Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 10, 1992 TAG: 9203100212
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RALEIGH, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
The 6-foot-11 forward, whose No. 32 jersey was the sixth in school history to be retired, was a first-team choice on all but one of the 105 ballots cast by members of the Atlantic Coast Sports Writers Association. He got 314 of a possible 315 points.
The other ballot cast for Laettner, the 1991 ACC athlete of the year, was a second-team nomination.
Also selected to the first team: Walt Williams of Maryland (310), Tom Gugliotta of North Carolina State (289), Rodney Rogers of Wake Forest (277) and Bryant Stith of Virginia (268).
Stith was picked for his third All-ACC first team after missing out his freshman year. Laettner was picked to the first team for the second straight season. Rogers and Gugliotta were second-team choices last year, and Williams made the team for the first time.
Laettner, a finalist for the Sullivan Award given annually to the nation's top amateur athlete, became the third Duke player to score 2,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds in a career, joining Mike Gminski and Danny Ferry. He is third on Duke's all-time scoring list with 2,272 points and is ninth on the ACC career scoring list.
This season, Laettner took on a bigger role as offensive leader when point guard Bobby Hurley went out with a broken right foot and forward Grant Hill filled in at the point. After the team lost its first game of the season to North Carolina, Laettner led the effort against Louisiana State and made a key 3-point basket in the Blue Devils' triumph at Baton Rouge.
He came through again in Duke's road victory over UCLA and, as he bid farewell to the crowd at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Sunday against North Carolina, Laettner scored 26 points with the help of five 3-point field goals. It capped a 24-2 regular season for the Blue Devils, who enter the ACC Tournament for the second straight season as the top-seeded team.
In his past four games, Laettner has made 15 of 21 3-point attempts. He is averaging 21.7 points.
Stith is Virginia's all-time leading scorer, and is fourth on the ACC career list with 2,381 points, surpassing the mark set by Jeff Lamp, who had 2,317. He is the 26th player in league history to reach the 2,000-point mark - Laettner followed as the 27th later in the season.
Stith has scored in double figures in 45 straight games.
Williams, 6-8, scored 30 or more points in seven straight games. He hit 60 percent of his field goals in the process, and he leads the league in scoring with a 26-point average. Williams also is on a run of 16 games with 20 points or more; he has reached that figure 23 times this season.
When Maryland completes its run through the ACC Tournament - the Terrapins are ineligible for NCAA postseason play - Williams will be the school's sixth-leading career scorer.
Gugliotta, a 6-10 forward who has the skills of a guard, averaged six minutes per game in his freshman year at N.C. State. He leaves Raleigh as the only ACC player to rank among the top 20 in the league's nine statistical categories this season while playing 37 minutes per game. He saved his best for his senior year, in which his stock in the eyes of NBA scouts rose dramatically.
Through last weekend's action, Gugliotta had set career highs in all but one category in the 1991-92 season. The highlight was a 36-point effort that led the Wolfpack to a 99-88 victory over North Carolina in January. He is second to Williams in league scoring at nearly 23 points per game.
Rogers reached double figures in all 27 Wake Forest games this season, averaging 20 points and reaching that figure or better on 15 occasions. He hit at least half of his field-goal attempts in 23 games.
Rogers, 6-7, is only the second player in Wake Forest history to score at least 1,000 points through his sophomore season; the other was Dickie Hemric in 1952-53. Charlie Davis also performed that feat but did not play as a freshman for Wake Forest.
Selected to the second team: Hubert Davis of North Carolina, Hurley and Grant Hill of Duke, and Sam Cassell and Doug Edwards of Florida State.
The third team: Malcolm Mackey and Jon Barry of Georgia Tech, Kevin Thompson of N.C. State, George Lynch of North Carolina and Thomas Hill of Duke.
by CNB