Southern Illinois graduate guard Marcus Bartley has been named to the 2018-19 Google Cloud Academic All-America First Team and Clayton Custer, a redshirt senior on the Loyola University Chicago men’s basketball team, has been named to the Third Team. The teams were selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America and announced Monday.
Bartley graduated with a perfect 4.0 GPA in May 2018 and holds a perfect 4.0 GPA in his M.B.A. program. He became SIU's third-ever two-time Academic All-American, having also earned a spot on the Third Team in 2018. He joins Mike Glenn (1976, 77) and Bryan Mullins (2008, 09) as two-time Academic All-Americans. Bartley, a Saint Louis transfer, scored 617 career points and dished 261 career assists in his four years. At SIU, he hit 81 3-pointers and shot 37.7 percent over two seasons from the 3-point line. Southern Illinois University student-athletes have now earned Academic All-America honors 98 times all-time, which is the most of any Missouri Valley Conference school.
SIU MEN'S BASKETBALL ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICANS
Don Portugal (Third Team), 1972
Mike Glenn (First Team), 1976
Mike Glenn (First Team), 1977
Jamaal Tatum (Second Team), 2007
Bryan Mullins (Second Team), 2008
Bryan Mullins (First Team), 2009
Marcus Bartley (Third Team), 2018
Marcus Bartley (First Team), 2019
Custer is just the second player in program history and first since Ben Averkamp in 2013 to earn Academic All-America recognition. Custer is a three-time Missouri Valley Conference First Team Scholar-Athlete selection and has also twice collected DI-AAA Scholar-Athlete Team and Google Cloud Academic All-District V accolades in his career. This season, he helped Loyola claim a share of the MVC regular season championship, giving the Ramblers back-to-back conference crowns, regardless of league affiliation, for the first time in school history The 6-foot-1 point guard, who was named Third Team All-MVC last week, is averaging 11.2 points, 2.0 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.1 steals per game this year and in January scored a career-best 26 points in an 85-74 victory at Drake.
A year ago, Custer had one of the best seasons ever by a Rambler, earning MVC Player of the Year, National Jesuit Player of the Year, Mid-Major Player of the Year and National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) First Team All-District status after leading Loyola to a school-record 32 wins, its first NCAA tournament berth in 33 years and its first NCAA Final Four appearance since winning the national championship in 1963. Custer epitomizes the term “student-athlete,” and is currently pursuing his master’s degree in business administration after receiving his bachelor’s degree in finance last May.