Juke Harris wins ACC’s most improved player award
Juke Harris now has an award from the ACC’s panel of voters to confirm his improvement from last season to this one.
Harris was named the league’s most improved player in a landslide of a vote on Monday.
The sophomore wing is averaging 21.7 points per game this season. He’s scored in double figures in every game, has had at least 20 points in 17 of 31 games, and has gone over 30 points three times. One of those was Saturday, with a 31-point, 15-rebound game against California in the regular-season finale.
Harris’ sophomore jump comes after he played about 19 minutes per game as a freshman, scoring 6.1 points per game.
The 6-7, 200-pounder is Wake’s leading rebounder this season, with 6.7 per game. Harris went from making 20 of 66 3-pointers as a freshman to a 79-for-234 clip this season.
He was also named to the All-ACC second-team.
Here are the All-ACC teams and awards, as voted on by a select panel of the league’s media and coaches. There were 86 total voters and coaches could not vote for their own players:
All-ACC teams
First-team (name/school/points)
Cameron Boozer, Duke, 425
Caleb Wilson, North Carolina, 410
Ebuka Okorie, Stanford, 356
Malik Reneau, Miami, 344
Thijs De Ridder, Virginia, 302
Second-team
Boopie Miller, SMU, 293
Juke Harris, Wake Forest, 237
Henri Veesaar, North Carolina, 215
Tre Donaldson, Miami, 204
Ryan Conwell, Louisville, 201
Third-team
Isaiah Evans, Duke, 151
Mikel Brown Jr., Louisville, 147
Quadir Copeland, NC State, 98
Robert McCray V, Florida State, 90
Dai Dai Ames, California, 51
Honorable mention
Jaron Pierre Jr., SMU, 45
Donnie Freeman, Syracuse, 36
RJ Godfrey, Clemson, 32
Amani Hansberry, Virginia Tech, 29
Seth Trimble, North Carolina, 27
Patrick Ngongba II, Duke, 26
Justin Pippen, California, 18
Darrion Williams, NC State, 16
Jalen Haralson, Notre Dame, 15
B.J. Edwards, SMU, 15
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).
All-Defensive Team
Maliq Brown, Duke, 63 votes
Ugonna Onyenso, Virginia, 58
B.J. Edwards, SMU, 55
Dame Sarr, Duke, 48
Ernest Udeh Jr., Miami, 40
All-Rookie Team
Cameron Boozer, Duke, 84 votes
Caleb Wilson, North Carolina, 84
Ebuka Okorie, Stanford, 82
Mikel Brown Jr., Louisville, 64
Thijs De Ridder, Virginia, 62
ACC awards
Player of the Year
Cameron Boozer, Duke, 84 votes
Ebuka Okorie, Stanford, 1
Thijs De Ridder, Virginia, 1
Defensive Player of the Year
Maliq Brown, Duke, 25 votes
Dame Sarr, Duke, 15
Ugonna Onyenso, Virginia, 13
Cameron Boozer, Duke, 10
B.J. Edwards, SMU, 8
Ernest Udeh Jr., Miami, 4
William Kyle III, Syracuse, 3
Patrick Ngongba II, Duke, 2
Caleb Wilson, North Carolina, 2
Quadir Copeland, Syracuse 2
Johann Grünloh, Virginia, 2
Rookie of the Year
Cameron Boozer, Duke, 82 votes
Ebuka Okorie, Stanford, 3
Caleb Wilson, North Carolina, 1
Sixth Man Of the Year
Maliq Brown, Duke, 38 votes
Jacari White, Virginia, 20
Tru Washington, Miami, 19
Adrian Wooley, Louisville, 5
Jeremy Dent-Smith, Stanford, 2
Nojus Indrusaitis, Pitt, 1
Cayden Boozer, Duke, 1
Most Improved Player
Juke Harris, Wake Forest, 55 votes
Dai Dai Ames, California, 8
Isaiah Evans, Duke, 6
Cole Certa, Notre Dame, 5
Malik Reneau, Miami, 3
B.J. Edwards, SMU, 3
Fred Payne, Boston College, 2
Paul McNeil, Jr., NC State, 1
Ugonna Onyenso, Virginia, 1
Ben Hammond, Virginia Tech, 1
Patrick Ngongba II, Duke, 1
Coach of the Year
Jon Scheyer, Duke, 51 votes
Jai Lucas, Miami, 19
Ryan Odom, Virginia, 9
Luke Loucks, Florida State, 4
Brad Brownell, Clemson, 2
Mark Madsen, California, 1
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