GREENSBORO, N.C. – Miami sophomore guard Shane Larkin, who led the Hurricanes to their first Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season and tournament championships, has been voted the ACC Player of the Year by the league’s head coaches.
This marks the first year that the ACC coaches have voted on a Player of the Year award. As was the case with the 2013 Coaches All-ACC team released Monday, coaches were not allowed to vote for their own players, and balloting took place prior to last weekend’s ACC Tournament.
Though Larkin starred in last weekend’s tournament and earned MVP honors in leading Miami to the title, his regular-season credentials alone made him the Player of the Year choice in the coaches’ voting. Larkin received six votes to outdistance Virginia’s Joe Harris (3), Virginia Tech’s Erick Green (2) and Duke’s Mason Plumlee (1).
Larkin, a 5-foot-11 sophomore from Orlando, Fla., enters NCAA Tournament play leading the Hurricanes in scoring at 14.6 points per game while ranking fourth among ACC players in assists at 4.4 per game and second in steals (2.0). The 2013 ACC Tournament MVP’s 48.6 percent shooting accuracy ranks ninth among conference players, and he ranks seventh in 3-point shots made with 63 (1.9 per game).
The Wooden Award and Bob Cousy Award finalist was named both the ACC Player of the Week and the Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week on Feb. 4. Larkin was also named the ACC Player of the Year by Sports Illustrated and was voted to the All-ACC first team by both the ACC Coaches and the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association (ACSMA).
Larkin will lead the second-seeded Hurricanes (27-6) into the NCAA Tournament, where they will face 15th-seeded Pacific in the second round of the East Region on Friday at 2:10 p.m. in Austin, Texas.
2013 Coaches ACC Player of the Year
Shane Larkin, So., Miami 6
Joe Harris, Jr., Virginia 3
Erick Green, Sr., Virginia Tech 2
Mason Plumlee, Sr., Duke 1
