WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina

Hansbrough one vote shy of unanimous in 2007

Mar 10, 2009

Turns out Tyler Hansbrough wasn’t a four-time unanimous All-ACC pick after all.

The All-ACC team is voted on by the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association, which is headed up by John Justus in Winston-Salem.

In 2007, one writer – Patrick Stevens of the Washington Times - picked Hansbrough for second team. But Justus, in an email to WRAL, confirmed that he had, in the past, allowed a voter to change his or her mind if only one vote prevented a player from being a unanimous pick.

Hansbrough was one vote short in 2007 – and Justus, through the ACSMA, announced Hansbrough was a unanimous pick.

"This did occur in 2007 due to a mistake in judgment by me,” Justus said in an email when contacted by WRAL. “ I was unable to contact Patrick prior to the deadline when vote tabulations had to be finalized to see if he was OK with my announcing Tyler Hansbrough as a unanimous pick. I should not have done that without his permission even though I felt it was a fairly reasonable request.

“Prior to that time, and since, if there was a vote that prevented a unanimous selection, I would contact the voter to receive his or her approval to change their ballot. It never impacted whether or not a player made first team or second team, but just the designation of ‘unanimous.’ This had occurred two or three times prior to 2007 and no one had ever objected, but I was wrong for assuming that Patrick would not object.”

The Associated Press story from 2007 announcing the team reported that Hansbrough, Al Thornton of Florida State and Jared Dudley of Boston College received first-team votes from all 106 voters. In fact, Hansbrough received only 105.