INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Led by Academic All-American of the Year Adam Emmenecker of Drake, nine members of the 2008 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® Men’s Basketball Team will be taking the floor for this year’s NCAA tournament. Consisting of a first, second, and third team, the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® teams are selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Emmenecker’s Drake Bulldogs, 28-4, will be making their first appearance in the NCAA tournament in 37 years. The MVP of both the Missouri Valley Conference’s regular season and tournament, senior Emmenecker carries a 3.97 grade point average while balancing four majors (management, business, finance, and entrepreneurial management). The Saginaw, Michigan native has averaged 8.5 points and 6.2 assists this season for the Bulldogs, who will take on Western Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA tournament as the west region’s fifth seed.
Two other first team selections will be competing in this year’s NCAA tournament as well. Texas’ D.J. Augustine will lead his 28-6 Longhorns in a first round match up against Austin Peay. The sophomore from New Orleans, Louisiana is an education major with a 3.64 grade point average. On the court, Augustine leads Texas, seeded second in the south region, with averages of 19.8 points and 5.6 assists per game, respectively.
Justin Hare of Belmont is also a first team selection by ESPN The Magazine and CoSIDA. His 25-8 Bruins won the Atlantic Sun Conference and head into the tournament as the 15th seed in the west region where they’ll be matched up with Duke in round one. Hare, a senior from Cleveland, Tennessee, is an exercise science and pre-med major with a GPA of 3.87. He’s Belmont’s leading scorer at 14.9 points per game and hits 91.5% of his free throws.
A.J. Graves, a senior from Switz City, Indiana, and Drew Streicher, a post-grad from Washington, Indiana, will team up to lead the 29-3 Butler Bulldogs into this year’s tournament. Graves, a second team Academic All-America® selection, carries a 3.35 GPA as an actuarial science major. He averages over 35 minutes and 13.3 points a game for Butler and has made 87.7% of his free throws. In his career, Graves has logged over 4300 minutes, scored 1768 points, and hit .898 from the free throw line. Streicher, a third team selection, is a chemistry major with a 3.95 GPA and averages 4.1 points a game off the Bulldog bench. Butler, seeded seventh in the east region, will take on South Alabama in NCAA tournament’s first round.
Michigan State’s Drew Neitzel joined Graves on the second team. The senior from Grand Rapids, Michigan carries a 3.27 GPA in interdisciplinary humanities and is the Spartans’ second leading scorer with an average of 14.2 points per game. He also has 131 assists and is a 40.3% shooter from three-point range and has an .854 mark from the free throw line. Neitzel’s Spartans, 25-8, are seeded fifth in the south region and will face Temple in the first round.
Joining Streicher on ESPN the Magazine’s third team were Greg Paulus of Duke, Matt Nelson of Boise State, and West Virginia’s Alex Ruoff.
Paulus’ Blue Devils, 27-5 and the second seed in the west region, will take on Hare’s Belmont Bruins in the first round. The Syracuse, New York senior leads Duke with 106 assists and a .433 mark from three-point range. He averages 11.3 points a game and carries a 3.30 GPA as a political science major.
Nelson, a senior from Issaquah, Washington, is a business major with a 3.52 GPA. He’s second on the team with averages of 15.6 points and 7.3 rebounds and shoots 65% from the field. His 25-8 Broncos survived an epic 107-102, triple-overtime battle in the Western Athletic Conference tournament final to gain entry to this year’s NCAA tournament field. They’re seeded 14th in the east region and face Louisville in the first round.
Ruoff, a junior from Spring Hill, Florida leads the Mountaineers with 53 steals and 91 three-pointers (40.4%) while averaging 13.5 points a game, second on the team. He’s a history major with a 3.79 GPA. West Virginia enters the NCAA tournament at 24-10 and seeded seventh in the west region. Ruoff and the Mountaineers will take on Arizona in the first round.
In addition, five student-athletes who were named to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America men’s basketball team in the college division have already participated in the NCAA Division II and III tournaments this season. They are Steve Dagostino of Saint Rose and Tyler Cooper of West Texas A&M in Division II and Troy Ruths of Washington University (Mo.), Andrew Harris of Middlebury and Kenty Raymond of Wheaton (Ill.) in Division III.
For further information, contact Dick Lipe (
rlipe@bentley.edu, 781-891-2334) or Dave Wrath (
pewrath@augustana.edu).