University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sophomore guard Marcus Paige has been named a 2014 Capital One Academic All-America, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Paige, a native of Marion, Iowa, is majoring in journalism and mass communications. He leads the Tar Heels in scoring at 17.2 points per game, is number one in the Atlantic Coast Conference in free throw shooting (.894) and is ranked in the top 10 in the ACC in scoring, assists, three-point goals, three-point accuracy, minutes played, steals and assist-error ratio.
He is the only player in the ACC currently ranked among the top five in the conference in both scoring and assists (fourth in both categories).
Paige is also the only ACC men’s basketball players recognized this year among the first-, second- or third-team Academic All-Americas.
First-team honorees include Brayden Carlson (South Dakota State), Aaron Craft (Ohio State), Drew Crawford (Northwestern), Melvin Ejim (Iowa State) and J.J. Mann (Belmont).
Jordan Dykstra (South Dakota State), Holton Hunsaker (Utah Valley), Dennis Ogbe (Tennessee Tech) and Kendrick Perry (Youngstown State) join Paige on the second team.
Paige is the only sophomore on the first three teams (10 seniors, two grad students, two juniors and Paige).
Center Tyler Zeller was the most recent Tar Heel to earn Academic All-America honors. Zeller was a first-team selection in both 2011 and 2012. He was the overall Academic All-America of the Year as a senior in 2012 when he also earned ACC Player of the Year honors.
Courtesy of GoHeels.com
Published February 20, 2014.