Best ACC Role Players
They never get the glory but no one else does without them.
The argument has been made in this space before, and it’s worth making again. There ought to be an ACC award not only for most improved player or top defensive player but for the player who’s a master of dirty work.
Clean dirty work, that is, not the bruising style of Tom Sheehey and Dan Meagher, or the chippy style of Julius Hodge and Chris Paul. Grunt work, heavy lifting.
Say, a player who reliably hits the boards at both ends of the court and does so with a minimum of fuss, committing as few personal fouls as possible and doing all sorts of complementary acts (setting sound screens, moving the ball with a minimum of turnovers) to make his mark.
The ACC’s premier Grunt Guy, or simply the Grand Grunt, would fit the military meaning of a grunt according to The Soldiers Project as “an infantry soldier tasked with challenging, unswerving, and hazardous engagements” and “the archetypal essence of a soldier.”
Last season we expected Duke grad student Ryan Young would amply fill the bill, and he did. He had 124 rebounds, 50 on offense, compared with 100 points scored in 424 minutes played. He appeared for an average of 11.8 minutes per game, sufficient playing time to consider him a regular. He even started twice.
The 2024 Grunt Guy also had 63 fouls, about two per game, and had a pair of Duke’s nine disqualifications. Young had 30 assists and 29 turnovers.
This season Young is gone as are 10 of the 15 players who last year tallied at least 200 minutes on the floor and had more rebounds than points.
Of the returnees, we’d put our bet (is this a subject for a gambling website?) on Notre Dame’s unsung Kebba Njie, a 6-10, 254-pound junior forward. Njie, who hails from Ohio, had transferred from Penn State, where Irish coach Micah Shrewsberry presumably recruited him before moving to Notre Dame.
Njie started in all 37 games for Penn State, and fell short of starting the opening two games at South Bend due to a hand injury.
Last season Njie led Notre Dame in rebounding (5.4 per game) and offensive boards (59 of 157, 38 percent). He had 157 rebounds compared to 126 points. Njie did stray from his gruntishness by trying eight 3-pointers, making just one.
You might argue so prominent a player, physically and in time on the court, can’t qualify as a grunt guy. We’ll see.
| GRUNT WORK More Rebounds Than Points (Minimum 250 Minutes Played) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player, School | Mins | M/G | Rbs-Pts | PF | A-TO |
| Tyshaun Claude, GT | 556 | 17.4 | 165-152 | 65 | 22-25 |
| AJ Casey, UM | 227 | 9.5 | 48-46 | 13 | 8-5 |
| Kebba Njie, ND | 703 | 24.3 | 157-126 | 70 | 20-28 |
| Logan Imes, ND | 545 | 17.6 | 77-62 | 36 | 34-24 |
| Marqus Marion, WF | 231 | 11.3 | 43-23 | 22 | 3-5 |