OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Sixty NCAA® men’s and women’s basketball student-athletes who excel both on and off the court were selected as candidates today for the 2012-13 Senior CLASS Award® in collegiate basketball. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition. The complete list of candidates follows this release.

Evansville senior Colt Ryan is one of the thirty men’s players selected to the list and is the lone Missouri Valley Conference representative.  The Batesville, Ind. native ranked 11^th in the nation in scoring last year and received several accolades from the MVC including Scholar Athlete of the Year honors and First Team All-Conference.  He was also named to the Preseason All-Conference Team earlier this week.

An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School ®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.

The 2012-13 candidate classes include seven men’s players and seven women’s players who were recognized by the College Sports Information Directors of America as 2012 Capital One Academic All-Americans. Five men and 10 women were Associated Press All-Americans. Twenty men’s candidates and 18 women’s candidates have cumulative grade point averages above 3.0. The men’s Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced during the 2013 NCAA Final Four® in Atlanta April 6 and 8, while the women’s winner will be announced during the NCAA Women’s Final Four® in New Orleans April 7 and 9.

The candidate classes will be narrowed to 10 men’s and 10 women’s finalists midway through the regular season, and those names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one men’s finalist and one women’s finalist who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition.

For more information on all the candidates, visit seniorCLASSaward.com.

Men’s Candidates
God'sgift Achiuwa, St. John's (N.Y.)
O.D. Anosike, Siena
Ben Averkamp, Loyola (Chicago)
Brian Barbour, Columbia
Jared Berggren, Wisconsin
Isaiah Canaan, Murray State
Drew Crawford, Northwestern
Matthew Dellavedova, Saint Mary's
Tim Frazier, Penn State
Mike Groselle, The Citadel
C.J. Harris, Wake Forest
Jordan Hulls, Indiana
Gabe Knutson, Lehigh
JP Kuhlman, Davidson
Andrew Lawrence, Charleston
Jonathan Lee, Northeastern
Scott Martin, Notre Dame
C.J. McCollum, Lehigh
Brock Motum, Washington State
Mike Muscala, Bucknell
Robert Olson, Loyola (Maryland)
Brandon Paul, Illinois
Mason Plumlee, Duke
Colt Ryan, Evansville
Peyton Siva, Louisville
Andrew Smith, Butler
Michael Snaer, Florida State
Marc Trasolini, Santa Clara
Jeff Withey, Kansas
Nate Wolters, South Dakota State