Despite the trying year that Wake Forest basketball has endured, the been the play of C.J. Harris and Travis McKie has been nothing short of exciting and consistent to watch. The fruit of C.J Harris' labors has come to fruition with a spot on the All-ACC Third Team, which was announced earlier this afternoon by the ACC.
Travis McKie, who arguably should have made at least the third team, was no doubt snubbed due to the win-loss column, rather than his actual play on the court.
C.J Harris averaged 16.8 PPG (4th best in the conference), along with 3.1 RPG and 2.5 APG. He shot 47.9 percent from the field, including an impressive 43.2 percent from behind the arc and 85.6 percent from the free throw line. Made more impressive was the minutes he was asked to play by head coach Jeff Bzdelik at just over 35 MPG.
Travis McKie had very similar numbers in the scoring column with 15.9 PPG and 6.9 RPG. While he hit a mini-slump in the ACC season, his numbers were still pretty impressive, all things considered.
A look at all of the ACC-Teams, as well as more discussion on the McKie snub after the jump.
From the official release at TheACC.com
FIRST TEAM
Tyler Zeller, North Carolina (186)
Mike Scott, Virginia (184)
John Henson, North Carolina (170)
Austin Rivers, Duke (164)
Harrison Barnes, North Carolina (153)
SECOND TEAM
Kendall Marshall, North Carolina (151)
Terrell Stoglin, Maryland (131)
Michael Snaer, Florida State (127)
C.J. Leslie, NC State (99)
Erick Green, Virginia Tech (70)
THIRD TEAM
Seth Curry, Duke (65)
C.J. Harris, Wake Forest (57)
Lorenzo Brown, NC State (52)
Kenny Kadji, Miami (45)
Mason Plumlee, Duke (43)
HONORABLE MENTION
Bernard James, Florida State (42); Andre Young, Clemson (35); Travis McKie, Wake Forest (26); Durand Scott, Miami (26).
ACC ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM*
John Henson, North Carolina (61)
Bernard James, Florida State (54)
Jontel Evans, Virginia (39)
Michael Snaer, Florida State (31)
Andre Young, Clemson (29)
ACC ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM*
Austin Rivers, Duke (61)
Ryan Anderson, Boston College (61)
Dorian Finney-Smith, Virginia Tech (53)
Shane Larkin, Miami (43)
Nick Faust, Maryland (41)
The first team is dominated by UNC players, who placed their entire frontcourt on the First Team All-ACC team. PG Kendall Marshall has obvious room to complain, as the media bias towards Harrison Barnes no doubt propelled him onto the First Team over what I would consider the "more important" Kendall Marshall. Austin Rivers and Mike Scott round out the First Team, and it is astonishing that two people did not put Scott on the first team. I have no idea what people are thinking with some of the ballots.
C.J Harris received 57 votes, missing the Second Team by 13 votes, and only trailing Duke's Seth Curry by 3 votes. I have no qualms with Harris being on the Third Team over the five on the Second Team though, as it would be hard to justify anybody moving out that was ahead of him.
The big news in my opinion is the omission of Travis McKie from the list at all, other than an Honorable Mention. McKie received just 26 votes and missed out on the Third Team by 17 votes in all. McKie finished 6th in the ACC in scoring and 11th in the league in rebounding. Needless to say, if he had been on a team that won more games, he more than likely would have been on the team. His stats are favorable to those of Leslie, Kadji, Young, Snaer, and arguably Harrison Barnes, who made the first team, just to name a few.
While it isn't a huge deal that he did not make the list, I believe that he was definitely worthy of a spot of the 15 and there are a lot of politics involved in making these teams because it focuses more on the teams that win rather than just looking at the players that the teams are comprised of.
A huge congrats go out to C.J Harris and Travis McKie (even though he did not make it), as well as all of the other All-ACC team members and HM's because of the high quality of play that they have shown on the court this year.