This is the 13th time a Tar Heel has won the McKevlin Award, but May is only
the second UNC recipient in the last 20 years. May is the first Tar Heel to
win Male Athlete of the Year honors since basketball player Antawn Jamison
in 1998.
May was selected by the Charlotte Bobcats in the first round of the NBA
Draft on June 28th.
The Bloomington, Ind., native led Carolina to a 33-4 record, ACC
regular-season title and NCAA championship. He scored 26 points and had 10
rebounds in the NCAA final against No. 1 ranked Illinois. May made 10 of 11
shots from the floor against the Illini, the second-highest field goal
percentage in NCAA title game history (.909).
"Congratulations to Sean," says Tar Heel head coach Roy Williams. "This is a
hard-earned and well-deserved recognition of what was truly a great, great
year. He is a fantastic young man who has represented Carolina with class
for three years and he will continue to do so for many years to come."
He led UNC in 2004-05 in scoring (17.5), rebounding (10.7), field goal
percentage (.567) and blocked shots (38). He ranked second in the ACC in
rebounding, and was third in scoring, third in field goal percentage and
10th in free throw percentage.
In addition to earning Final Four MVP honors, May was NCAA Tournament
Syracuse Regional MVP, a consensus second-team All-America and first-team
All-ACC selection. He was a finalist for the Wooden Award, won first-team
All-America honors from ESPN.com, Rupp and Wooden, and second-team
All-America honors from the Associated Press, Sports Illustrated, USBWA and
The Sporting News.
He earned ACC Player of the Week honors on March 7 after scoring 32 points
against Florida State and compiling 26 points and 24 rebounds against Duke.
May was at his best in the 2005 NCAA Tournament, shooting 66.7 percent from
the floor and averaging 22.3 points and 10.7 rebounds in the six Tar Heel
victories. He scored 29 in the Syracuse Regional championship game vs.
Wisconsin, 22 in the national semifinal vs. Michigan State and 26 against
Illinois.
He was the CBS/Chevrolet Player of the Game in each of the last four NCAA
Tournament games against Villanova, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Illinois.
May scored more points and had more rebounds than any other player in the
NCAA Tournament, the first player to lead in both points and rebounds since
Danny Manning of Kansas in 1988.
The 6-9, 260-pound junior finished the year with 18 double-doubles,
including a stretch of eight consecutive (against seven ACC teams and
Connecticut). That was the longest streak of double-doubles by a Tar Heel in
29 years.
He had a career-high 24 rebounds in the 75-73 win over Duke on March 6 that
clinched the ACC regular-season title for UNC.
May set a single-season UNC record with 397 rebounds (breaking Jamison's
previous mark of 389) and became the first Tar Heel in 33 years to finish
his career averaging a double-double in points and rebounds (15.8 points per
game and 10.0 rebounds per game).
May is the seventh basketball player to win ACC Male Athlete of the Year
honors in the same season in which he was not named the ACC Basketball
Player of the Year (others include 1970 - Charles Scott of UNC; 1976 - John Lucas of Maryland; 1977 - Phil Ford of UNC; 1982 - James Worthy of UNC; 1991 -
Christian Laettner of Duke; and 1995 - Randolph Childress of Wake Forest).
The award is named after Anthony J. McKevlin, former sports editor of the
Raleigh News and Observer.
May recorded 41 votes. Duke lacrosse player Matt Danowski was second with 11
votes and was followed by Virginia football player Heath Miller (7),
Virginia Tech track and field performer Spyridon Jullien (4), NC State
basketball player Julius Hodge (3), Georgia Tech golfer Roberto Castro (2),
Miami football player Antrel Rolle (2), Florida State track and field
performer Walter Dix (1) and Maryland soccer player Jason Garey (1).
NCAA champion gymnast Courtney Bumpers tied for fourth in the voting for the
Mary Garber Award as the 2005 ACC Female Athlete of the Year. Wake Forest
field hockey player Kelly Dostal was the winner with 18 votes. Bumpers
received six votes.
Complete List of Carolina's ACC Male Athlete of the Year Award Winners:
1957 - Lennie Rosenbluth (basketball)
1966 - Danny Talbott (football and baseball)
1968 - Larry Miller (basketball)
1970 - Charles Scott (basketball)
1971 - Don McCauley (football)
1974 - Tony Waldrop (track)
1977 - Phil Ford (basketball)
1978 - Phil Ford (basketball)
1982 - James Worthy (basketball)
1984 - Michael Jordan (basketball)
1985 - B.J. Surhoff (baseball)
1998 - Antawn Jamison (basketball)
2005 - Sean May (basketball)