Times wires
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
GREENSBORO, N.C. — In helping guide North Carolina to an ACC regular-season title, former Sickles standout John Henson was named the conference's defensive player of the year.
Duke's Nolan Smith was chosen as player of the year, and two other top awards belong to North Carolina: Roy Williams as coach of the year and Harrison Barnes as top freshman.
Henson, a sophomore who averaged nearly four blocks in ACC games, was voted first on 49 ballots to finish ahead of FSU's Chris Singleton (16) and Georgia Tech's Iman Shumpert (2).
The winners were announced Tuesday after a vote of 75 members of the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association.
Big East awards: Notre Dame guard Ben Hansbrough was named player of the year, and coach Mike Brey was chosen as coach of the year after leading the Irish (25-5, 14-4) to a second-place conference finish.
Horizon: Matt Howard scored 18 to lead Butler (23-9) to a 59-44 win over Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Milwaukee and its third league tournament title in the past four years.
Ivy League: Princeton (24-6, 12-2) forced a tie for the title with a 70-58 win over host Penn. Princeton and Harvard will play Saturday in a playoff for the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.
MEaC: Kevin White scored 22 to lead Maryland-Eastern Shore to an 87-85 double-overtime victory against Florida A&M in the first round in Winston-Salem, N.C. Avery Moore scored 21 for the Rattlers (12-20).
Summit: Keith Benson scored 28 to lead Oakland (Mich.) past Oral Roberts 90-76 to repeat as champion. The top-seeded Golden Grizzlies (25-9) used a 24-5 run to put the game out of reach in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Sun Belt: Former USF player Solomon Bozeman's deep 3-pointer with 1.5 seconds left gave Arkansas-Little Rock (19-16) a 64-63 win over North Texas in Hot Springs, Ark., for the league title and sent the Trojans to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 21 years.