2021-22 CoSIDA Men's Basketball Academic All-America Teams
Bevo Francis Award Top 25 Watch List
When you dominate a season the way Hillsdale College junior men's basketball player Patrick Cartier has, winning awards is a given.
And the honors keep rolling in for Cartier, who was recognized by two more prestigious national bodies on Tuesday afternoon, less than 24 hours after he led the Chargers to the NCAA DII Elite Eight for the first time in school history.
At noon on Tuesday, Cartier was named to the Academic All-American Third Team by CoSIDA, his first Academic All-American honor and just the third Academic All-American honor received by a Hillsdale College men's basketball player in the 120-plus year history of the program. CoSIDA, the College Sports Information Directors of America, began the distinguished Academic All-America® program in 1952, and since then, has honored thousands of deserving student-athletes from numerous sports across all divisions with these elite Academic All-America® scholar-athlete honors. Student-athletes must maintain a 3.3 GPA or better and are selected based on their academic and athletic achievements.
Then, not two hours later, Cartier also found out he had made the cut for the Bevo Francis Award Top 25 Watch List, the final step before finalists are announced for the honor on April 2. The award, created in 2015, honors the best non-NCAA Division I men's basketball player at the college level, and is open to players at the NCAA DII, NCAA DIII, NAIA, USCAA and NCCAA levels.
The honors come after Cartier had a dominant weekend to lead the Chargers to the NCAA DII Midwest Regional title, averaging 24.3 points and 6.7 rebounds per game while shooting 71.8 percent from the floor and 88.9 percent from the foul line in three consecutive victories to earn Tournament MVP honors.
Cartier's three awards this week add to a bevy of prior awards this season, as he's already been named the G-MAC Player of the Year for the second straight season, and the D2CCA Midwest Regional Player of the Year as well.
In 2021-22, Cartier has been one of the country's most prolific and efficient scorers, averaging 22.1 points per game on 65.9 percent shooting from the floor, leading the Midwest in both categories and ranking 10th in the nation at the DII level in points per game, and sixth in DII in field goal percentage, the only player at the DII level to rank in the top 15 in both categories.
The junior also is averaging the most assists per game (2.4) and blocks per game (0.6) in his career in 2021-22, with a better assist-to-turnover ratio than his 202-21 campaign that saw him earn consensus All-American honors. He has scored in double figures in all 30 of Hillsdale's games this season, including 21 20-plus point games and four 30-plus point games. And while he does most of his work in the post, he's efficient from everywhere on the floor, hitting 44.7 percent of his 3-pointers and 76.1 percent of his free throws this season.
Cartier's historic season has him rapidly moving up the all-time leaderboards at Hillsdale College for his career. His 663 points in 2021-22 are the fifth most all-time in a single season in Hillsdale history, his 259 made field goals are fourth and his 124 made free throws are seventh. For his career, Cartier has 1,606 points, good for eighth all time with at least one more full season to play at Hillsdale, his 633 made field goals are sixth all-time, and his 296 free throws are tied for ninth. Cartier is also the career leader in field goal percentage at Hillsdale at 65.2 percent, four full percentage points higher than second place.
The junior's Academic All-American honor comes after earning Academic All-District in 2020-21. On top of improvements on the court, Cartier also has grown in the classroom since last season, increasing his GPA to 3.43 from the 3.39 he had when he received the Academic All-District distinction last year. A psychology major, Cartier has helped his team earn the NABC Team Academic Excellence Award two seasons in a row, and was named to the NABC Academic Honors Court as well. He is just the second Academic All-American in Charger men's basketball history, joining Kyle Cooper, who was named to the Academic All-American team twice in 2014-15 and 2015-16.
In being named to the Bevo Francis Top 25 Watch List, Cartier is one of just 11 NCAA DII players to make the cut for the award, and will be considered to be selected as a finalist for the honor, to be announced on April 2. The award will be presented in person on Monday, April 4.
More pressing for Cartier, however, is leading his team into its first-ever NCAA DII Elite Eight appearance. The Chargers will travel to the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana on Tuesday, March 22 to play in the quarterfinal round, with a berth in the Final Four on the line. Hillsdale will find out its opponent and the start time for its game later this evening, once all the other regional finals are completed.
Photo Courtesy of Walsh Athletics