Complete List and Story on Academic All-America Team

Eastern Washington University men's basketball senior Mason Peatling has been selected as a first team Academic All-America selection by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), it was announced on March 9.
 
The Big Sky Conference MVP candidate was one of just 15 players in all of NCAA Division to be honored. He previously won Academic All-District VIII first team accolades to advance to the national ballot.
 
Peatling is from Melbourne, Australia, and has a perfect 4.0 grade point average thus far while pursuing a graduate degree in business administration. He had a 3.89 GPA as an undergraduate and received his degree in finance.

On the court, Peatling recently closed the Big Sky Conference season with averages of 18.5 points on 56 percent shooting from the field, 10.4 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.7 blocked shots and 0.8 steals. He had 11 double-doubles in his last 15 games heading into the Big Sky Conference Tournament this week in Boise, Idaho. The Eagles finished with a school-record 16 Big Sky victories and are 23-8 overall.
 
"It's an amazing accomplishment," said Eastern head coach Shantay Legans. "To finish his finance degree in three years, and his MBA in one is extremely impressive with those kinds of grades. And then you add to that all the time and effort he puts forth to be a conference MVP-caliber type of player, practice, weights, travel and everything else. To be that high functioning both academically and athletically in those areas is unbelievable. It's a great recognition for Mason, and we are all really proud of him."
 
Tyler Harvey in 2015 is the only other first team Academic All-American the Eagles have had as a member of the NCAA. Rodney Stuckey was honored in 2007 as a second team selection, and Dave Henley (second team in 1982 and third team in 1981) was honored just before EWU moved to NCAA Division I in the 1983-84 season.
 
Peatling's All-District honor was the eighth to be won by an Eagle in the school's NCAA Division I history, and the first since 2016. Peatling was joined on the squad by Northern Arizona's Brooks DeBisschop, who was also a first team Academic All-American.

The Big Sky has had just five previous first team Academic All-America selections, and never two in the same year until now. The two district selections for the league are the most for the Big Sky Conference since the 2014-15 season when Eastern's Harvey was among the selections and went on to win first-team Academic All-America honors.
 
The 2019-20 Academic All-District® Men's Basketball Team recognizes the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the court and in the classroom. The district is comprised of schools from the states of Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Alaska, Hawaii and British Columbia.

 
More on Peatling . . .

One of just two Eagle seniors on this year's team, four times this season Peatling has been honored as Big Sky Conference Player of the Week. He and teammate Jacob Davison were among the six players chosen league-wide as preseason All-Big Sky selections for the 2019-20 season. Peatling then earned mid-season All-Big Sky accolades from HoopsHD.com. Peatling was sidelined a year ago with a foot injury when the Eagles were just 1-9, but since then Eastern is 38-17 (15-9 last year, 23-8 this season) heading into the Big Sky Conference Tournament.

Overall this season, Peatling is 56th in NCAA Division I in rebounding overall (9.1 to rank second in the league behind teammate Kim Aiken Jr.) and 28th in offensive rebounds per game (league-leading 3.42). He has 14 double-doubles to rank 25th nationally and lead the Big Sky, and his season average of 17.2 points per game is sixth in the league.

In Big Sky Conference games only, Peatling was the only player in the league to rank in the top 10 in league-games only in scoring, rebounding, assists, blocked shots and field goal percentage, and he ranked in the top six in each. Further, he is also the only player to average a double-double. In league games only, he ranked first in rebounding (10.4), third in field goal percentage (.563), fifth in scoring (18.5), sixth in assists (3.8) and third in blocked shots (1.7). He was also first in offensive rebounds (3.9), second in defensive rebounds (6.5), eighth in assist-to-turnover ratio (+1.4) and 14th in free throw percentage (.636).

Besides his averages of 17.2 points and 9.1 rebounds per game, Peatling is averaging 3.2 assists and 1.5 blocks, including a pair games in which he came three assists from a triple double. The first came in an 89-84 win over Northern Colorado on Jan. 27, finishing with 21 points and 22 rebounds – second most in school history -- seven assists and three blocked shots. The other performance came on March 5 when he finished with 16 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists. That gives him the 12th and 13th performances in school history to come within a combination of three points/rebounds/assists from a triple double, in addition to the lone triple double in school history.

Those games were part of his current stretch of 11 double-doubles in 15 games, including five in a row from Feb. 8 to Feb. 22 in which he averaged 23.4 points, 11.2 rebounds and 4.4 assists. Prior to the ISU game, he had a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds at Northern Colorado on Feb. 29 in a showdown for first place in the Big Sky standings. He had 19 points and 10 rebounds against Montana State on Feb. 6, 21/10 versus Idaho on Feb. 13, 22/11 plus five assists and three blocks at Portland State on Feb. 15, 28/10 and six assists in a home win over Sacramento State on Feb. 20, and 27/15/6 against Northern Arizona on Feb. 22. Peatling hit a significant milestone on Jan. 25, hitting the 1,000-point mark in his career in an 81-78 overtime home victory over Southern Utah. He finished that game with 30 points, 11 rebounds, five blocked shots and five assists.  One game prior to the Southern Utah game, he had a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds against Montana State on Jan. 18, and also had 14 points, 14 boards and four assists at Northern Arizona on Feb. 3.

Peatling has now played 118 games in his career to rank 10th in school history, and he became the 22nd player all-time at Eastern to hit the 1,000-point mark (he currently ranks 12th with 1,250). His .555 shooting percentage in his career currently ranks seventh, his 725 rebounds are sixth and his 112 blocked shots are second as he became the third Eagle in school history to hit the century mark in blocks. In his career (96 games as a starter), Peatling has averaged 10.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.9 blocked shots and 0.7 steals. He now has 22 double-doubles in his career – including 14 this season and 11 in the last 15 games -- with a record of 20-2. He is now just the sixth player in school history to have at least 1,000 points and 525 rebounds in his career. Coming to Eastern from Melbourne, Australia, Peatling is only the second player to couple that with 50 blocked shots. Fellow Australian Venky Jois had 1,803 points, 1,015 rebounds and 240 blocks in his career from 2013-16.

Peatling's 54 points against Multnomah on Dec. 13 broke a nearly 50-year conference record of 53 points and shattered the previous school record of 45. His 24 field goals made were league and EWU records, and his 30 attempts were the most all-time at Eastern as he earned the first of his two Big Sky Player of the Week accolades. He also had 13 rebounds and four assists to finish with his first double-double of the season.