By Joedy McCreary
Associated Press
Sylven Landesberg rarely looked like a rookie during his freshman season at Virginia.
That’s why the Cavaliers’ young star was named the ACC’s rookie of the year Tuesday.
Landesberg received 55 of a possible 76 votes cast by members of the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association. Wake Forest forward Al-Farouq Aminu, who had 20 votes, was the only other player to appear on multiple ballots.
“Coming in as a freshman, I wanted to make an impact as big as I could,” Landesberg said. “I wasn’t expecting it, and I don’t think anybody else expected it to be this big.”
Landesberg led all ACC rookies ó and the Cavaliers ó in scoring with a 16.8-point average while seemingly becoming the focus of opposing defenses from the day the highly regarded high school star from New York City set foot in Charlottesville, Va.
Only five teams held him to single-digit scoring totals, and he had at least 20 points in his first three college games.
He scored 20 just once in his final 10 games.
“Coming into the ACC, I guess I had a target on my back,” he said. “It felt like it for most of the games, and it kept getting tougher as it was going along, so every game was a new adjustment. I thought my first year I was going to be able to just get by without too much attention being put on me, but that was pretty much the big surprise.”
Landesberg is the fourth Cavaliers player to win the ACC’s rookie honor and the first since Chris Williams did it in 1999. Also on the list are Bryant Stith in 1989 and eventual No. 1 draft pick Ralph Sampson in 1980.