Tobacco Road Report

In the third installment of the TRR All-ACC Awards, we reveal our choices for the Tobacco Road Report Freshman All-ACC Team and TRR Freshman of the Year Award.

1st team TRR Freshman All-ACC
Greivis Vasquez, Maryland
Javaris Crittenton, Georgia Tech
Ty Lawson, UNC
Brandon Costner, NC State
Brandon Wright, UNC

2nd team TRR Freshman All-ACC
Ishmael Smith, Wake Forest
Thaddeus Young, Georgia Tech
John Scheyer, Duke
Trevor Booker, Clemson
Dwayne Collins, Miami

TRR Freshman of the Year in the ACC: Brandon Wright, UNC

Comments: Our first team differs slightly from the official all-freshman team as released by the ACC. We believe Greivis Vasquez deserves the nod over John Scheyer since the insertion of Vasquez in the Maryland starting lineup coincided with the turnaround of the Terrapin season.

Vasquez was coming off the bench in the early part of the year as Gary Williams prefered his energy and enthusiasm on the second unit. However, with the first team struggling day in and day out to play consistently, Williams decided to go with Vasquez at the point. His high energy, long range accuracy, penetration abilities, and vision on the break opened up the floor for Strawberry and Jones. The result was beautiful to watch. His near triple-double of 13 points, 12 assists, and 9 rebounds against Duke was all we needed to move him into the first team.

We did struggle somewhat with the placement of Lawson on the first team over Thaddeus Young. Lawson is the goods and TRR enjoys watching him run the point, but we debated his relative impact on the Tar Heel squad in 20-25 minutes per game relative to the load that Thaddeus Young was asked to carry day-in and day-out. But in the end we settled on the man that provides the juice to the high-powered Carolina offense.

As for Brandon Wright and Freshman of the Year...it's not even close. This gentleman would be a top 5 selection in the NBA draft should he choose to forgo his remaining eligibility.