CHICAGO (March 11, 2019) – Clayton Custer (Overland Park, Kan./Blue Valley Northwest/Iowa State), a redshirt senior on the Loyola University Chicago men's basketball team, has been named Google Cloud/CoSIDA Third Team Academic All-America, it was announced today. He is just the second player in program history and first since Ben Averkamp in 2013 to earn Academic All-America recognition.
 
Custer is a three-time Missouri Valley Conference First Team Scholar-Athlete selection and has also twice collected DI-AAA Scholar-Athlete Team and Google Cloud Academic All-District V accolades in his career. This season, he helped Loyola claim a share of the MVC regular season championship, giving the Ramblers back-to-back conference crowns, regardless of league affiliation, for the first time in school history The 6-foot-1 point guard, who was named Third Team All-MVC last week, is averaging 11.2 points, 2.0 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.1 steals per game this year and in January scored a career-best 26 points in an 85-74  victory at Drake.
 
A year ago, Custer had one of the best seasons ever by a Rambler, earning MVC Player of the Year, National Jesuit Player of the Year, Mid-Major Player of the Year and National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) First Team All-District status after leading Loyola to a school-record 32 wins, its first NCAA tournament berth in 33 years and its first NCAA Final Four appearance since winning the national championship in 1963.
 
Custer epitomizes the term "student-athlete," and is currently pursuing his master's degree in business administration after receiving his bachelor's degree in finance last May.
 
Loyola, which is 20-13 this season, will find out who it will play in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) when pairings are announced Sunday night (March 17). The Ramblers are making consecutive postseason appearances for the first time since 1962-63 and 1963-64.