Central Arkansas’ Howard is Men’s Basketball Student-Athlete of the Year

3/30/2017 12:11:15 PM

Frisco, Texas – Central Arkansas guard Jordan Howard is the Southland Conference Men’s Basketball Student-Athlete of the Year. The league made the announcement Thursday along with the league’s 2016-17 All-Academic teams.

Howard, a junior from Chandler, Arizona (Perry High School), headlines a group of 10 players named to the two teams, representing nine of 13 Southland schools.

He joins four other student-athletes as two-time All-Academic Team honorees: Sabri Thompson, Northwestern State; Reveal Chukwujekwu, Houston Baptist; Aurimas Majauskas, Sam Houston State; and Jake Kocher, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. All were chosen all-academic in consecutive years except Kocher, who first received the honor in 2013-14.

Only Howard was an automatic selection to the team by virtue of having been named to the Southland All-Conference Men’s Basketball First Team, and earning CoSIDA Academic All-American recognition (Third Team). This season marks the second time Howard was chosen for the All-Conference Team.

Howard is a digital filmmaking major with a 3.80 grade point average (GPA). This past season, he led UCA in most key categories including: Games played (all 31); minutes per game (34.2); scoring (19.5 points per game); three-point field goal average (3.3 per game); free throws (4.3); free throw percentage (.887); and steals (1.1 per game). Howard is one of three to secure Southland Player of the Week recognition more than once in 2016-17. He took the award in consecutive weeks in February.

Houston Baptist is the only school to have two individuals chosen with Colter Lasher joining Chukwujekwu.

Howard, Lasher, Chukwujekwu, Majauskas, and New Orleans’ Travin Thibodeaux all now have a double-double of sorts – they were named earlier this month to All-Conference Teams in addition to All-Academic Team selection.

Two graduate students received honors, Kocher and UIW’s Sam Burmeister. Meanwhile sophomores Jaren Lewis of Abilene Christian and TJ Holyfield of Stephen F. Austin are the only two underclassmen picked for the two teams.

Second-team selection Travin Thibodeaux, part of the Southland Tournament and regular-season champion New Orleans squad, was named earlier to the five man Southland All-Defensive Team.

The all-academic teams are voted on by the head coaches, sports information directors and academic advisors from each Southland Conference school. In order to qualify, Student-athletes must carry at least a 3.0 cumulative GPA, have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution, and participated in at least 50 percent of the team’s competitions.

2016-17 Southland Conference Men’s Basketball All-Academic First Team

*Name*	*School*	*Class*	*GPA*	*Major(s)*
Jordan Howard *^{ 1, 2}**	Central Arkansas	Jr.	3.80	Digital Filmmaking
Sabri Thompson²	Northwestern State	Sr.	3.73	Accounting; Business Administration
Reveal Chukwujekwu ²	Houston Baptist	Sr.	3.32	Accounting
Jaren Lewis	Abilene Christian	So.	3.46	Management
Aurimas Majauskas ²	Sam Houston State	Sr.	3.27	International Business

2016-17 Southland Conference Men’s Basketball All-Academic Second Team

*Name*	*School*	*Class*	*GPA*	*Major*
Colter Lasher	Houston Baptist	Sr.	3.21	Management
Travin Thibodeaux	New Orleans	Jr.	3.27	Interdisciplinary Studies; Pre-Dentistry
Sam Burmeister	UIW	Gr.	3.70	MBA, Finance
TJ Holyfield	Stephen F. Austin	So.	3.15	Undecided
Jake Kocher ²	Texas A&M-CC	Gr.	3.53	Business

* Automatic Selection (by virtue of his selection to Southland Conference All-Conference First Team and CoSIDA Academic All-American -Third Team)

¹ 2016-17 Southland Conference Men’s Basketball Student-Athlete of the Year

² Two time Southland Conference All-Academic selection