Notre Dame guard Markus Burton wins ACC Rookie of the Week
Notre Dame freshman guard Markus Burton has won the first weekly award of his young college career. One would think it won’t be his last.
Burton took home Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Week honors for his performance in Notre Dame’s win over Virginia, the ACC announced Tuesday. On 574 Day — celebrating the greater North Central Indiana area — the Mishawaka native scored 15 points and finished with a career-high 8 assists.
“We worked our butts off coming into this game,” Burton said after the win. “We knew Virginia was a really, really good team. It wasn’t easy coming into this.”
Along with junior guard and fellow 574 resident J.R. Konieczny (the South Bend native scored 17 points and 8 rebounds) and freshman forward Carey Booth (also 17 points, along with 9 rebounds), Burton led Notre Dame to a stunning 76-54 victory. The Cavaliers had been ranked for most of the season and would have been No. 30 in the Associated Press Top 25 if the rankings extended that far.
According to Notre Dame Athletics, Burton is the first player to pick up 8 assists against Virginia’s world-renowned defense since Feb. 4 (Virginia Tech’s Justyn Mutts), and it only happened twice all of last season.
Burton went through a tough stretch in late November and early December, scoring 8 and 6 points against South Carolina and Miami, respectively. He went a combined 5-for-19 in those two games, including 1-for-9 from 3-point range. Burton was pressing a little bit as he adjusted to the raised level of competition.
However, Burton started to play within himself and let the game come to him from that point on. The Virginia win marked 6-straight games of 13 points or more for the freshman.
“Honestly, I was just out there playing,” Burton said. “When I play to win, good things happen. I know I have a tendency to force things when things are not going my way, but today it was a learning experience for me. I feel like I made a big jump, with just finding my teammates, playing together and trusting everybody around me.”
Previously, the ACC Rookie of the Week award had gone to Pitt guard Carlton Carrington three times, Georgia Tech forward Baye Ndongo three times and North Carolina State guard Dennis Parker Jr. once. Despite that, Burton might have a claim for the ACC Freshman of the Year Award when it’s all said and done.
At 15.9 points per game, Burton ranks first among ACC freshmen and third among freshmen in the country. That’s more than 5 points per game ahead of the next-best Notre Dame player (Konieczny at 10.3). Burton’s 3.9 assists and 1.5 steals also lead the Irish, with no one else averaging more than 1.0 (fellow freshman guard Logan Imes).
Burton and the Irish are back in action at 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday, when Notre Dame hosts North Carolina State in South Bend.
