Duke basketball guard Jared McCain robbed of ACC Rookie of the Year Award

It was always going to be a 2-player race for the ACC Rookie of the Year Award but the final ballots proved Notre Dame's Markus Burton as the winner over Duke basketball guard Jared McCain.

The announcement of the award on Monday afternoon certainly brought some criticism on social media with many throwing their support behind the Blue Devil rookie.

Burton landed 46 votes while McCain only received 20.

Pittsburgh's Carlton Carrington, Georgia Tech's Baye Ndongo, Duke's Caleb Foster, and Miami's Kyshawn George also earned votes but none received more than five.

The Notre Dame freshman has higher scoring numbers than Jared McCain, averaging 17.3 points per game compared to 13.6 points per contest, but a lot of the other statistics favor the Blue Devil.

McCain shot 45.8-percent from the floor and 40.6-percent from 3-point range while Burton connected on 42.3-percent of his shots and just 29.7-percent from beyond the arc.

Burton also took an average of 4.7 more shots per game than McCain.

The overall records of the team's were not truly taken into account with Duke finishing in 2nd place in the ACC standings while Notre Dame is the No. 12 seed in the conference tournament.

The Blue Devil program had won nine of the last 12 ACC Rookie of the Year Awards prior to this season, including the last two winners being Paolo Banchero and Kyle Filipowski.

Florida State's Scottie Barnes was the only non-Duke player to win the award since 2018.

Markus Burton did not get any consideration for the ACC Preseason Rookie of the Year as North Carolina's Elliot Cadeu was the runaway winner in October.

Jared McCain, a McDonald's All-American entering college, received just 6-of-51 votes in the preseason.

McCain will look to lead Duke to another ACC Tournament Championship beginning in its quarterfinal matchup on Thursday night (7:00 p.m. ET, ESPN/2) against either Syracuse, North Carolina State, or Louisville.

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