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Reitz again earns Academic All-American

Feb. 27, 2008

KALAMAZOO--Western Michigan University men's basketball standout Joe Reitz has earned Academic All American honors for the second straight year.

Reitz was named this week to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America Second Team. One year ago, he received first-team honors. Two other Bronco men's basketball players earned Academic All-American honors twice: Bill Vanderwoude, 1970 and '71; and Sean Wightman, 1991 and '93. No other Mid-American Conference school has more than one multiple-recipient of the honor.

A senior from Fishers, Ind., Reitz is majoring in finance and maintaining a 3.72 grade point average. Each of the past three seasons, he also was named to the Academic All-District First Team and to the academic all-conference team.

Reitz was the first student-athlete to earn Academic All-American First Team honors in the history of WMU men's basketball and is one of only seven players ever from a MAC school to make the first team.

Thus far this season, Reitz leads WMU in scoring (15.4 points-per-game), rebounding (8.2 per game) and field goal percentage (.569). He is sixth, second and third in those three categories in the conference. For his career, Reitz ranks fifth all-time in scoring for WMU with more than 1,600 points, and first in free throws made and attempted.

The Broncos have clinched the MAC West Division title, their third of the past five seasons under coach Steve Hawkins, and will advance to the MAC championship tournament as no worse than the second seed. The winner of the MAC tournament gains an automatic berth in the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Media contact: Mat Kanan, (269) 387-4125, mat.kanan@wmich.edu

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