Diakite, Clark, and Key represent Virginia on All-ACC teams

The Athletic Coast Conference announced the conference awards for the 2019-20 season on Monday afternoon, headlined by Duke’s Tre Jones and Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton. Three Virginia players — Mamadi Diakite, Kihei Clark, and Braxton Key — earned awards, while head coach Tony Bennett finished second in Coach of the Year voting. Jay Huff earned one vote for the Most Improved Player.

Diakite earned a spot on the All-ACC Second Team, as well as the ACC All-Defensive Team. The redshirt fifth year is averaging 13.7 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, and has 38 blocks and 23 steals. He shot 47.4% from the field and added distance shooting to his game with a 36.4% mark from beyond the arc. Diakite finished the season with an eFG% of 51%. On the defensive end, Diakite averaged just 2.4 fouls per 40 minutes.

Second year Kihei Clark was the leading point-getter on the All-ACC Third Team, finishing just three points behind NC State’s Markell Johnson. Clark averaged 10.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 5.9 assists per game (good for third in the ACC). He finished with a team-high in steals (37), and the best free throw shooting percentage (87.6%) on the team among all players with at least 10 attempts.

Clark has had a season full of highlights as he — among other plays — hit the game winning shots to lift the Hoos over both Virginia Tech and Louisville, and dished to Tomas Woldetensae for the game-winner at North Carolina. He also sank the two free throws that gave the Hoos the win at Miami, and did all of this while averaging the most minutes (37.1) per game in the league.

Clark also finished fourth in voting for ACC Defensive Player of the Year.

Fourth year Braxton Key rounded out Virginia’s awardees by making the All-ACC Honorable Mention Team. Key does a little bit of everything for the Cavaliers, averaging 9.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game. He missed three games during the season due to a broken wrist, but has been a defensive stalwart and an essential cog for Virginia.

Duke’s Tre Jones earned both ACC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. Blue Devil Vernon Carey Jr. joined Jones on the All-ACC First Team and was named Rookie of the Year, but wasn’t submitted by the school to be eligible for Player of the Year.

Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton was named the ACC Coach of the Year for guiding the Seminoles to an outright ACC regular season title and No. 1 seed in the ACC tournament.

Here are the full results:

2020 All-ACC Team

First Team
Vernon Carey Jr., Duke, 367
Jordan Nwora, Louisville, 359
John Mooney, Notre Dame, 351
Tre Jones, Duke, 348
Elijah Hughes, Syracuse, 305

Second Team
Mamadi Diakite, Virginia, 234
Devin Vassell, Florida State, 212
Garrison Brooks, North Carolina, 209
Trent Forrest, Florida State, 200
Markell Johnson, NC State, 101

Third Team
Kihei Clark, Virginia, 98
Jose Alvarado, Georgia Tech, 87
Aamir Simms, Clemson, 79
Cole Anthony, North Carolina, 69
Olivier Sarr, Wake Forest, 63

Honorable Mention
Landers Nolley II, Virginia Tech, 58
Michael Devoe, Georgia Tech, 48
Brandon Childress, Wake Forest 44
Chris Lykes, Miami, 32
M.J. Walker, Florida State, 22
Braxton Key, Virginia, 16
Dwayne Sutton, Louisville 15
Steffon Mitchell, Boston College, 11

ACC Player of the Year
Tre Jones, Duke, 34
Jordan Nwora, Louisville, 17
John Mooney, Notre Dame, 11
Elijah Hughes, Syracuse, 7
Trent Forrest, Florida State, 4
Mamadi Diakite, Virginia 2

Freshman of the Year
Vernon Carey Jr., Duke, 70
Landers Nolley II, Virginia Tech, 2
Cole Anthony, North Carolina, 2
Patrick Williams, Florida State, 1

All-Defensive Team
Tre Jones, Duke, 64
Mamadi Diakite, Virginia, 55
Trent Forrest, Florida State, 55
James Banks III, Georgia Tech, 34
Steffon Mitchell, Boston College, 30

All-Freshman Team
Vernon Carey Jr., Duke, 75
Cole Anthony, North Carolina, 55
Landers Nolley II, Virginia Tech, 54
Cassius Stanley, Duke, 36
Patrick Williams, Florida State, 29

Coach of the Year
Leonard Hamilton, Florida State, 62
Tony Bennett, Virginia, 12
Chris Mack, Louisville, 1

Defensive Player of the Year
Tre Jones, Duke, 45
Trent Forrest, Florida State, 18
Steffon Mitchell, Boston College, 8
Kihei Clark, Virginia, 3
Manny Bates, NC State, 1

Most Improved Player
Garrison Brooks, North Carolina, 17
Olivier Sarr, Wake Forest, 16
Devin Vassell, Florida State, 16
Buddy Boeheim, Syracuse, 10
Aamir Simms, Clemson, 6
Moses Wright, Georgia Tech, 6
Prentiss Hubb, Notre Dame, 2
DJ Funderburk, NC State, 1
Jay Huff, Virginia, 1

6th Man of the Year
Patrick Williams, Florida State, 35
Malik Williams, Louisville, 28
Dane Goodwin, Notre Dame, 9
Isaiah Wong, Miami, 3