I have confirmed Gary Williams & Greivis Vasquez coach and player of the year in the ACC. Congrats to both.

Vasquez is Maryland’s first POY winner since Juan Dixon in 2002. Williams also won COY that season, before the Terps went on to win the National Championship.

I’d also like to add that both John Scheyer and Coach K can stick it.

Update: Greivis ran away with it, receiving 39 of 53 votes.

Update No. 2: Jordan Williams finished second in the ROY voting.

See also: Vasquez’ original curious facial hair

Update: Jordan Williams’ and-one dunk on Scheyer’s face

Update No. 2: Images and video of Terps fans storming the floor, etc.

Update No. 3: Via Steinz, here’s video of Vasquez’s last-minute shot, which was infuriatingly awful … until it went in and then, god, it was brilliant:

Typically, when Duke goes up to play Maryland, the subsequent jeers are vulgar. Sometimes, they’re laced with profanity. In J.J. Redick’s case, they’re not-so-veiled allusions to sisters in high school. Mercifully, Operation Scheyerface, the taunt of choice the last two years, is neither offensive nor crude. It’s creative, clever and admirable. It’s good heckling. Tomorrow night, it’s going to need to be effective heckling, too. It would be a special sort of irony for Duke to celebrate an ACC championship amidst cardboard Scheyerfaces — and for Jon Scheyer to beat out Greivis Vasquez for the inside track to Player of the Year honors in the process.

That’s not meant to belittle Vasquez, who has, indeed, had a wonderful season on a team with considerably less talent than Scheyer’s. He very well might be the best player in the league, and, on a slightly related note, he may just be named ACC Player of the Year. This is all well and good, and no one’s going to quibble with it. But in the spirit of civilized discourse — it’s not like Duke-Maryland is an actual rivalry or anything — the fact that Vasquez is clearly one of the two best players in the conference doesn’t mean we should devalue Scheyer’s merit, either.

So, when we look at the statistics without dismissing either candidate beforehand, the result is not all that stunning. Essentially, they’re the same.

No, they’re not! you’re thinking in abject horror.

OK, fine. You are correct. They’re not.

But the fine voting members of the ACC’s media corps are not going to give Vasquez the honor because his league statistics are marginally superior, nor will they anoint Scheyer because his offensive rating is tops in the league. This award — utterly meaningless as it may be — won’t be decided by scoring average, because it’s not an objective crown, and it isn’t meant to be. There are all sorts of biases and interpretations that come into play, all of which are subjective and none of which are much more relevant than any other.

That brings us to Wednesday’s supposed showdown in College Park, which will probably give one player the edge over the other; to ignore it altogether seems foolish. After all, Duke’s last two games — at Maryland and home against that team with a 4-10 ACC record — are more worthwhile than any other games it’s played. Maybe Scheyer will score 30 in both and bring an ACC banner to Cameron’s rafters. He probably won’t. Maybe, in Vasquez’s final two games, he will score 30 and celebrate an ACC title in Charlottesville. He also probably won’t. Either way, neither player’s candidacy is already complete. Because of the immediacy of our attention spans, both players’ qualifications hinge rather dramatically on what they and their teams do tomorrow night.

Back in December, if you recall, prominent sportswriters were ready to name Scheyer the National Player of the Year after Duke throttled Gonzaga in Madison Square Garden. Diehards at the Duke Basketball Report had a serious, if short-lived, discussion about retiring his jersey. There was a rumor — that I might be making up, but still! — that the local temple was flirting with offering him free admission to the next year’s high holidays. He was good enough to squash stereotypes. No one remembers that now, of course, just as no one with a Player of the Year vote will remember Vasquez’s 41 in Blacksburg or his two points in the first half at Duke if Scheyer outshines him tomorrow and then, on Saturday, ends his Cameron Indoor Stadium career with a rousing ovation and his first home win over that NIT-bound squad down the road.

The only reason I recall anything about last year’s matchup in College Park, after all, is because there is currently a 4-foot-high, black-and-white Scheyerface in the back hall of the student newspaper office that I frequent. Our reporters stole it from the Comcast Center floor, where it was tossed and sitting, lonesomely, after Duke’s 78-67 victory. Scheyer’s three in the last two minutes iced that win, and that big ol’ replica of his face won’t let me forget it.

(Also: Scheyer will be ACC Player of the Year because he’s a white guard, and because it’s a lifetime achievement award and because no one likes Vasquez. And, oh yeah, because Scheyer plays for Duke. See you tomorrow, suckers!)

Wednesday’s Maryland-Duke game is billed as a showdown for both the ACC regular-season title and ACC Player of the Year. Over the past 56 years of the ACC, 71 percent of its POY winners have come from a team that finished first or second in the conference. Based on that history along with Va. Tech falling off (thus eliminating Malcolm Delaney), this year’s POY race comes down to the best player from either MD or Duke.

For MD, it’s pretty easy; it’s Greivis Vasquez. For Duke, it’s Jon Scheyer, but it’s not as clear cut. Entering the ACC schedule Scheyer was clearly their best player and the leading candidate for POY. But 14 games into the ACC Duke has become more balanced while Vasquez has blown up.

