Sophomore John Coleman (Potsdam, NY) joined an elite group of student-athletes at Clarkson University on Tuesday when he was chosen as a CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-American, reaching the rarefied status as National Second-Team member for Men's Basketball.

Coleman, who has a flawless 4.0 grade-point average, becomes only the 17th student-athlete in the past 30-plus years to be named as a National Academic All-American, and the first basketball player since Ashton Fritz in 2001-02.

The ECAC Upstate and Liberty League Rookie of the Year as a freshman, Coleman did nothing to alter the initial high praise as a sophomore. Despite playing more of a guard's role in his second-year, Coleman still ranked among the top 30 in the country in field goal percentage, shooting nearly 60 percent from the floor. He averaged 15.0 points per game, which ranked fifth in the Liberty League, and 6.5 rebounds per contest, the eighth-highest figure in the conference. He also led the league in steals (2.3 spg) and was 15th in assists (2.0 apg).

Coleman was the sixth member of the men's basketball team to gain CoSIDA All-District honors a few weeks ago and joined Fritz, a two-time National honoree, as the only student-athletes to gain selection to the National All-American team. Coleman was one of only two National members to have a perfect 4.0 GPA and was also the only sophomore on any of the three teams.