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Notre Dame Basketball: Bonzie Colson named first team All-ACC

On Sunday the ACC announced its regular season awards and honors. As expected, a few members of the Irish were honored.

By Bobby Norell
NCAA Basketball: Florida State at Notre Dame Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

Junior forward Bonzie Colson was named first-team All-ACC on Sunday afternoon. At 6’5”, Colson led the conference in rebounding at 10.4 rebounds per game. In fact, he is the first player since the 1950s to lead the ACC in rebounding that was 6’5” or shorter. Colson also led the league in double-doubles with 18. He was Notre Dame’s leader in points per game (17.0 PPG), FG% (52.5%) and blocks per game (1.4 BPG).

Colson was joined by Luke Kennard of Duke, Justin Jackson of North Carolina, John Collins of Wake Forest and Donovan Mitchell of Louisville on the first team. Colson also joins Jerian Grant as the only two Notre Dame players to be named first team All-ACC.

Although Colson made a strong final push for the ACC Player of the Year, he came up a bit short as he finished third in the voting. Jackson took home the award and Collins finished in second.

Colson is a finalist for the Wooden Award, presented to college basketball’s best player. He’s also a finalist for the Karl Malone Award, which is given to the nation’s best power forward.

Other Irish players to be honored were junior point guard Matt Farrell and senior guards Steve Vasturia and V.J. Beachem. All three earned ACC Honorable Mention honors.

Farrell also finished third in the voting for ACC Most Improved Player behind Collins and Ben Lammers of Georgia Tech. Farrell had a breakout season as he averaged 14.5 PPG, 5.5 APG and shot better than 44% from the field.

Head coach Mike Brey finished also finished third in Coach of the Year voting. As expected Josh Pastner of Georgia Tech took home the award. He surpassed all expectations this season as he led the Yellow Jackets to a 8-10 record in conference play, with wins over Notre Dame, North Carolina and Florida State. Tech was picked to finish second to last in the ACC.

Notre Dame will return to action on Thursday evening as the three seed in the ACC Tournament. The Irish will get the winner of Virginia and Pittsburgh/Georgia Tech. Tipoff is scheduled for 9:00pm ET, and will air on ESPN.

Make sure to keep up with us here at One Foot Down, as we’ll have coverage of Notre Dame’s run through March.

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