If you think about what they mean to their team, it’s safe to say Vasquez is everything to MD. After Vasquez’s 22.1 points per game, MD’s next highest scorer is Milbourne at 10.9. Duke has three players averaging 17-plus. Scheyer is going to be first-team All-ACC because of how steady he is, but he hasn’t scored more than 24 points or had more than seven assists or five rebounds in a game. Basically, there isn’t a game where you said, “Wow, Scheyer won that game for Duke.” However, it’s safe to say that Vasquez almost single-handedly won the VT game (33 points in second half/OT), UVA (25 in first half) and UNC (26 and 11 assists). Vasquez has five games with at least 26 points, four games with at least seven rebounds and five games with at least eight assists (including 13 against Clemson).

Here are Vasquez and Scheyer’s stats in ACC play. The numbers aren’t close — Vasquez has him in points, rebounds, assists and FG percentage:

(Ed. note: I flubbed the chart but don’t feel like redoing it; Scheyer’s 3PT% should be .398 and FT& should be FT%. That is all.)

Duke is the best team in the ACC, and the trio of Scheyer, Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith is unmatched. All three are going to be first or second-team All-ACC while MD may have Vasquez as POY but no one else on the first three All-ACC teams.

This will make for a great match-up Wednesday night, a game that will determine the ACC title but not POY. That race officially ended last Saturday when Vasquez dropped 41 against VT.

WINNERS

The Cameron Crazies, who have finally stopped distributing “cheer sheets”.

LOSERS

The Terps, who laid an egg.

More on the Ross situation. [Terps Insider]

JMU goes west, almost beats Stanford. [JMU Sports Blog]

Zorn is Spurrier. Spurrier is Zorn! [Homer McFanboy]

Brian Orakpo gets his first Pro Bowl nod. [Skins Insider]

The London Fletcher Pro Bowl snubhub. [Skins Blog]

Ruminating that the Skins are targeting Sam Bradford. [Pro Football Talk]

Wiz lose to Thunder, and Flip Saunders flips out. [Wizards Insider]

Recommended: video of Flip’s epic press conference rant. [D.C. Sports Bog]

Watch Andray Blatche get embarrassed. [Bullets Forever]

D.C. is the worst pro sports city of the decade. [DC Landing Strip]

Steinz says goodbye to TWT’s sports department. [D.C. Sports Bog]

Thanking the Times’ Caps and Nats beat writers. [Japers' Rink, NFA]

Reminder: The Real World: D.C. premieres tonight. [DCist]

Beerspotter’s top five beers of 2009. [Young & Hungry]

Programming note: If this is our last post of 2009, let me say it has been a very good year. Not so much for D.C. sports, no, but for Mr. Irrelevant. Thank you for that, and have a merry New Year.

As noted by Hell in a Red Shell (which provides the image seen here), this is the first time these two have played in the ACC Tournament since 2004. And we all know how that ended.

Here’s to hoping for a similar result, and for a healthy, hate-fueled conversation down below in the comments. Keep it dirty, fellas.

As Jamie noted in the DMV this morning, the Terps fans broke out the Scheyer Face signs in force last night. The above photo gives you a decent idea of how the entire student section looked. And the quote below gives you an idea of how highly Maryland fans think of Scheyer’s face:

“It just makes me want to vomit, you know, to look at him,” [Maryland student Matt] Perlstein said. “It’s scary.”

I still say Kyle Singler’s grill is much freakier. Although he doesn’t make the distorted faces. His is just permanently stuck on pure evil.

Overall, the signs served as a nice backdrop for an evening of classy Maryland trash-talking, which including a “fuck you Sing-ler” chant and an ESPN mic picking up one student yelling “get off your knees, ref” while said official was conferencing with Coach K. You won’t find that on any of Duke’s cheer sheets.

WINNERS: Dave Neal — For destroying Nolan Smith with that screen and then draining a three. It was a fantastic moment in a heated late-season ACC rivalry game, and the crowd noise alone lets you know what time it is.

Landon Milbourne — Nineteen points overall and a huge block to end the first half after not showing up at all against UNC.

Gary Williams — Since the Post gave him the Richard Nixon treatment two weeks ago, they’ve beaten Va. Tech, lost at Clemson, beaten UNC and pushed Duke to the wire. Nobody puts Gary in a corner!

Eric Hayes and Adrian Bowie — On a night when Greivis Vasquez was in foul trouble, they provided backcourt scoring with 22 points on 11 shots.

Jay Bilas — He’s a Blue Devil and an ESPN guy, sure, but he offers informed, no-nonsense analysis.

Gerald Henderson — By far and away Duke’s best player, even if Kyle Singler seems to get more pub. And that in-traffic dunk was insane.

LOSERS: Defensive rebounding – Aside from Brian Zoubek, who is a stiff, Duke isn’t a big team, yet they kept coming up with offensive boards of the loose-ball variety.

Mike Patrick — Because his voice makes me shudder.

MEDIUM: Greivis Vasquez — Played a solid first half (eight points, four assists, four rebounds), including a circus-shot leaner, but picked up his fourth foul early and his fifth shortly after returning late.

Heather Cox – A winner for reporting the crank calls story. A loser for failing to mention Greg Paulus’ hankering for nuts.

Maryland’s next game: Sunday 7:30 at NC State

And people from Duke wonder why everyone hates them.

Right now it’s 34-34 at the half, which means this game is just a little more competitive than the last one.