The votes are in

Pretty spirited debate on the message board yesterday about Roy Williams and whether he's deserving of ACC Coach of the Year.

I can go ahead and tell you right now it's gonna be Williams, and it's probably gonna be a landslide. That's not based on any inside info; just a feeling that Williams won a lot of folks over by winning 12 of his last 13 games, including Saturday night's lashing of Duke in Chapel Hill.

The team that suffered a 78-58 humiliation at Georgia Tech on Jan. 16 was a miserable, ego-afflicted outfit that Williams ripped for its selfishness and lack of investment in team. Back then, who would've predicted the Heels would suffer just one more loss (and that loss at Duke) on the way to claiming the regular-season conference title?

You can say Williams is blessed with a bounty of talent, and that's certainly not inaccurate. But you still have to meld and coach that talent, something that's not as easy as people think. And Williams has been faced with some serious adversity and attrition; he's lost a total of 13 players the last two seasons, leaving him with just eight healthy scholarship players in a program that finished ninth in the ACC last year.

He took a group that was picked third in the ACC and achieved the biggest improvement for an ACC champ -- ninth to first -- ever. The previous record was held by Clemson, which went from sixth in 1988-89 to the regular-season title in 1989-90.

So you can make a legitimate case for Williams, as hard as it is for a lot of folks around here to admit.

But not a strong enough case to keep Brad Brownell's name off my ballot.

With the votes due last night, I was already leaning toward Brownell after Clemson's impressive win over Virginia Tech on Saturday in the regular-season finale.

Then I read a recent interview Travis Sawchik of The Post and Courier conducted with former South Carolina coach Eddie Fogler, and this excerpt sealed it for me:

You saw Clemson play last week. What do you make of the Tigers in their first year under Brad Brownell?

"They have improved greatly. The sum is better than the individual parts. The whole picture is they are a very good team. They have some good players, but they play very well. That's called good coaching. Brad Brownell is obviously a very good coach and has gotten a lot out of this team in his first year with a changing style of play."

The sum is better than the individual parts. That pretty much nails it.

Fogler is a no-nonsense dude, and you know if he gives you an opinion that the opinion will be genuine. Unlike some other coaches-turned-commentators, he doesn't blow smoke, play favorites or build up every single one of his former colleagues into Hall of Fame material. And he also pays attention. So his take on Brownell is informed, insightful and detached.

I mean, the man loses one of the great players in Clemson basketball history. He brings a system that's completely different from the one employed by the guy he replaced. Then he loses Donte Hill. Then he loses Noel Johnson.

Losing a few players at North Carolina no doubt hurts, but Williams essentially replaces his driver with a 3-wood off the tee.

Losing two scholarship guys at Clemson means Brownell is teeing off on a Par-5 with an 8-iron.

How many Zavier Andersons and Bryan Narcisses does Williams have? Nothing against these two, but do they make the JV team in Chapel Hill?

In Clemson, Brownell transforms them into players who make significant contributions at various points during the season -- including two days ago in a game that was as big as it gets.

You can point to the absence of a signature win in Brownell's first season. The Tigers certainly missed out on their chances to bag one of those.

But here's another way to look at it: This was a signature season for Brownell, because this bunch had no business winning 20 games and going 9-7 in the ACC.

On to the rest of my ballot...

FIRST-TEAM ALL ACC

Nolan Smith
Jordan Williams
Kyle Singler
Harrison Barnes
Reggie Jackson

The thought process: Not many folks had Barnes on their first team. And I didn't initially. But here's my logic: If you're picking the five players you'd most like to have on your team, how does Barnes not make the cut after all the huge plays he made over the second half of the season? I have some strong reservations about keeping Malcolm Delaney off the first team, because the kid is just a special player. I might've been overly biased by what I saw Saturday, Delaney sulking and wilting in the face of a more spirited and determined Demontez Stitt. But if I had to do it all over again, I might take Singler off the first team and put Delaney on it.

SECOND TEAM

Malcolm Delaney
Tyler Zeller
Iman Shumpert
Kendall Marshall
John Henson

The thought process: Not a whole lot of indecision here. A lot of other voters have Marshall on their third team, but that kid is what makes the Tar Heels go.

THIRD TEAM

Chris Singleton
Seth Curry
Demontez Stitt
Jeff Allen
Jerai Grant

The thought process: In hindsight, probably unfair to demote Singleton all the way to third team because of his games missed (five). Then again, five conference games is more than 30 percent of the total. Curry made a case for second team late in the season. I didn't like what I saw from Allen in the last two games, including Saturday's turnover fest in Littlejohn. Stitt is deserving of a spot on the third team, and Grant slides onto the team by virtue of his vast improvement over last season.

ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM

Harrison Barnes
C.J. Leslie
Travis McKie
Kendall Marshall
Terrell Stoglin

The thought process: Pretty simple choices here. Stoglin is the best player you've never heard of and made a case for inclusion on third-team All-ACC.

ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM

John Henson
Demontez Stitt
Iman Shumpert
Kyle Singler
Jerai Grant

The thought process: This is always a hard one, because you have to do more than simply consult the stats for steals and blocks. There are no stats kept for guys who bottle up star players. You could argue that Stitt and Grant should not be included (Stitt because some of his inconsistency off the ball, and Grant because other bigs in the league are more imposing as shot-blockers and rebounders). But Clemson was an elite defensive team this season, and Stitt and Grant were an integral part of that. Stitt did a really nice job against some elite guards, including Shumpert and Delaney. But in the interest of integrity (or lack thereof), I'll concede some home-team bias in this category because I didn't watch enough ACC basketball this year to form an authoritative view of the best defenders in the league.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Nolan Smith

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

Harrison Barnes

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

John Henson

COACH OF THE YEAR

Some guy named Brownlee



LW