Are ACC basketball awards biased? Specifically, are they biased against Virginia? I've taken a look back at a few situations where Virginia fans complain of unfair treatment.

Should Norman Nolan have been first team all-ACC as a senior in 1998?

Nolan was the best offensive threat on a lousy team. Did he get passed over because Virginia doesn't have much basketball prestige? I checked his stats once, and they compared well with Cherokee Parks' senior year (21 points and 9 rebounds for Nolan vs. 19 and 9 for Parks). Duke finished last in the ACC in Parks' senior year (1995), and Virginia finished last in Nolan's senior year (1998). Neither made first team all ACC. As seniors, Parks received the eighth most votes, and Nolan received the sixth most for all ACC selection. (All lists and statistics from http://www.sportsstats.com/bball )

95 1st 1 340 *Joe Smith. MARY
95 1st 2 331 Jerry Stackhouse, UNC
95 1st 3 325 Randolph Childress, WFU
95 1st 4 308 Tim Duncan, WFU
95 1st 5 296 Rasheed Wallace, UNC
95 2nd 6 289 Travis Best, GT
95 2nd 7 225 Bob Sura, FSU
95 2nd 8 219 Cherokee Parks, DUKE
95 2nd 9 193 Harold Deane, VIRG
95 2nd 10 155 Todd Fuller, NCSU
95 3rd 11 150 Junior Burrough, VIRG
95 3rd 12 124 James Forrest, GT
95 3rd 13 107 Johnny Rhodes, MARY
95 3rd 14 65 Jeff McInnis, UNC
95 3rd 15 43 James Collins, FSU

Smith and Duncan were #1 overall NBA draft choices, while Wallace, Sura, and Stackhouse have been reasonably successful as pros. Best and Childress were both great college guards, seniors who led their teams to a share of the ACC title. It's hard to put Parks any higher than where he was.

98  1st  1   345 *Antawn Jamison, UNC    **UNANIMOUS** 115 1stteam votes
98  1st  2   343 Matt Harpring, GT                     113
98  1st  3   292 Vince Carter, UNC                      70
98  1st  4   287 Trajan Langdon, DUKE                   68
98  1st  5   282 Roshown McLeod, DUKE                   70
98  2nd  6   274 Norman Nolan, VIRG                     57
98  2nd  7   207 Ed Cota, UNC                           33
98  2nd  8   202 Shammond Williams, UNC                 14
98  2nd  9   185 C.C. Harrison, NCSU                    11
98  2nd  10  167 Greg Buckner, CLEM                     10

In 1998 the ACC clearly wasn't as strong as in 1995, but there were several very good players. Jamison was a force for UNC, Harpring was an all around great hustling player who carried several Yellow Jacket teams on his shoulders. Vince Carter was coming into his own as a dominant physical presence. 1998 15-1 ACC Champs Duke had two very good players fill out the team. Nolan just missed the first team.

Comparing Nolan's situation to Parks', they both just missed the first team, Parks by a little more because of the strength of the conference that year. I can only conclude that Nolan was not overlooked because of his school.

Was Junior Burrough unfairly left off the 1995 All ACC first team?

Who would you move below him? Burroughs suffered because, again, the ACC was loaded in 95. Virginia had its deepest team perhaps ever, eight or nine deep quality players. Burrough's stats were comparable to Stackhouse's (18 and 9 compared to 19 and 8), and he shot very well (50%). Maybe put him ahead of Best since GT was only 8-8 in conference. And Rasheed only averaged 16 and 8, though he was clearly an exceptional talent. There would still be seven players ahead of Burrough that year, one of whom was his own teammate. I can't see a compelling argument for putting Burrough ahead of any of the other seven players.

Was Harold Deane the true ACC Tournament MVP in 1994?

Ok, I don't hear this one that much. Mainly because it's my own argument.

In 1994 Virginia started out horribly. Cory Alexander broke his foot in the first game, and true freshman Deane had to take over the point. The team couldn't shoot at all, the offense frequently consisted of throwing up a shot with the hope of putting in the rebound.

In the tournament, Harold absolutely picked up the team on his shoulders and took UVa to the finals. We lost that game to the defending national champs by basically one play. Cornel Parker passed to Jason Williford who nailed a wide open three... but Parker was called for a charge. No basket, UNC ball, five point swing. A scrub hit a layup at the buzzer for the final margin of eight.

Jerry Stackhouse was voted MVP, and is obviously the least deserving ACC tourney MVP winner of all time. His 15.7 PPG are the least of any winner since 1987, his 6.7 RPG are less than any non-guard winner since Len Bias with 6.0 in 1984, he averaged less than two assists per game, and he only hit TWELVE FIELD GOALS THE ENTIRE TOURNAMENT.

Yes, you read right, the ACC tourney MVP in 1994 averaged one field goal per ten minutes of game time. He was voted MVP because he hit 23 out of 29 free throws. He won simply because he was the high scorer on an absolutely loaded team, while Harold took a team that could not shoot AT ALL to the finals practically by himself (everyone remembers Jamal Robinson had a good tourney, too).

THAT one is Highway robbery.