# List of Men's Basketball Academic All-America Team Members of the Year

The Men's Basketball Academic All-America Team Member of the Year is the annually-awarded most outstanding singular college basketball male athlete selected for the Academic All-America Teams in a given year. The Academic All-America program is selected by the College Sports Communicators (formerly known as College Sports Information Directors of America, or CoSIDA), and recognizes combined athletic performance and academic achievement excellence of the nation's top student-athletes.
Men's basketball became the second sport with All-America team recognition in 1963. Since the 1987–88 academic year, All-America of the Year selections began with one winner each chosen from both the College and University Divisions for all All-America teams. Originally, the University Division team included eligible participants from National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I member schools, while the College Division team included scholar-athletes from all non-NCAA Division I institutions. Beginning in 2012, CoSIDA revamped its award structure. The University Division was renamed "Division I", and NCAA Division II and Division III were made their own separate All-American categories. The remaining schools initially still comprised the College Division. After the 2018 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) division split off, the College Division was limited to Two-Year Colleges, Canadian universities and Canadian colleges and institutions not affiliated with the NCAA or NAIA. A fifth Division with NAIA schools separate from Canadian and two-year member schools was announced with selections only in the At-large category.
Currently, each team selects Academic All-District honorees in eight geographic districts across the United States and Canada. The districts are: District 1 (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont), District 2 (Delaware, District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia), District 3 (North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia), District 4 (Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico, South Carolina), District 5 (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio), District 6 (Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Wyoming), District 7 (Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas), and District 8 (Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Canada). The All-District honorees make up the All-America team ballots. Currently, all twelve Academic All-American teams (men's and women's basketball, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's track & field, men's baseball, women's softball, men's American football, women's volleyball, men's and women's swimming & diving, men's and women's tennis and men's and women's at-large teams) have one Academic All-American of the Year per division. One of these twelve sport-by-sport Academic All-Americans of the year is selected as the Academic All-America Team Member of the Year for each division. The most recent men's basketball players to receive the all-sports honor are Cooper Cook of Nebraska Wesleyan University and Kyle Steigenga of Cornerstone University, respectively named in Division III and the former College Division in 2018.

## History

As of January 31, 2024, Illinois Wesleyan University has had the most men's basketball Academic All-America honorees, and three Illinois Wesleyan Titans have been recognized with this award a total of four times.
Several of the Men's Basketball Academic All-America of the Year winners have gone on to win the overall Academic All-America of the Year. Michael Smith was the first University Division overall winner in 1988. Alec Kessler (1990), Todd Fuller (1996) and Emeka Okafor (2004) also won the University Division overall Academic All-America. Before the College Division was split, Korey Coon (2000) and Troy Ruths (2008) won the overall award. Since the split there have been no Division I or Division II overall winners. However, Colton Hunt (2013), John Coleman (2015) and Cooper Cook (2018) have won the Division III award. Kyle Steigenga (2018) has won the College Division award.
Several have been repeat winners of this award. Notably, Ben Vander Plas, the Division I recipient in 2022 and 2023, is the only repeat winner to have been honored at different schools—Ohio in 2022 and Virginia in 2023.

## Tables of winners

Key :
| † | Indicates winners of the all-sports Academic All-America award. |
All winners are American unless indicated otherwise.

