Griffin Earns National Academic Honor

Griffin Earns Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sports Scholar Athlete First Team Selection

St. Louis, Mo. – University of Missouri-St. Louis men’s basketball player Jonathan Griffin (St. Louis, Mo./Normandy) added to his list of postseason awards, being named an Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sports Scholar First Team selection for the 2005-06 academic year.

The Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sports Scholar award is given to minority student-athletes who display both athletic and academic achievement, and is given across all NCAA divisions. Griffin was one of 12 student-athletes given men’s basketball first team honors, and one of five Division II student-athletes to receive the award. He is the only student-athlete, male or female, from the Great Lakes Valley Conference to earn this honor.

This is another in a long list of awards for the senior Griffin. Earlier this year he was named a second team all-region selection as well as second team Great Lakes Valley All-Conference selection. He became the third player in UMSL history to earn all-region honors, joining Eric Love who was a two-time all-region selection, and current head coach Chris Pilz who was a three-time all-region selection. Griffin was named an ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District second team selection earlier this year as well. Last year, he became the first UMSL men’s basketball player to be named a second team all-conference selection since joining the GLVC in 1996-97 before repeating that honor again this season. As a freshman, Griffin was named an Arthur Ashe Jr., Scholar Athlete third team selection and later this month will earn his fourth Academic All-Conference award.

Griffin finished up his record setting career earlier this season at UMSL after leading the Rivermen in scoring with 18.3 points per game and in rebounding with 7.1 per game. He also led the team in assists (102), steals (46) and blocked shots (15), and was the only player in the GLVC to lead his team in all five of those stats. He finished fourth in the conference in scoring and fifth in rebounding, and was in the top ten in the conference in both assists and steals. Griffin scored in double figures in every game this year, including a season best 30 points in a win over then 4th-ranked Southern Indiana. Griffin recorded six double-doubles on the season, including a season best 13 rebounds against SIUE. He nearly missed a triple double against Lewis, recording 29 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.

For his career, Griffin finished as the second all-time leading scorer in UMSL history with 1,739 points, and finished seventh in career rebounds with 652. He finished third in career steals with 160, fifth in career assists with 283 and ninth in career blocked shots with 28, becoming just the second player in UMSL history to rank in the top ten in the career charts for those five categories. In other career rankings, he is fifth in field goals made (538), eighth in three-point field goals made (112), second in free throws made (551) and attempted (741) and tenth in free throw percentage (.744).