This week had been a pretty good one for Georgia Schweitzer.
After helping her team win the ACC championship Monday night, Schweitzer became only the second Duke player ever to take home ACC player of the year honors yesterday. Schweitzer, Duke's leading scorer, easily outdistanced runner-up Summer Erb of N.C. State in the voting, 31 to nine.
"It's a great honor-there's so many great players in this league," Schweitzer said. "I give all the credit to my teammates and the coaching staff. It's not a personal goal of mine. I really don't think about winning this sort of award, it's not something that crossed my mind before the season."
Apparently, Schweitzer wasn't alone.
Her name didn't cross the minds of too many voters before the season began as Schweitzer failed to earn even All-ACC honors in the media's preseason balloting.
But
"I wanted people to respect Duke women's basketball," Schweitzer said. "A lot of people I know thought it was a fluke, that we were lucky that we made it so far last year and this year [we would] come out and not be very good. It wasn't a fluke. We are a strong program."
Schweitzer would have a giant hand in debunking the fluke myth, scoring 20 or more points in a game seven times. Despite battling a painful divot fracture in her right leg for the latter part of the season, Schweitzer finished third in the ACC in scoring (15.7), fourth in field goal percentage (46.2), third in three-point percentage (40.7) and finished in the top ten in several other categories
And when the Blue Devils made their push for the first ever ACC title, Schweitzer led the charge. After solid performances in the tournament's first two games against Florida State and Georgia Tech, Schweitzer led the team in scoring with 16 in the riveting final against North Carolina. The 16 points included a momentum-shifting three-point play on an acrobatic drive to the basket and the final go-ahead layup on a textbook backcut.
"Georgia has become a great leader for us," coach Gail Goestenkors said. "She is one of the toughest kids mentally and physically I have ever had the privilege to coach."
Now, the rest of the world knows what Goestenkors knew all along.
Note: Duke's only previous ACC player of the year was Chris Moreland, who won the honor in 1987.
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