James Tibbs III bet on Link Jarrett and the Florida State baseball team by deciding to return for his junior season with the Seminoles.
That bet has paid off throughout the season, but it really paid dividends on Monday when Tibbs was named the ACC Player of the Year.
He's the second Seminole to win the award in the last four years, joining Matheu Nelson who was the ACC Player of the Year in 2021. He's the ninth Seminole to win ACC POTY since FSU joined the conference in 1992. No other school has won more than six over that span.
Tibbs leads the ACC this season in home runs (24, tied for 11th nationally), runs batted in (78, tied for sixth nationally), slugging percentage (.840, seventh nationally), total bases (168, tied for ninth nationally) and is fourth among ACC players in batting average (.385).
His 24 home runs are the most by an FSU player since Buster Posey hit 26 in 2008. If he hits three more home runs, he'll have the most by a Seminole since Marshall McDougall hit 28 in 1999.
Tibbs finished the regular season with more home runs than strikeouts (23). He also committed no errors this regular season while starting every game in right field, recording 88 putouts and six assists with quite a few really strong defensive plays.
Across his three seasons at FSU, Tibbs has improved with each passing season. He went from a .300 hitter with 10 homers as a freshman in 2021 to .338 with 17 homers last season and now .385 with 24 homers this season.
His 51 career home runs are sixth-most in FSU history. With one more home run, Tibbs would move into a tie with Mike McGee (52) for the fifth-most homers in FSU baseball history.
In addition to Tibbs' ACC POTY selection, he's one of two Seminoles named to the All-ACC first team alongside starting pitcher Jamie Arnold. Third baseman Cam Smith earned a second-team All-ACC selection and designated hitter Marco Dinges and left fielder Jaime Ferrer earned third-team All-ACC honors.
Wake Forest's Chase Burns was named the ACC Pitcher of the Year, UNC head coach Scott Forbes was named the ACC Coach of the Year, UNC's Vance Honeycutt was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Year and Georgia Tech's Drew Burress was named the ACC Freshman of the Year.
The Seminoles enter conference tournament week well positioned to host a regional and possibly even earn a top-eight overall seed. They are the No. 5 seed in the ACC Tournament and begin pool play Tuesday at 3 p.m. vs. Georgia Tech on ACC Network.
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