Inside The Panthers

Three Pitt Players Earn All-ACC Honors

Jamarius Burton, Blake Hinson and Nike Sibande represented Pitt on the All-ACC teams.

Stephen Thompson

Three Pitt Players Earn All-ACC Honors
Three Pitt Players Earn All-ACC Honors /
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PITTSBURGH -- Three Pitt Panthers will take home All-ACC honors in a historic awards season for this program. Nike Sibande was named ACC Sixth Man of the Year, Jamarius Burton garnered First Team All-ACC honors and Blake Hinson landed on the All-ACC Second Team. 

Sibande and Jeff Capel, who earned ACC Coach of the Year honors, became Pitt's first major award winners since this program joined the league in 2013. Burton and Hinson are the first set of Panthers teammates to earn All-ACC accolades in the same season. 

Burton was one of five players in college basketball to average better than 15.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game while shooting 49 percent or better from the field. He joins Justin Champagnie as Pitt’s only First Team All-ACC selections. Hinson leads the team in scoring with 16.1 points per game and rebounding with 6.3 points per game. He also finished the regular season ranked second in the ACC in 3-pointers made per game and 3-point field goal percentage. 

Both Hinson and Burton received the fewest votes of anyone on their respective All-ACC teams. Burton also got three votes for ACC Player of the Year.

Sibande, who has been the first player off the bench in every game he hasn't started, returned from an ACL injury that cost him the entire 2021-22 season to become the first Pitt player to earn an ACC individual player award. He has posted 15 double-figure scoring games and is averaging 8.3 points and 3.9 rebounds per game. He won the award by a wide margin - 47 votes to Virginia forward Ben Vander Plas' eight. 

Starting center Federiko Federiko earned one vote for Most Improved Player and three votes for Defensive Player of the Year. 

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Stephen Thompson
STEPHEN THOMPSON

Stephen Thompson graduated with a bachelor's degree in communications and political science from Pitt in April 2022 after spending four years as a sports writer and editor at The Pitt News, the University of Pittsburgh's independent, student-run newspaper.  He primarily worked the Pitt men's basketball beat, and filled in on coverage of football, volleyball, softball, gymnastics and lacrosse, in addition to other sports as needed. His work at The Pitt News has won awards from the Pennsylvania News Media Association and Associated College Press.  During the spring and summer of 2021, Stephen interned for Pittsburgh Sports Now, covering baseball in western Pennsylvania. Hailing from Washington D.C., family ties have cultivated a love of Boston's professional teams and Pitt athletics, and a fascination with sports in general.  You can reach Stephen by email at stephenethompson00@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter. Read his latest work:

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