Nick Faulkner
Freshman guard Dennis Smith Jr. goes up for a reverse slam. The Wolfpack dominated Virginia Tech on all sides of the ball in PNC Arena on Jan. 4, 2017 with a 104-78 win, the first ACC win over 100 points since 1991.
NC State men’s basketball freshman guard Dennis Smith Jr. was named the ACC Freshman of the Year on Sunday as the league announced its all-league teams and individual award winners, following a vote of 53 media members and coaches.
Smith was also selected to the All-ACC Second Team and the All-ACC Freshman Team in becoming the first player in Wolfpack history to earn ACC Freshman of the Year honors by himself. Pack great Charles “Hawkeye” Whitney shared the award with Duke’s Mike Gminski in 1977.
Smith was chosen as the ACC preseason Freshman of the Year by media members during the ACC’s annual media day in October and has not disappointed since. The freshman guard finished fifth in ACC scoring with 18.5 points per game, and led the league in assists with 6.3 per game. Smith also tallied 60 steals in 31 contests, averaging 1.94 steals per game, ranking second among ACC players. Along with his other accolades, the Fayetteville, North Carolina product became the first player in conference history to record two triple-doubles against league opponents in an entire career and his 30 points or more in four conference games is an ACC-best.
Smith’s average of 18.5 points per game is the highest for a freshman in NC State history and he is just two steals shy of surpassing Chris Corchiani for the most steals by a freshman in program history. The three-time ACC Freshman of the Week honoree has 196 assists so far this season and needs four more to become just the second player in Wolfpack history to register at least 200 assists in his freshman campaign (Corchiani had 235 assists as a freshman in the 1987-88 season).
The freshman guard’s naming to the All-ACC Second Team marks the fourth-straight season and fifth time in the past six seasons that NC State has had either a first or second team selection on the All-ACC team. Smith is the first Wolfpack player to make the ACC’s All-Freshman team since T.J. Warren in 2013.
Smith is one of 12 players on the midseason watch list for the Wayman Tisdale Award, which is awarded to the national freshman of the year. The floor general is also one of 10 players named as a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award, an award given to the nation’s best point guard.
The Wolfpack take the floor again on Tuesday in the opening round of the ACC Tournament at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. NC State is the 13th-seed and will take on the 12th-seeded Clemson Tigers at noon; the game will be televised on ESPN2 and the ACC Network.