### Two-division era (1988–2011)

Men's Basketball Academic All-America Team Members of the Year (1988–2011) :
| Year | University Division Winner | School | College Division Winner | School |
| 1988 | Michael Smith† | Brigham Young | Brian Franson | Elon |
| 1989 | Alec Kessler | Georgia | Phil Hutcheson | Lipscomb |
| 1990 | Alec Kessler† | Georgia | Phil Hutcheson | Lipscomb |
| 1991 | Mike Iuzzolino | Saint Francis (PA) | Dan Nettleton | Wartburg |
| 1992 | Tony Bennett | Wisconsin–Green Bay | Jerry Meyer | Lipscomb |
| 1993 | Bruce Elder | Vanderbilt | Raymond Gutierezz | PennWest California |
| 1994 | Jeff Brown | Gonzaga | Chris Knoester | Calvin (MI) |
| 1995 | John Amaechi | Penn State Nittany Lions | Steve Diekmann | Grinnell |
| 1996 | Todd Fuller† | North Carolina State | Brett Beeson | Morehead State |
| 1997 | Jacque Vaughn | Kansas | James Fox | Case Western |
| 1998 | Pat Garrity | Notre Dame | Christopher Kiger | Elon |
| 1999 | Matt Sundblad | Lamar | Korey Coon | Illinois Wesleyan |
| 2000 | T. J. Lux | Northern Illinois | Korey Coon† | Illinois Wesleyan |
| 2001 | Shane Battier | Duke | Dave Jannuzzi | Wilkes |
| 2002 | Matt Bonner | Florida | Kevyn McBride | Alderson Broaddus |
| 2003 | Matt Bonner | Florida | J.T. Luginski | Michigan Tech |
| 2004 | Emeka Okafor† | UConn | Nick Branting | Nebraska–Kearney |
| 2005 | Chris Hill | Michigan State | J.D. Byers | Lebanon Valley |
| 2006 | Johannes Herber | West Virginia | Keelan Amelianovich | Illinois Wesleyan |
| 2007 | Adam Haluska | Iowa | Alex Kock | Huntington (US) |
| 2008 | Adam Emmenecker | Drake | Troy Ruths† | Washington (MO) |
| 2009 | Brett Winkelman | North Dakota State | Jimmy Bartolotta | MIT |
| 2010 | Cole Aldrich | Kansas | Daniel McKeehan | Thomas More (KY) |
| 2011 | Matt Howard | Butler | Austin Meier | MSOE |

### Four-division era (2012–present)

Men's Basketball Academic All-America Team Members of the Year (2012–present) :
| Year | Div. I Winner | School | Div. II Winner | School | Div. III Winner | School | College/NAIA Winner | School |
| 2012 | Tyler Zeller | North Carolina | Nick Trull | Anderson (SC) | Aris Wurtz | Ripon (WI) | Casey Coons | Taylor (IN) |
| 2013 | Aaron Craft | Ohio State | Marcus Ruh | Saint Leo (FL) | Colton Hunt† | Randolph (VA) | Brad Karp | Saint Xavier (IL) |
| 2014 | Aaron Craft (2) | Ohio State | Bryce Foster | Missouri S&T | Richie Bonney | Hobart | Brad Karp | Saint Xavier (IL) |
| 2015 | Matt Townsend | Yale | Trey Casey | Christian Brothers | John Coleman† | Clarkson | Matt Schauss | Bethel (IN) |
| 2016 | Jarrod Uthoff | Iowa | Kyle Cooper | Hillsdale | Jared Holmquist | Trine | Brandon Cole | Bryan |
| 2017 | Canyon Barry | Florida | Adam Klie | California San Diego | DeShawn Lowman | Neumann | Chandler Folkerts | Concordia (NE) |
| 2018 | Jevon Carter | West Virginia | Daniel Monteroso | West Liberty | Cooper Cook† | Nebraska Wesleyan | Kyle Steigenga† | Cornerstone |
| 2019 | Joe Sherburne | UMBC | Isaac Asrat | Lubbock Christian | Tim Roberts | MIT | Bart Hiscock | Hastings |
| 2020 | Skylar Mays | LSU | Peyton Wejnert | Pace | Marcus Dempsey | Muskingum | Nic Reed | Olivet Nazarene |
| 2021 | Corey Kispert | Gonzaga | Dalton Bolon | West Liberty | Gabriel Leifer | Yeshiva | Kyle Mangas | Indiana Wesleyan |
| 2022 | Ben Vander Plas | Ohio | Tyler Riemersma | Augustana (SD) | Matthew Leritz | Illinois Wesleyan | Alex Gross | Olivet Nazarene |
| 2023 | Ben Vander Plas (2) | Virginia | John Paul Kromka | Pitt-Johnstown | Josh Angle | Claremont McKenna | Riley Minix | Southeastern (FL) |
| 2024 | Max Abmas | Texas | Erik Timko | Jefferson | Cael Schmitt | Coe | Jonathan Brown | Cumberlands |