Markell Johnson Left Off Cousy Award Watch List

Four other ACC players, including one that has yet to play a college game, is among those recognized as candidates honoring the nation's top college point guard

The Bob Cousy Award, which honors the best point guard in college basketball, named four ACC players to its preseason watch list on Monday.

NC State's Markell Johnson wasn't among them.

The ACC point guards that were included on the list are Duke's Tre Jones, Florida State's Trent Forrest, Virginia's Kihei Clark and North Carolina freshman Cole Anthony -- who has yet to play his first college game.

Johnson led the ACC in assists as a sophomore in 2017-18 at 7.3 per game. His is the Wolfpack's top returner in points (12.6), assists (4.2) and 3-point field goal percentage (.422). His 397 career assists to rank 10th in program history and his career assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.11 ranks sixth on the all-time State list.

By contrast, Virginia's Clark averaged only 4.5 points and 2.6 assists per game while shooting just 34.1 percent from 3-point range last season.

As egregious as Johnson's omission from the Cousy list is, the 6-foot-1 senior said at the ACC's Operation Basketball event last week that he doesn't put much stock in preseason accolades.

"That's just another person's opinion," he said. "At the end of the day you still have to go out and play."