Elijah Hughes named to All-ACC First Team

Syracuse men’s basketball forward Elijah Hughes has been named to the All-ACC First Team, the conference announced on Monday.

Hughes, a redshirt junior forward, led the conference in scoring with 18.8 points per game while averaging 4.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.1 steals — all despite leaving two games this season due to injury.

Rounding out the first team are Louisville’s Jordan Nwora, Notre Dame’s John Mooney, and Duke’s Tre Jones and Vernon Carey Jr. Hughes received the fewest votes of the five. He is the fourth SU player to make the ACC first team, joining C.J. Fair (2014), Rakeem Christmas (2015), and Michael Gbinije (2016).

Jones received the ACC’s Player of the Year honors. Had Syracuse put together a season worthy of an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, Hughes would have had a stronger case for the award.

Buddy Boeheim was fourth in voting for the ACC’s most improved player award, which was given to North Carolina’s Garrison Brooks.