Indians' Winans scores elite honor

All his diligence in the classroom -- not to mention his impressive statistics on the basketball court -- has paid off in a big way for Southeast Missouri State University junior guard Derek Winans.

Winans, the Indians' leading scorer the past three seasons, was on Thursday named to the Academic All-America second team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America. He is the first Southeast basketball player to ever receive that honor.

A native of nearby East Cape Girardeau, Ill., who starred at Shawnee High School, Winans is one of just 15 players selected to make Academic All-America from among more than 4,000 Division I basketball players. There are five players on each of the first, second and third teams.

"When you're talking about the whole nation...that's a great honor," Winans said. "It's not something I ever really thought about, but I've always put academics as a top priority."

Winans, who has a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average in business management, averaged 14.5 points per game this season while shooting 47 percent from the field, 41.7 percent from 3-point range and 80.4 percent from the free-throw line.

"It's just a tremendous honor for Derek, but he is so deserving of it," Southeast coach Gary Garner said. "Derek is everything a college student-athlete should be. He is the hardest worker I have ever coached and he works just as hard in the classroom as he does on the court. To be in the top 10 players out of over 4,000 nationwide is a mind-boggling accomplishment."

Winans, who has started 84 straight games at Southeast, already ranks seventh in scoring and ninth in assists in Southeast history. He has 1,253 career points and 230 career assists.

This season, Winans ranked in the top 10 of four Ohio Valley Conference statistical categories. He was ninth in scoring, seventh in field goal percentage, third in 3-point field goal percentage and fifth in 3-point field goals made per game.

Winans gave his secret for juggling basketball and academics.

"It takes a lot of hard work and managing your time," he said. "You have to balance out the work you put into basketball with your academics."

Winans, a three-time OVC Academic Medal of Honor winner, is actually in his fourth year of having a perfect 4.0 GPA at Southeast because he redshirted as a freshman. With 18 hours left before graduation, he doesn't plan on settling for anything less than perfection again next year.

"A 4.0 is something I strive for every year," Winans said. "To finish school here with a 4.0, that's my big goal."