Tobacco Road Report

In this segment of the TRR All-ACC Awards, we offer our selections for the Tobacco Road Report Defensive All-ACC Team and Tobacco Road Report Defensive Player of the Year.

1st team Tobacco Road Report Defensive All-ACC Team
Jamon Gordon, Virginia Tech
Zabian Dowdell, Virginia Tech
DJ Strawberry, Maryland
Ekene Ibekwe, Maryland
Brandon Wright, UNC

Tobacco Road Report Defensive Player of the Year: Jamon Gordon, Virginia Tech

Comments: Picking four on this team wasn't difficult. The guard duo for Virginia Tech, Jamon Gordon and Zabian Dowdell, was magnificent on defense all year. Entering every big game the pre-game analysis centered on Virginia Tech's defense versus the opposing team's offense. On nearly all of these occassions, the Virginia Tech defense won out. Stopping the opponent was rarely the problem for Tech, but finding enough offense sometimes was.

Gordon was so good, in fact, that we named him our defensive player of the year. He drew the toughest defensive assignment every game and there's no one we'd rather have guarding the opponent's best perimeter player down the stretch.

The Maryland defense steadily improved throughout the season and Strawberry and Ibekwe were the anchors inside and out, respectively. Ibekwe gets a lot of praise for blocking shots, but was a relatively late placement on this all-defense team since we believe that the defensive possession doesn't end until the defensive rebound is secured. Blocks are great, but players can get overly-fixated on blocking shots while simultaneously opening the offensive rebound lanes. Maryland was guilty of this early on. Once they began to secure the defensive glass with regularity, the overall defense improved dramatically, clearing the way for Ekene to fill the slot.

While these first four picks were easy, we struggled a bit with the fifth. We're perplexed with Josh McRoberts on the official All-Defensive Team, as we didn't even have him on the radar. Yes he was effective at blocking shots, but we'd never be afraid to take the offense to him. He was also a good defensive rebounder, but this wasn't sufficient for us. That Duke sometimes chose Zubek to guard the opposing team's main big man should say enough.

TRR decided on Brandon Wright due to his length and ability to alter shots. Carolina's perimeter defense can play the passing lanes with the knowledge that Wright is guarding the bucket. He may have blended into the background on offense at times since Carolina has so many weapons, but this didn't stop the staff at TRR for recognizing his contributions on defense.