A real wise guy

EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern junior forward Drew Crawford (Naperville, Ill./Naperville Central) has been selected to the Capital One Academic All-America Second Team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

Crawford is the eighth NU men's basketball player to earn the honor and the first since 1994 when Kevin Rankin was named to the second team.

An economics major, Crawford has a 3.40 grade-point average. His selection to the Academic All-District 5 team was his second consecutive. He was recognized as an Academic All-Big Ten honoree as a sophomore.

On the court, Crawford ranks second on the team and fifth in the Big Ten with a scoring average of 16.2 points per game. He also ranks ninth in the league with an average of 1.7 3-point field goals per game, 14th with a .485 field goal percentage and 15th with a .398 3-point field goal percentage.

Crawford was named the tournament MVP after leading Northwestern to the title at the Charleston Classic, averaging 24.0 points and 6.0 rebounds per game while shooting 57.4 percent from the field. He scored a season-high 34 points Dec. 22 at Creighton.

Crawford is joined on the Academic All-America second team by Ronald Nored of Butler, Scott Saunders of Belmont, Logan Aronhalt of Albany and Brian Conklin of Saint Louis. The first team consists of Aaron Craft of Ohio State, Matthew Dellavedova of Saint Mary's (Calif.), Brad Loesing of Wofford, Mason Plumlee of Duke and Tyler Zeller of North Carolina (Academic All-American of the Year).

Crawford is the third Northwestern student-athlete to earn Academic All-America distinction in 2011-12, joining Patrick Ward (first team) and Jacob Schmidt (second team) of the football program.

Northwestern (16-11, 6-9 Big Ten) is back in action Saturday as it travels to Penn State. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. Central time.

Northwestern Men's Basketball Academic All-Americans

Jim Burns, 1967 (First Team)

Rick Sund, 1973 (Third Team)

Mike Campbell, 1980 (First Team)

Shon Morris, 1986 (Second Team); 1987, 1988 (First Team)

Brian Schwabe, 1989 (Third Team)

Walker Lambiotte, 1990 (Third Team)

Kevin Rankin, 1993 (Third Team); 1994 (Second Team)

Drew Crawford, 2012 (Second Team)