College Basketball Awards: ACC Edition

The two Tobacco Road schools have received all the credit in the ACC, while players and coaches from other teams have shined as well.

Duke and Carolina players aren't the only teams who deserves accolades, which is why this special ACC awards ceremony recognizes the accomplishments of players and coaches around the entire conference.

While everyone can probably guess who the ACC Player of the Year is going to be, Coach of the Year, Freshman of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year and Most Improved Player will be recognized as well.

 

Player of the Year

Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina (Year: Junior)

Hansbrough is without question the best player in the ACC, and this season he has taken his game to another level.

"Psycho T" never takes a night off, with the intense passion he brings to the floor.

Whenever you watch him play and see the look on his face when he does things as simple as grabbing a rebound, it is literally intimidating.

This season, he is averaging 23.3 PPG along with 10.4 RPG.

His North Carolina Tar Heels are tied atop the ACC along with their rival Duke.  The Tar Heels are also the No. 1 team in the nation.

Coach of the Year

Oliver Purnell, Clemson

North Carolina's Roy Williams and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski are two of the more known coaches in the ACC, and are expected to be successful every year.

But no one had any high expectations of Oliver Purnell's Clemson Tigers. 

For the last few seasons Clemson has got off to a great start, and then finishes the season on a bad note.

This year has been all but that, as Purnell has kept the Tigers consistent and has led them to a 21-7 record, good for the third best record in the ACC.

Clemson should definitely be dancing later this month, and Purnell deserves the credit for that.

Freshman of the Year

Kyle Singler, Duke

Michael Beasley, Derrick Rose, Eric Gordon, O.J. Mayo, and Kevin Love are among the freshmen who get all the hype.  And While Kyle Singler may not be in the same league with those guys, he deserves credit as well. 

The Blue Devils had a disappointing 8-8 record in the ACC last year.  And to make matters worse, they were eliminated in their first game of the NCAA Tournament by Virginia Commonwealth.

This season, Duke appears to have turned things around, and freshman Kyle Singler is a huge reason for that.

In his first season as a Blue Devil, Singler is the team's second leading scoring, trailing only DeMarcus Nelson.

Sixth Man of the Year

Danny Green, North Carolina (Year: Junior)

Whenever you see a team's sixth man doing some type of pre-game dance before every game, then you better believe he's bringing that same type of energy to the floor.

Green is the perfect spark off the bench, and can shoot with the best of them in the ACC.

While he shoots 38 percent from behind the arc, Green also averages 11.8 PPG off the pine.

Most Improved Player

Bambale Osby, Maryland (Year: Senior)

In his final season as a Terrapin, Osby is now consistently playing at a high level.

Osby is a physical and scrappy guy down low, and is third in the conference in blocked shots.

Not only has his shot blocking gone up to 2.1 per game, but he has made a difference with his offense as well, averaging 11.3 PPG.

Osby got the slight edge as MIP over his own teammate, Greivis Vasquez. 

Michael Whittenberg is a senior writer and NBA Community Leader for BleacherReport.com