Virginia’s Joe Harris is the ACC Player of the Year
Joe Harris wasn’t only securing a tournament ticket with his 36-point masterstroke in Virginia’s win over No. 3 Duke on Thursday night. He was campaigning for ACC Player of the Year.
Consider that sealed too.
The ACC’s silent slayer upstaged the league’s prohibitive favorite for most outstanding player honors, rendering Wooden Award candidate Mason Plumlee a silent casualty instead. Harris posted career-highs in scoring and offensive rebounds as his ballyhooed counterpart was responsible for more giveaways (3) than made field goals (2). He took four different Duke defenders to task, even diversified his shot attempts to cover all of his favorite hotspots on the floor. When Seth Curry caught fire for the Blue Devils in the second half, Harris became Virginia’s self-appointed extinguisher. Then he put out the Duke flame for good with a timely trifecta down the stretch.
February 28, 2013; Charlottesville, VA USA; Virginia Cavaliers guard Joe Harris (12) blocks the shot of Duke Blue Devils guard Rasheed Sulaimon (14) in the second half at John Paul Jones Arena. The Cavaliers won 73-68. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Not-so-average Joe is more than one of college basketball’s best kept secrets. The junior guard is the ACC’s most valuable, productive and consistent player wrapped in one. What’s more, he’s an equal opportunity assassin, having undressed all of the ACC’s heavy-hitters — Duke, Maryland, Miami, North Carolina twice and N.C. State.
An irreplaceable linchpin to a Virginia team firmly in the field of 68, Harris is the cornerstone of Virginia’s stifling defense and the saving grace for an offense that has to scrap and claw for every point. Take Harris off the Hoos and you can take six or seven wins off the UVA ledger.
A depot of first-class production, Harris is the ACC’s top statistical performer across the board. His 1.47 points per shot average and 46-percent 3-point shooting percentage are the best marks among qualifying backcourt players in the conference. Opponents, meanwhile, are shooting just 27-percent against him, the second lowest field goal percentage allowed by an ACC guard. In close-and-late situations — defined as any possession occurring in overtime or the final five minutes of regulation in which the scoring margin is two possessions or fewer — Harris is averaging a league-best 1.86 points per shot. Lo and behold, he’s clutch too.
A model of consistency, Harris is the only ACC player to notch at least 13 points in all but one conference tilt. He hasn’t shot worse than 33-percent from the floor in a league game, which is uncanny for a ball-dominant guard. Seven ACC starters are averaging a lower field goal percentage on the season than Harris compiled in his worst game.
Plumlee, as he proved in College Park and reinforced in Charlottesville, is prone to disappear. Vintage player of the year contenders, like Harris, avoid that tendency. Virginia Tech scoring ace Erick Green, who leads the nation in scoring, is a glorified stat padder on a bad team. Mistake-prone N.C. State standout CJ Leslie has been overshadowed in his own frontcourt by Richard Howell. And no one would dare put Howell vis-a-vis Harris in a player of the year conversation.
That leaves one unheralded star with nary a fault — far and away the least flawed player in a conference replete with several great ones.
Around the time when Virginia fans began retiring from the John Paul Jones Arena floor, fresh off the requisite court rush for beating Duke, the month of March set upon college basketball. Thanks to the splendid play of No. 12, these Cavaliers will have an opportunity to show off their all-conference hotshot to the rest of the nation in the grand tournament later this month.
The Madness has just begun in the Old Dominion, just as the man who delivered it put the finishing touches on his ACC Player of the Year candidacy.