A trio of men's basketball student-athletes have been named to a College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District Team.
Clayton Custer of Loyola (District V), Marcus Bartley of Southern Illinois (District V), and Reed Timmer of Drake (District VI) represent the MVC. The full teams, including GPAs and majors are available within the PDF.
2018 CoSIDA Academic All-District Teams (PDF)
A sport administration major with a 4.00 GPA, Bartley leads Southern Illinois with 84 assists, despite missing the first six games of the season with a broken wrist. He returned in December and has played in 23 games, including 19 starts. The Saint Louis transfer and Decatur, Illinois native averages 6.6 points and ranks second on the team in 3-point shooting percentage at .389. In two games this season against Northern Iowa, he went 8-for-11 from outside the arc. Bartley is the program's first Academic All-District pick since Bryan Mullins won the award in 2009. Mullins went on to become a two-time Academic All-American. Academic All-District honorees advance to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Team ballot, where first-, second- and third-team All-America honorees will be announced in March.
Custer (Overland Park, Kan./Blue Valley Northwest/Iowa State), a guard on the Loyola University Chicago men's basketball team is the first Rambler to earn CoSIDA Academic All-District recognition since Ben Averkamp in 2013. Custer has been a vital cog in the Ramblers' terrific season, helping the club to a 22-2 record in games he plays, while averaging 14.7 points, 2.3 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.7 steals per game. He has been one of the top shooting guards in the country, knocking down an impressive 56.4 percent (128-for-227) of his field goal attempts, including 49 percent (47-for-96) of his three-point tries. Off the court, Custer has been recognized for his academic achievements, earning Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Week honors three times this season and a year ago, he was named MVC First Team Scholar-Athlete. He carries a 3.52 grade-point average as a finance major.
Timmer has been named MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Week five times this season and Player of the Week three times. He became Drake’s all-time leading scorer and is on pace to move into the top-20 all-time in MVC history in scoring … his 19.1 points per game lead the conference as does his 88.3 percent free-throw shooting this season … ranks third in the MVC in three-pointers made and his 80 three-pointers this season are the sixth-most in school history and 11 away from the school record … ranks fifth in career-three pointers at Drake … has scored in double-figures in all but two games this season with 13 20-point games including three 30-point games, the most in the MVC … recorded a career-high 39 points in the home win over Indiana State with eight three-pointers … his 39 points were the most by a Bulldog since 2015-16 and the second most since 1981 while his eight three-pointers were one off the school record.