Paolo Banchero, Wendell Moore Jr. lead KenPom's ACC Player of the Year rankings after nonconference play
Duke has two players atop KenPom’s ACC Player of the Year rankings as nonconference play draws to a close.
Freshman Paolo Banchero and junior Wendell Moore Jr. are atop the five-man group. They are joined by Wake Forest’s Alondes Williams, Virginia Tech’s Keve Aluma and North Carolina’s Armando Bacot.
Banchero and Moore have been consistently excellent this season. Banchero has lived up to his preseason hype as a 5-star recruit and the leading candidate to go No. 1 overall in the 2022 NBA Draft.
So far this season, he’s averaging 16.5 points and 7.3 rebounds per contest. He’s been an efficient scorer, making shots at a 49.4 percent clip and 3-pointers at 34.4 percent.
Moore has developed into the veteran presence that some Duke teams have lacked in recent years. He’s producing at a high clip, too. He’s averaging 16.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.1 assists per contest. Moore is also shooting a career-best 38.6 percent from 3-point range.
Duke has also received positive contributions from players like Mark Williams and Jeremy Roach. The result has been Duke performing like one of the best teams in the country this season. The Blue Devils are No. 6 according to KenPom but could be ranked No. 1 in the next edition of the AP Poll.
Most ACC teams will begin ACC play in earnest this week. Duke is the only team who has yet to face a conference opponent this season, but some teams still have nonconference games remaining on their schedule.
Duke opens ACC play against Virginia Tech on Tuesday.