MIAC Release

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – Six Saint John's University basketball student-athletes received 2023-24 Winter and Spring Academic All-MIAC honors on Thursday, June 26.

For the fifth-straight academic year, SJU led the MIAC in male honorees with a total of 173 in 2024-25, followed by Gustavus Adolphus (149), Macalester (134), St. Olaf (133) and Carleton (110). The Johnnies had 85 fall honorees in cross country, football and soccer.

Those honored (listed alphabetically) include:

-Senior guard Luke Healy (Hudson, Wis.), an accounting major with a 4.0 GPA;
-Junior guard Kyle Johnson (Prior Lake, Minn./DeLaSalle), a psychology major with a 3.88 GPA;
-Sophomore A.J. McCleery (Mahtomedi, Minn.), a global business leadership major with a 4.0 GPA;
-Senior wing Connor Schwob (Waconia, Minn.), a global business leadership major with a 3.68 GPA;
-Senior wing Ryan Thissen (Rosemount, Minn./Eastview), a biochemistry major (pre-medicine emphasis) with a 4.0 GPA;
-Senior guard Kooper Vaughn (St. Charles, Minn.), a global business leadership major with a 3.78 GPA.

Student-athletes must be a sophomore, junior or senior academically with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.50 on a 4.00 scale to qualify for Academic All-MIAC recognition. Transfers, like freshmen, must complete a full academic year to be eligible the following season. 

Athletically, student-athletes must be a member of a MIAC-sponsored, varsity team and be academically and athletically eligible. The student-athlete must have utilized a season of participation (per NCAA and MIAC definitions) and have remained on the sports roster through the conclusion of the sports season.

The Academic All-MIAC honor is the fourth for Schwob and Thissen, and the third for Vaughn. Thissen was also named a College Sports Communicators Academic All-American for the third-consecutive season and collected his third MIAC Elite 22 Award, which is given to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA among those who competed in the six-team MIAC Playoffs.

SJU (25-4, 15-1 MIAC) won its 12th MIAC regular-season championship (fourth in the last six seasons) and earned the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament with a 74-59 win over Carleton March 1 for the program's fourth MIAC Playoff championship in the last six tournaments (ninth overall). The national postseason appearance was the Johnnies' 22nd (13th at the Division III level) and fifth in the last seven seasons. SJU ended the season ranked No. 13 in the final D3hoops.com Top 25 poll. 

The 20-win season was the Johnnies' 16th overall and sixth in the past nine seasons. Three of SJU's four losses were decided by four points or less.