Content area
Full Text
ACC trio lead All-Americans
Tar Heels' Forte joins Duke's Battier, Williams
Associated Press
Wednesday, March 14, 2001
Duke teammates Shane Battier and Jason Williams and North Carolina's Joseph Forte are the top vote-getters on the Associated Press All-American basketball team, just the second time three players from the same conference have made the first team.
Notre Dame's Troy Murphy, the 44th player to repeat as an All- American, and Stanford's Casey Jacobsen also were on the first team chosen by a media panel and announced Tuesday.
Battier, the only senior on the first team, was one vote shy of being a unanimous selection. The 6-foot-8 forward was on 70 first- team ballots and had 353 points in the 5-3-1 voting system.
The national defensive player the last two seasons, Battier averaged 19.5 points and 6.8 rebounds in leading Duke, which was No. 1 in the final regular-season poll.
Battier, a second-team All-American last season, and Williams, a 6- 2 sophomore who averaged 20.8 points and 6.2 assists, are the eighth pair of teammates to be selected for the first team.
Forte, a 6-4 sophomore who chosen co-player of the year in the Atlantic Coast Conference with Battier, averaged 21.6 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.6 assists.
The only other time three players from one conference were first- team selections was in 1995-'96 when the Big East had Ray Allen of Connecticut, Allen Iverson of Georgetown and Kerry Kittles...