Lincoln – Nebraska’s Shavon Shields (Olathe, Kan.) became the first Husker men’s basketball player to earn first-team academic All-America honors, as the Capital One Academic All-America® Division I basketball teams as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) were announced Thursday.
Shields earns the accolade, as he was one of five players selected to the first team. The junior forward carries a 3.73 GPA in biologicial sciences. Shields has been a five-time member of the UNL Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll and served for two years on the NU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. He is also active in the Huskers’ Life Skills program, serving as a keynote speaker for the Sportsmanship Pep Rally, as well as volunteer for Husker Heroes, Ollie Webb and Nebrasketball Buddies Clinics among other activities. Last year, he was one of 16 national finalists for the 2014 Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Award.
On the court, he is a three-year starter and two-year co-captain who comes into tonight’s game at Ohio State averaging career bests in points (15.3 ppg), rebounds (6.1 rpg) and assists (2.2 apg). He is among the Big Ten leaders in scoring (eighth), rebounding (11th) and free throw percentage (.823, sixth). He has seven 20-point games in 2014-15, including a career-high 35 point effort against Omaha. He went over 1,000 career points earlier this season and is six rebounds away from becoming only the 16th player in school history to have 1000 points and 500 rebounds at Nebraska.
Shields becomes the sixth Husker to be a CoSIDA Academic All-American in basketball (a combined seven times), and the first since Beau Reid in 1991. His selection increases Nebraska’s nation-leading total to 315. Shields is one of two Big Ten players to be named Academic All-American, as Iowa guard Mike Gessell was a third-team honoree.
CoSIDA Academic All-Americans (7)
2015 Shavon Shields, 1st team
1991 Beau Reid, 3rd team
1989 Beau Reid, 3rd team
1984 John Matzke, 2nd team
1981 Jack Moore, 2nd team
1978 Curt Hedberg, 5th team
1972 Chuck Jura, 3rd team