Published Mar 10, 2025
Cooper Flagg wins ACC player of the year
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Conor O'Neill  •  DevilsIllustrated
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Blue Devils’ freshman phenom collects several league honors, with four teammates earning recognition on other levels

Cooper Flagg became the fourth player to ever win the ACC’s player of the year and rookie of the year honors.

Duke’s sensational freshman headlined the league’s awards, announced Monday evening. All five of Duke’s starters landed some form of recognition on the All-ACC teams.

Flagg is a frontrunner for national player of the year awards. Going into the ACC tournament, he’s averaging 19.4 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. Flagg is the only player in the conference to rank in the top 10 for scoring, rebounding, assists, blocked shots and steals.

Each of the four players who have won the league’s player of the year award as a freshman have been Duke players. Flagg joins Zion Williamson (2019), Marvin Bagley III (2018) and Jahlil Okafor (2015) in that category.

Kon Knueppel was named a second-team All-ACC player; Tyrese Proctor was named a third-team All-ACC player; Khaman Maluach was named an honorable mention All-ACC player; and Sion James was named to the league’s all-defensive team. Knueppel and Maluach also joined Flagg on the all-rookie team, and Flagg was on the all-defensive team.

Flagg finished runner-up to Chucky Hepburn of Louisville for the league’s defensive player of the year award; Jon Scheyer was second to Pat Kelsey for the league’s coach of the year award.

Here are the All-ACC teams and awards, as voted on by a select panel of the league’s media and coaches. There were 81 total voters and coaches could not vote for their own players:

All-ACC first-team

Name, school, voting points

Cooper Flagg, Duke, 400

Maxime Raynaud, Stanford, 392

Chucky Hepburn, Louisville, 364

Chase Hunter, Clemson, 328

Hunter Sallis, Wake Forest, 257

All-ACC second-team

RJ Davis, UNC, 241

Markus Burton, Notre Dame, 238

Ian Schieffelin, Clemson, 225

Kon Knueppel, Duke, 208

Jamir Watkins, FSU, 150

All-ACC third-team

Terrence Edwards Jr., Louisville, 125

Tyrese Proctor, Duke, 72

Baye Ndongo, Georgia Tech, 72

Boopie Miller, SMU, 71

Jaland Lowe, Pittsburgh, 62

All-ACC honorable mention

Matthew Cleveland, Miami, 49

Andrej Stojakovic, California, 48

Naithan George, Georgia Tech, 40

Isaac McKneely, Virginia, 38

J.J. Starling, Syracuse, 32

Donald Hand Jr., Boston College, 29

Cameron Hildreth, Wake Forest, 26

Khaman Maluach, Duke, 23

Viktor Lakhin, Clemson, 20

Eddie Lampkin, Syracuse, 19

Note: All-ACC team points are determined on a 5-3-1 system — five points for first team, three points for second team, one point for third team.

Player of the year

Cooper Flagg, Duke, 76 votes

Maxime Raynaud, Stanford, 4

Chucky Hepburn, Louisville, 1

Defensive player of the year

Chucky Hepburn, Louisville, 32 votes

Cooper Flagg, Duke, 26

Jaeden Zackery, Clemson, 8

Zack Austin, Pittsburgh, 4

Maliq Brown, Duke, 3

Chad Venning, Boston College, 2

Khaman Maluach, Duke, 2

Sion James, Duke, 1

Mady Sissoko, California, 1

Tae Davis, Notre Dame, 1

Cameron Hildreth, Wake Forest, 1

Rookie of the year

Cooper Flagg, Duke, 79 votes

Jeremiah Wilkinson, California, 2

Sixth man of the year

Jeremiah Wilkinson, California, 22 votes

Duncan Powell, Georgia Tech, 15

Ian Jackson, UNC, 13

Maliq Brown, Duke, 11

Kario Oquendo, SMU, 11

Isaiah Evans, Duke, 9

Most improved player

Donald Hand Jr., Boston College, 25 votes

Jaylen Blakes, Stanford, 22

Tae Davis, Notre Dame, 8

Naithan George, Georgia Tech, 7

Jaland Lowe, Pittsburgh, 7

Andrej Stojakovic, California, 4

Andrew Rohde, Virginia, 4

B.J. Edwards, SMU, 2

Eddie Lampkin, Syracuse, 1

Tyrese Proctor, Duke, 1

Coach of the year

Pat Kelsey, Louisville, 47 votes

Jon Scheyer, Duke, 25

Brad Brownell, Clemson, 8

Kyle Smith, Stanford, 1

All-defensive team

Chucky Hepburn, Louisville, 70 votes

Cooper Flagg, Duke, 57

Jaeden Zackery, Clemson, 55

B.J. Edwards, SMU, 34

Sion James, Duke, 28

Zack Austin, Pittsburgh, 28

All-rookie team

Cooper Flagg, Duke, 80 votes

Kon Knueppel, Duke, 79

Ian Jackson, UNC, 65

Jeremiah Wilkinson, California, 59

Khaman Maluach, Duke, 47