Baylor men’s basketball sophomore guards Jake Lindsey and King McClure were named to the 2017 Academic All-Big 12 Teams, as announced Thursday by the conference office.
Lindsey and McClure accounted for two of the six underclassmen named to the Academic All-Big 12 Teams. Twenty-five players were recognized with 16 on the first team and nine on the second team. First-team honorees have GPAs of at least 3.20, while second-team members have GPAs ranging from 3.00 to 3.19.
Lindsey was one of only two underclassmen named to the Academic All-Big 12 first team, joining Oklahoma redshirt freshman Matt Freeman. A finance major from Houston, Lindsey became the 11th player in program history to earn Academic All-Big 12 first team recognition and the first since Brady Heslip and Logan Lowery in 2014.
McClure was one of four underclassmen on the second team, joining Oklahoma sophomore Jamuni McNeace and West Virginia redshirt freshmen James Bolden and Lamont West. A Dallas native and health/kinesiology/leisure studies major, McClure became the ninth player in program history named to the Academic All-Big 12 second team.
All told, Baylor has now had 15 first-team honors by 11 different players and 11 second-team selections by nine different players in the Big 12 Conference’s 21 seasons.
Lindsey has played in all 28 games this season, averaging 4.5 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 21.4 minutes per game. He’s dramatically improved his 3-point shooting, making as many 3-pointers this season as he attempted all of his freshman season and going from a .235 3-point percentage (4-of-17) last year up to a .395 percentage (17-of-43) this season. He’s continued to post team-best assist-to-turnover numbers, with a 2.6 assist-to-turnover ratio for both the 2016-17 season and his two-year career.
McClure has played in 25 games and made six starts, averaging 4.7 points, 1.2 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 13.6 minutes per game. He’s been Baylor’s starting shooting guard in each of the last five games, increasing his output to 21.4 minutes per game and shooting .519 from the field (14-of-27) and .400 from 3-point range (8-of-20) on his way to 7.6 points per game in those five starts.
No. 9 Baylor (23-5, 10-5 Big 12) has three remaining regular season games. The Bears play road games at 3 p.m. CT Saturday vs. Iowa State and at 3 p.m. March 4 vs. Texas, and BU hosts senior night against West Virginia at 6 p.m. Monday. The Bears have been top-10 ranked for a school-record-tying 13 consecutive weeks.
