Moon Township, Pa. – Fifth-year forward
Kahliel Spear of the RMU men's basketball team was named to the 2022-23 Academic All-America® First Team Tuesday, as selected by the College Sports Communicators (CSC).
Spear, a native of The Colony, Texas, has maintained a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.91 as an economics major. He is joined on the 2022-23 CSC Academic All-America® First Team by Dalton Bolon (College of Charleston), Matt Dentlinger (South Dakota State), Marcus Domask (Southern Illinois), JT Shumate (Toledo) and Ben Vander Plas (Virginia).
The honor marks the second consecutive year Spear has been named an Academic All-American, as in
March of 2022 he earned second team plaudits. Spear is also the sixth RMU student-athlete to be named to an Academic All-America® Team on more than one occasion, joining Ray Gensler (2005, 2006), Nick Faraci (2014, 2015), Nolan Nearhoof (2010, 2011, 2012) and Adam Wollet (2017, 2018) of the football team and Zac Lynch (2014, 2016) of the men's hockey program.
One of two Colonials to start in each of RMU's 33 games during the 2022-23 season, Spear paced the Colonials in scoring and rebounding, providing averages of 15.5 points and 8.3 rebounds. He also converted 50.5 percent (196-for-388) of his shots from the field and established an RMU single-season record for blocks (46). For his efforts, Spear was named to both the
2023 Horizon League All-Academic Team as well as the
2023 All-Horizon League Second Team and 2023 All-Horizon League Defensive Team.
RELATED: CSC 2022-23 Men's Basketball Academic All-America® Teams
Among Horizon League leaders, Spear ranked 10th in the league in scoring, fourth in rebounding and seventh in field goal percentage. In addition, Spear's average of 1.39 rejections per game sat second in #HLMBB, trailing only Ahmad Rand (2.13) of Milwaukee.
Spear joined the RMU 1,000-Point Club in a
68-63 victory over Oakland (1/29/23) at the UPMC Events Center thanks to a career-high 30 points while also grabbing 11 rebounds. In the process he became the 15th student-athlete in program history to eclipse career totals of both 1,000 points and 500 rebounds.
The only student-athlete in program history to eclipse career totals of both 100 blocks (104) and 100 dunks (101), Spear concluded his career with the Colonials ranked 18th in program history in scoring (1,159) and eighth in rebounds (613). In addition to owning the RMU career record for blocks, Spear ranks second in program history for career double-doubles (21) and sixth in field goal percentage. During his time in an RMU uniform, Spear converted 53 percent (454-for-857) of his shots from the floor.
Spear's selection to the men's basketball 2022-23 CSC Academic All-America® First Team continues the success for RMU in achieving the highest academic honor in collegiate athletics. Since 2004, when former track & field student-athlete Christian Lemke (2003-04) became RMU's first honoree by being named to the 2004 CoSIDA Academic All-America® Second Team, a total of 15 student-athletes across eight programs have garnered Academic All-American distinction on 21 occasions. Spear is the seventh to be named to the first team in the last 20 years.
For more information on the CSC Academic All-America program, please visit
AcademicAllAmerica.com.
CSC Academic All-America® First Team (7)
| Name |
Year |
Sport |
| Annie Dubovec |
2011 |
Softball |
| Nick Faraci |
2015 |
Football |
| Ray Gensler |
2006 |
Football |
| Jonathan LeDonne |
2004 |
Football |
| Nolan Nearhoof |
2012 |
Football |
| Kahliel Spear |
2023 |
Basketball |
| Adam Wollet |
2018 |
Football |
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