The awards ceremony capped a day in which the Tar Heels were honored by
North Carolina Governor Mike Easley at the governor’s mansion and the
General Assembly at the Legislative Building in Raleigh.
Felton and May led the Tar Heels to the 2005 NCAA championship with a 75-70
win over Illinois on April 4.
Felton, a junior from Latta, S.C., led the Atlantic Coast Conference with
6.9 assists per game and a three-point field goal percentage of .440. He was
fourth on the team in scoring with 12.9 points per game and was fourth in
the ACC with 2.0 steals per game. Felton also was named Carolina’s Most
Valuable Player as a freshman in 2002-03. Earlier this month, he received
the Bob Cousy Award from the Basketball Hall of Fame as the top point guard
in the country.
May, a junior from Bloomington, Ind., led all players in the 2005 NCAA
Tournament in scoring and rebounding, the first player to do so on the
title-winning team since Danny Manning of Kansas in 1988. May scored 134
points (22.3 per game) and had 64 rebounds (10.7) in Carolina’s six NCAA
Tournament wins. A first-team All-America, May had 26 points and 10 boards
in the title game vs. the Illini.
May also received the Jimmie Dempsey Award, which is given to the Tar Heel
with the best overall statistics. He finished the year averaging a team-high
17.5 points and 10.7 rebounds and shot 56.7 percent from the floor, also the
best figure on the squad.
Jackie Manuel, a senior guard from West Palm Beach, Fla., received a number
of awards Tuesday, including the Carmichael Cobb Award as the team’s best
defensive player, the Foy Roberson Award as the most inspirational player
and an outstanding senior award. Manuel was also named one of the team’s
permanent tri-captains.
Jawad Williams (Cleveland, Ohio) and Melvin Scott (Baltimore, Md.) joined
Manuel in winning the team’s most outstanding senior awards and were named
tri-captains.
Marvin Williams, a freshman from Bremerton, Wash., was named the team’s
outstanding first-year player and received the award for having the team’s
top free throw percentage (.847), which was fourth-best in the ACC.
Sophomore Wes Miller (Charlotte, N.C.) received the Rick Sharp Award for
contributions in practice and junior center Byron Sanders (Gulfport, Miss.)
received the Athletic Director’s Award as the team’s top scholar-athlete.
The scholar-athlete award was renamed in honor of Burgess McSwain, the
team's longtime academic counselor who passed away last spring.