Mike Young earns ACC Coach of the Year honors, U.Va.’s Sam Hauser named first-team All-ACC
Just a year after Virginia Tech wilted during conference play and barely finished .500 in his first season in Blacksburg, Mike Young has earned ACC Coach of the Year honors for turning the Hokies into a likely NCAA tournament participant.
Young was awarded the distinction Monday when the ACC revealed its men’s basketball season honors based on the results of the votes of 60 media members and the league’s 15 coaches. Virginia’s Sam Hauser was named first-team All-ACC, while his teammate, Jay Huff, and Virginia Tech’s Keve Aluma were both chosen second team.
Georgia Tech forward Moses Wright won ACC Player of the Year honors, while Yellow Jackets guard Jose Alvarado was selected the ACC Defensive Player of the Year. Huff was runner-up in Defensive Player of the Year voting, and he made the All-Defensive team.
Virginia Tech (15-5, 9-4 ACC), which has played just two games since Feb. 6 because of coronavirus quarantines within and outside its program that resulted in the cancellations of five of its last seven games, came in third in the ACC regular-season standings based on winning percentage. The Hokies were projected by media before the season to finish 11th.
By finishing in the top four, Virginia Tech earned a double bye in this week’s ACC tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina for the first time since the conference expanded to 15 teams for the 2013-14 season and started awarding double byes. Virginia Tech was 16-16 last season, 7-13 in the ACC, losing 11 of its last 13 games.
Young, who came to Virginia Tech in 2019 after spending the previous 17 seasons as Wofford’s coach, is the first Tech coach to win ACC Coach of the Year since Seth Greenberg in 2008.
For winning the award, Young will earn a $90,000 bonus (was originally $100,000 per the terms of his Virginia Tech contract, but a 10% reduction because of coronavirus-related salary and bonus adjustments). He’ll get another $45,000 for finishing in the top four in the ACC (originally $50,000, but down 10% because of coronavirus-related salary and bonus reductions).
Hauser’s first-team distinction marks the seventh time in the last 10 seasons U.Va. has had at least one player make the first team in an ACC vote involving the media. He was joined on the first team by Wright, Pitt’s Justin Champagnie, Louisville’s Carlik Jones and Duke’s Matthew Hurt.
Aluma is the third Virginia Tech player to make the second team in the last four seasons. He was also sixth in Defensive Player of the Year voting.
U.Va.’s Kihei Clark and Virginia Tech’s Tyrece Radford picked up honorable mention designations.
Hauser finished fourth in Player of the Year voting, while Aluma was tied for sixth and Huff was eighth. U.Va.’s Tony Bennett was fourth in Coach of the Year voting, and Huff was eighth in voting for Most Improved Player, which was won by Hurt.
Norm Wood, 757-247-4644, nwood@dailypress.com
