CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- Five men's basketball student-athletes were named to the America East All-Academic team at the conference's awards brunch held at Binghamton University's Events Center on Friday, March 6. The student-athletes were recognized for their achievements athletically as well as academically.
Albany's Brian Lillis (Urbandale, Iowa/West Des Moines Dowling) and Stony Brook's Ricky Lucas (Herndon, Va./Herndon/George Washington) leads up the squad as repeat selections. Joining Lillis and Lucas is Albany's Brian Connelly (Audubon, N.Y./Camden Catholic), Hartford's Jaret Von Rosenberg (Mission, Texas/Sharyland/Colin County) and Maine's Junior Bernal (Manhattan, N.Y./Maine Central Institute).
Lillis, a first-team all-conference and all-defensive selection, leads the all-academic squad with a 3.23 grade-point average. Von Rosenberg follows closely with a 3.21 GPA and Bernal is right behind him with a 3.18 mark. Connelly and Lucas also carry GPAs higher than 3.0.
The All-Academic squads are a product of the June 2005 Athletics Director meetings. Faculty representatives and athletics directors from each of the conference’s nine member institutions decided to honor some of the league’s top athletes that are also quality students.
Each All-Academic Team has been selected based on the student-athlete’s academic and athletic accomplishments. Academic achievement for consideration requires student-athletes to have a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 3.00 entering the season. Athletic accomplishment standards vary between team sports and individual sports. For team sports, student-athletes are required to be a nomination on the post-season awards ballot, which is determined by the league’s head coaches. Team size for team sports is based on the number of athletes that participate in a contest at one time (e.g., five on the court for basketball). In the event that the number of student-athletes meeting the requirements is greater than the number that participate in a contest at one time, all-conference vote totals were used as the tie-breaking criteria.