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School-record five Baylor men's basketball players earn academic All-Big 12 honors

Freddie Gillespie and Jackson Moffatt earned first-team All-Big 12 academic recognition.

WACO, Texas — A school-record five Baylor men’s basketball student-athletes were named to the 2020 Academic All-Big 12 teams.

Senior Freddie Gillespie and redshirt freshman Jackson Moffatt picked up first-team honors, while sophomore Jared Butler, senior Obim Okeke and junior MaCio Teague were named to the Academic All-Big 12 second team.

Baylor’s five honorees were second-most in the Big 12 and broke the previous school record of four Academic All-Big 12 selections in 2002. 

Gillespie is the fifth player in program history to earn first-team recognition in consecutive seasons, joining Mark Shepherd, Josh Lomers, Brady Heslip and Jake Lindsey.

The Bears have now had multiple first-team selections in three consecutive seasons and six times in the conference’s 24-year history. 

Lomers and Shepherd were recognized in 2008, Heslip and Jacob Neubert in 2013, Heslip and Logan Lowery in 2014, Lindsey and Jonathan Davis in 2018 and Lindsey and Gillespie in 2019.

Baylor has now had 21 first-team honors earned by 14 different players, along with 15 second-team selections by 12 different players. A total of 34 student-athletes were recognized by the conference, with 22 first-team honorees and 12 second-team selections.

First team members have maintained 3.20 or better GPAs, and second team honorees hold 3.00 to 3.19 GPAs. 

To qualify, student-athletes must have participated in 20 percent of their team’s scheduled contests, while freshmen and transfers are not eligible in their first year of academic residence. 

Seniors who meet all other criteria are not subject to the participation requirement.

Baylor, which is ranked No. 2 nationally and is tied for the Big 12 Conference lead with a 14-1 league record, has three regular-season games remaining.

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The Bears’ final home game is Monday at 8 p.m. against Texas Tech, and that comes in between a pair of Saturday road trips to TCU and West Virginia.

Baylor has clinched a top-two seed in the Big 12 Championship for the first time in program history and has already won two more conference games than any season in program history. 

The Bears’ 25 wins are tied for fifth-most in school history, trailing 30 wins in 2012, 28 wins in 2010, 27 wins in 2017 and 26 wins in 2014. 

This marks the fifth time in the last 11 years the Bears have reached the 25-win mark after doing so only once prior to 2010.

Tickets for Monday’s 8 p.m. Senior Night game against Texas Tech are available at  www.baylorbears.com/tickets or by calling the Baylor Athletics Ticket Office at 254-710-1000. 

Baylor will honor a trio of seniors with Gillespie, Okeke and Devonte Bandoo all playing their final Baylor home games.

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