Men's Basketball Standouts Clayton Black, Alex Brandt Earn Academic All-District Honors
Wittenberg University men's basketball standouts Clayton Black, class of 2012 from Lancaster, Ohio, and Alex Brandt, class of 2012 from Lewis Center, Ohio, have been recognized for the combination of their athletic and academic accomplishments with third-team Capital One Academic All-America College Division All-District IV honors.
Springfield, Ohio — Wittenberg University men's basketball standouts Clayton Black, class of 2012 from Lancaster, Ohio, and Alex Brandt, class of 2012 from Lewis Center, Ohio, have been recognized for the combination of their athletic and academic accomplishments with third-team Capital One Academic All-America College Division All-District IV honors.
This is the first Academic All-District IV award for either student-athlete. The selections are a result of online voting conducted recently by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Only student-athletes who make the first-team in district voting can be considered for Academic All-America awards.
After a breakout sophomore campaign, Black has emerged as one of the top players in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) in the 2010-11 season. He is tied for the team lead with 15.5 points per game, and he ranks second on the squad with 5.5 rebounds per outing. He is shooting a team-best .600 from the field this season, and he also paces the Tigers with 15 blocked shots.
Black ranks sixth in the conference in scoring, 15th in rebounding, second in field goal percentage and eighth in blocked shots per game. He also ranks among the top 25 nationally in field goal percentage.
A philosophy major, Black currently has a 3.55 grade point average. In addition to his exploits on the basketball court and in the classroom, Black is a leader in a variety of extracurricular activities, including the student-run radio station, WUSO 89.1-FM, where he serves as a board member, and Wittenberg's caving club scientific journal Pholeos. He serves as the journal's editor.
Brandt has made his breakout this year, averaging 7.4 points and a team-best 5.7 rebounds per contest in his first season as a full-time starter. He leads the team by a wide margin in offensive rebounds, collecting a whopping 57 – more than half of his season total of 108. He ranks among the leaders in that category in both the conference and all of NCAA Division III.
A business major and economics minor, Brandt is the recipient of a Provost Scholarship and has been a Dean's List honoree every semester of his collegiate career. He is active on campus, participating in Wittenberg's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, serving on the Student Senate Appellate Board, working as an orientation assistant, performing community service teaching special needs youth basketball skills camps and serving as president of the Phi Eta Sigma honorary.
The Tiger men, who moved into the d3hoops.com Top 25 for the first time in the 2010-11 season earlier this week, currently stand at 14-5 overall and 9-1 in the NCAC. Wittenberg previously defeated both Kenyon and Allegheny on the road. The Tigers, ranked fifth in the first NCAA Division III Great Lakes Region poll released on Wednesday, are in second place in the conference standings with six games left in the regular season.
Written By: Ryan Maurer
Photos By: Erin Pence
007-11