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CHAPEL HILL (AP) — No one has been able to keep up with Ty Lawson all year, not even in the race to be considered the Atlantic Coast Conference's top player.

The speedy junior was named the ACC player of the year Tuesday after guiding top-ranked North Carolina to the league's regular-season championship despite an 0-2 start in the league. Lawson earned 31 of 76 votes from Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association members, becoming the first point guard to win the award since Phil Ford in 1978.

Florida State's Toney Douglas finished second with 27 votes after helping the Seminoles finish fourth in the regular season. Reigning league and national player of the year Tyler Hansbrough was third with 13 votes.

Florida State's Leonard Hamilton was named ACC coach of the year. Florida State's Toney Douglas is the conference's defensive player of the year Virginia guard Sylven Landesberg is the ACC rookie of the year.

Hansbrough was the unanimous preseason choice to win the player of the year award and led the ACC in scoring for a second straight season. But by the end of the year, Lawson had emerged as the Tar Heels' most valuable and irreplaceable player with a series of dominating late-game performances - most notably in a pair of wins against rival Duke.

"I don't mind being overshadowed because Tyler is a great player," Lawson said. "He just does everything for this team. But to come out and have everybody know how well I've been playing, it just makes you feel good with all the hard work I've done."

It was the 13th time a North Carolina player has won the award, which is tied with Duke for most in league history. It also marked the first time the program had won the award in consecutive seasons since Larry Miller in 1967 and '68.

Lawson — who declared for the NBA draft last year before returning to school — has always had the speed to blow by any defender while directing coach Roy Williams' fast-paced offense. But this year, Lawson has had an all-around game that made him almost impossible to stop.

He ranked among the league leaders in scoring (15.9 points), steals (2.0) and field-goal percentage (53.8 percent) while ranking first in assists at 6.5 per game. He's also shooting nearly 47 percent from 3-point range. All those numbers are the best of his career.

But the most impressive part of his season has been the way he's taken over late in several close games.

On Jan. 28, he took an inbounds pass with 3.2 seconds left, raced downcourt and swished a 3 for an 80-77 road win against Florida State. Lawson later scored 21 of his season-high 25 points after halftime to help the Tar Heels beat the Duke 101-87 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

In the next game, he scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half against Miami, including the game-sealing 3-pointer with 10.6 seconds left in the 69-65 win.

On Sunday, Lawson shook off a toe injury to finish with 13 points, eight rebounds and nine assists in a 79-71 win against the Blue Devils.

For Lawson, much of the improvement began not with success, but with probably the worst moment of his college career: the one-sided loss to Kansas in last year's Final Four. He has watched the game film several times and said he was way too passive instead of aggressively attacking the basket.

The player that wore the No. 5 jersey that night looks nothing like the guy who has North Carolina back at No. 1 in the country a year later.

"I really took a lot from that and it helped me out this year," Lawson said. "I don't know who I was that night. Right now, I don't recognize him - and hopefully he doesn't come back anytime soon."

Other individual awards also were announced today:

Coach: Florida State's Leonard Hamilton has claimed coaching awards from two of the top conferences in college basketball.

Hamilton became the first person to win both ACC and Big East coach of the year awards for his career Tuesday when the ACC named him its top coach.

He was an overwhelming choice by the voting members of the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association, receiving 55 of a possible 76 votes.

Hamilton, the Big East's coach of the year in 1995 and 1999 at Miami, was in charge of a Florida State team that was picked in the preseason to finish 10th in the ACC standings. He guided the Seminoles to a 23-8 finish, a 10-6 mark in league play, the No. 4 seed in this week's league tournament, the No. 22 national ranking and most assuredly the school's first NCAA tournament berth since 1998.

Defensive player: Florida State's Toney Douglas is the ACC defensive player of the year after helping the Seminoles rank as one of the league's top defensive teams.

Douglas earned 53 of 76 votes from Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association members in results released Tuesday. Clemson's Trevor Booker finished second with 15 votes after ranking second in the league in blocked shots.

Douglas was third in the ACC in steals at 1.9 per game. Behind the senior, Florida State ranked first in both scoring defense and field-goal percentage defense. That helped the Seminoles finish fourth in the league after being picked to finish 10th in the preseason.

Douglas also finished second for overall player of the year.

Rookie: Virginia guard Sylven Landesberg is the ACC rookie of the year after ranking among the league leaders in scoring.

The 6-foot-6 freshman earned 55 of 76 votes from Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association members in results released Tuesday. Wake Forest's Al-Farouq Aminu was second with 20 votes after averaging 13 points and eight rebounds per game.

Landesberg was ninth in the ACC in scoring at nearly 17 points per game. He was named the league's rookie of the week six times this season.

Landesberg is the fourth Virginia player to win the award and first since Chris Williams in 1999.