Levi Randolph named school's first Academic All-American
Cecil Hurt
TideSports.com Columnist
When he was a senior at Bob Jones High School, Levi Randolph made a recruiting visit to Tuscaloosa and was impressed with what he saw - but he also noticed a glaring absence.
"Levi saw that there was no plaque for Academic All-American in basketball, even though several of our other sports had them," UA head coach Anthony Grant said. "So he made that a goal, that he was going to be the first one from the University of Alabama."
Randolph achieved that goal on Thursday when he was one of 15 men's basketball players nationally named as an academic All-American on the 2014-15 Capital One Academic All-America Second Team.
"It was a great honor," Randolph said Thursday. "I can't put into words how excited I was when I learned about it.
"My father always told me that a person can stand on a book a lot longer than they can stand on a basketball ball and that's just always something I've lived by."
"Levi has worked extremely hard from day one to achieve this goal and it's great to see him realize it," Grant said. "Levi epitomizes what the term 'student-athlete' is all about."
Randolph earned his undergraduate degree in marketing this past August, completing the requirements for graduation in just three years, earning 3.45 grade point average. He has been named to the Dean's List in five out of seven semesters (3.5 GPA or better). This past fall, the senior guard began taking graduate-level classes for a master's in marketing, finishing his first semester of grad school with a 3.75 GPA. He is a three-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll and was unanimously voted by his teammates as the team's captain this season.
Going into Saturday's game at Vanderbilt, Randolph leads the Crimson Tide in scoring (14.8 ppg), assists (2.4 apg), steals (1.4 spg) and minutes (35.1 mpg), while ranking second in rebounds per game (five). He has played in all 129 games since arriving on campus, making 114 starts for his career.
Randolph was the only player from the SEC to earn the honor in the sport of men's basketball this year.
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