Two Sooners named to Academic All-Big 12 First Team in men's basketball

Oklahoma juniors Amath M'Baye and Tyler Neal have been named to the 2013 Academic All-Big 12 first team in men's basketball. This is Neal's second year to be honored as a member of the Academic All-Big 12 team. He was a second-team selection a year ago.

M'Baye and Neal were the only two Oklahoma Sooners selected to the team.

M'Baye, a 6-9 forward who transferred to Oklahoma from Wyoming, is a starter on this year's Sooner squad. He has started in all 24 of the Sooners' games this season and is the team's third leading scorer, averaging 10 points and five rebounds in 24 minutes of action per game. Neal is a 6-7 reserve guard who has seen limited playing time this season in 20 games, averaging around eight minutes and 1.4 points per game.

A native of Bordeaux, France, M'Baye is majoring in international studies. Neal is from Oklahoma City and is a sociology major.

To be selected to the Academic All-Big 12 Basketball first team, an honoree must maintain a grade point average of 3.20 or higher (either cumulative or for the two previous quarters) and have participated in 60 percent of a team's scheduled games. Second-team honorees are required to have a 3.00 to 3.19 GPA.

Texas Tech led all Big 12 schools with four players named to the academic first team and one to the second team. Baylor, Iowa State and Oklahoma State joined Oklahoma with two first-team selections.

In somewhat of a surprise, eight-time defending Big 12 champion Kansas was the only conference school to place no student athletes on either the first or second All-Academic team.

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