Markus Burton, Notre Dame, 6-0, 190, So., Mishawaka, Indiana
u-unanimous selection.
Second team
Ian Schieffelin, Clemson, 6-8, 240, Sr., Atlanta
Hunter Sallis, Wake Forest, 6-5, 185, Sr., Omaha, Nebraska
RJ Davis, North Carolina, 6-0, 180, Gr., White Plains, New York
Kon Knueppel, Duke, 6-7, 217, Fr., Milwaukee
Jamir Watkins, Florida State, 6-7, 210, R-Sr., Trenton, New Jersey
Individual honors
Coach of the year – Pat Kelsey, Louisville.
Player of the year – Flagg, Duke
Newcomer of the year – Flagg, Duke.
Voting panel
Lia Assimakopoulos, The Dallas Morning News; Mark Berman, The Roanoke (Virginia) Times; Joel Berry II, ACC Network; Chad Bishop, Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Rick Bozich, WDRB-TV, Louisville, Kentucky; Jordan Crammer, WNCN-TV, Raleigh, North Carolina; Donna Ditota, The Post-Standard of Syracuse, New York; Jerry DiPaola, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; Louis Fernandez Jr., WRAL-TV, Raleigh, North Carolina; Chapel Fowler, The State of Columbia, South Carolina; Luke Hancock, ACC Network; Michelle Kaufman, Miami Herald; Ryan Kelly, WCTV-TV, Tallahassee, Florida; Greg Madia, The (Charlottesville, Virginia) Daily Progress; Kevin McNamara, WPRO, Providence, Rhode Island; Tom Noie, South Bend (Indiana) Tribune; Mitchell Northam, WUNC, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Kate Rogerson, WTVD-TV, Durham, North Carolina.
By AARON BEARD
AP Basketball Writer
