ACC Basketball: Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett lead Player of the Year race

5. De’Andre Hunter – Virginia

Virginia is an interesting team to evaluate and even watch. They play a brand of basketball that is not aesthetically pleasing to the casual fan. One of the things that the Cavaliers have done of lot of in recent years is winning. Head Coach Tony Bennett is one of the better coaches in the industry. Coach Bennett is always going to play his style and he does it so well, that most teams will never adjust to it.

Virginia also has one of the best players in the ACC on their current roster. That player is sophomore guard De’Andre Hunter. He’s the best all-around player for the top ranked Cavaliers. Virginia in their brand of basketball believe in defense first and that is where Hunter has made his living since, he arrived in Charlottesville. The guard is also an extremely efficient scorer and is the scorer for a Virginia offense that appears to have a better flow to it this year.

In last seasons’ history making loss to UMBC in the NCAA tournament the Cavaliers were without Hunter. The entire country could see that Virginia was not the same team without their floor leader. Even as true freshman a season ago, Hunter showed how important he was to the success of the Bennett led squad.  The ACC is going to be very deep this year as was mentioned above, if Virginia can stay healthy, including Hunter the Cavaliers are going to find themselves in the same position entering the NCAA tournament as they did a season ago. The style they play can win in the NCAA tournament and it will. Hunter will be a huge reason for that success.