Big Ten Duo Named to Academic All-America First Team
ROSEMONT, Ill. – A pair of Big Ten men’s basketball student-athletes was honored on Tuesday, as the College Sports Communicators (CSC) announced its 2025-26 Academic All-America men’s basketball teams.
Nebraska’s Sam Hoiberg and Northwestern’s Nick Martinelli were named to the First Team.
Hoiberg, who graduated in December with a degree in sports media and communications, is the first Husker men’s basketball player to earn first-team Academic All-America honors since Shavon Shields in 2015 and 2016 and the 10th Academic All-American award earned by a Husker basketball player, the first since Kobe Webster scored third-team honors in 2021. Sam’s selection is a rare father-son accomplishment, as his father, Fred, was a first-team Academic All-American at Iowa State in 1995.
A four-time Academic All-Big Ten selection, Hoiberg led Nebraska to its most successful season in program history, as the Huskers finished 28-7 record and the program’s first NCAA Sweet 16 appearance in 2025-26. He started all 35 games, averaging 9.3 points, 4.5 assists, 5.3 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game, as he was second in the Big Ten in steals and eighth in assists per game. He set a school record and finished ninth nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.74-to-1) as a senior.
This marks the second consecutive Academic All-America First Team honor for Martinelli, who joins Shon Morris as the only Wildcats to claim First Team Academic All-America honors in consecutive seasons. The Communications Studies major is the fifth Northwestern player to receive first team honors, joining Drew Crawford (2014), Mike Campbell (1980), Jim Burns (1967) and Morris. He becomes the 14th Big Ten player to earn First Team Academic All-America recognition in consecutive years since the honor began in 1963.
Martinelli concluded his collegiate career by leading the Big Ten in scoring for the second consecutive season. The All-Big Ten Second Team honoree averaged 23.0 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.0 assists per game while shooting 51.0% from the floor and 41.7% from beyond the arc. Martinelli’s 23.0 points ranked eighth in the nation and were the most points per game by a Northwestern player since the 1969-70 season. The Glenview, Ill. native scored a program-record 759 total points on the season, the 15th-most in a single season by a Big Ten player, and made a program-record 268 field goals.
Click here to view a complete list of the
2026 CSC Academic All-America Men’s Basketball Teams
.