RALEIGH, N.C.—Virginia freshman guard Sylven Landesberg (Flushing, N.Y.) is the 2009 Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Basketball Rookie of the Year. Landesberg’s selection by members of the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association was announced Tuesday (March 10).
Landesberg received 55 votes and Al-Farouq Aminu of Wake Forest was second in the voting with 20 votes.
“Coming in as a freshman, I wanted to make an impact as big as I could,“ Landesberg told The Associated Press. “I wasn’t expecting it, and I don’t think anybody else expected it to be this big.“
Landesberg is the fourth Virginia men’s basketball player to be named ACC Rookie of the Year joining Ralph Sampson (1980), Bryant Stith (1989) and Chris Williams (1999).
“I think I prepared myself very well for this,“ Landesberg told The Associated Press. “After my high school season ended, I went through numerous workouts, day in and day out, just to get ready to play ACC basketball. I knew it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park, so I tried to put myself through the toughest workouts I could find, and that helped me out a lot to get to this position.“
Landesberg leads ACC freshmen in scoring (16.8 ppg) and minutes played (34.1 mpg). He is ranked third among conference rookies in rebounding (6.0 per game) and assists (2.7 per game). Landesberg was named ACC Rookie of the Week six times this season, a total that is tied for third in conference history.
He has scored in double figures 22 times and his 12 20-point games are a UVa freshman record.
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Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com