Feb. 22, 2010
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Notre Dame forward Tim Abromaitis (Unionville, Conn.), the Irish’s second-leading scorer and one of the nation’s top three-point shooters this season, has been named to the 2009-10 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America First Team for men’s basketball as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America.
He becomes Notre Dame’s first first-team Academic All-America selection since Chris Quinn in 2006. Abromaitis is the eighth different Irish player to garner Academic All-America honors on 13 occasions. He also is the program’s seventh first-team Academic All-America honoree. In addition to Abromaitis and Quinn, those former Notre Dame players who have earned Academic All-American honors include Bob Arnzen (a three-time first-team selection from 1967-69), Gary Novak (second-team honoree in both 1972 and 1974; Kelly Tripucka (a first-team pick in 1979), Rich Branning (a first-team selection in 1980), John Paxson (a two-time first-team honoree in both 1982 and 1983) and Pat Garrity (a first-team selection in 1997 and 1998).
In addition to Abromaitis, the five-man first team consisted of juniors Cole Aldrich (Kansas) and Matt Howard (Butler) and seniors Patrick Foley (Columbia) and Yves Mekongo (La Salle). Aldrich also was chosen as the Academic All-America of the Year.
Heading up the second team were seniors Marc Larson (Bowling Green), Roman Martinez (New Mexico) and Nick Schneiders (USC-Upstate), junior E’Twaun Moore (Purdue) and sophomore Luke Babbit (Nevada). The third team was made up of seniors Matthew Mullery (Brown) and Jake Robinson (Western Carolina), juniors Devon Beitzel (Northern Colorado) and Graham Hatch (Wichita State) and sophomore Gordon Hayward (Butler).
Abromaitis becomes the fourth Notre Dame student-athlete to earn Academic All-America accolades during this school year and the 214th overall since the Academic All-America program was established in 1952.
A junior finance major in the Mendoza College of Business, Abromaitis owns a 3.72 grade point average. A three-time member of the Dean’s List and member of the BIG EAST Academic All-Star Team, he will graduate in May 2010 one full year ahead of his class and will enter Notre Dame’s intensified one-year MBA program following graduation.
To be eligible, a student-athlete must be varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 on a scale of 4.000, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director.
Since the program’s inception, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 15,000 student-athletes in Division I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.
Abromaitis, who did not play at during the 2008-09 campaign and in just 12 games during his rookie season in 2007-08, is averaging career bests of 17.3 points and 4.8 rebounds. He has played in all 27 games and started has started 19 straight contests. Abromaitis has netted double figures in all but three games this season. He has topped the 20-point mark on eight occasions this season and scored 30-plus points in two of those contests (a career-high 31 points against Central Florida and a BIG EAST best 30 points against Syracuse).
Abromaitis leads Notre Dame in field goal percentage (.532), three-point field goal percentage (.490) and free throw shooting (.875). He also ranks first nationally in three-point field goal percentage as he has connected on 75 of his 153 attempts.