Senior guard Adam Haluska of the University of Iowa and junior forward Troy Ruths of Washington University (Mo.) head the 2007 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Men's Basketball Teams, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Haluska was named the Academic All-American of the Year for the University Division while Ruths received the same honor for the College Division. Haluska is making his second Academic All-America team having earned third-team honors last year.
A product of Carroll, Iowa, Haluska leads the Big Ten in scoring with a 20.4 ppg average and ranks among the top 25 scorers in the nation. A starter in all 126 games in his career, Haluska also is among the Big Ten leaders in free throw percentage (2nd, 87.7%), three-point field goals (2nd, 2.93/game) and steals (8th, 1.39/game). He averages 4.6 rebounds per game and has led Iowa to a 16-12 record, 8-6 in the Big Ten, with two regular-season games to play.
A two-time Big Ten Player of the Week this season, Haluska also is one of 10 finalists for the Lowes Senior CLASS Award. He has scored 20 or more points 15 times this season, with four games of 30 points or more, led by a career-high 36 against Georgia State.
Haluska averaged 13.9 points and 4.7 rebounds last season, leading Iowa to a 25-9 record and the Big Ten tournament title.
In addition to Haluska, senior Lee Humphrey of the University of Florida also was a repeat selection to the Academic All-America Men's Basketball teams. Humphrey is on the first team after earning second-team accolades in 2006. Graham Dow (Cornell University), A.J. Graves (Butler University) and Joe Reitz (Western Michigan University) also earned first-team honors.
Ruths also is also making his second appearance on the Academic All-America team as he was selected to the second team last season. The Sugar Land, Texas, native helped lead the 12th-ranked Bears to a 20-4 record and the University Athletic Association title this season. He has averaged 19.2 points and 7.8 rebounds this season and has scored in double figures in 25 consecutive games and 52 of his last 53 games.
Ruths leads the UAA in scoring and ranks second in blocked shots (1.5/game) and third in field goal percentage (.580) and rebounding. He has been named the Athlete of the Week in the UAA five times this season. Ruths, who is the 16th player at Washington (Mo.) to score 1,000 points in his career, scored a career-high 33 points against Carnegie Mellon University this season.
Ruths, who has a 4.00 cumulative grade point average as a computer science major, was recently named to USA Todays 18th-annual All-USA College Academic Third Team.
In addition to Ruths, Beau Bauer (Florida Gulf Coast University), Patrick Hannaway (University of Colorado at Colorado Springs), Aurimas Truskauskas (Gannon University) and Steve Dagostino (College of Saint Rose) were named to the first team.
The Academic All-America program annually honors over 1600 student-athletes who have succeeded at the highest level on the playing field and in the classroom. Individuals are selected through voting by CoSIDA (the College Sports Information Directors of America), a 2,000-member organization consisting of sports public relations professionals for colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Since the programs inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 14,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA covering all NCAA championship sports.
To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director.
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