ESPN The Magazine Honors Rackauskas

[PonyPride]

RACKAUSKAS NAMED ESPN THE MAGAZINE ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT 6

DALLAS (SMU) – SMU senior center Donatas Rackauskas was named ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District 6 in the University Division on Thursday. The award is selected by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). He is now nominated as an ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American. If so named, he would join Pete Lodwick (1976-77) and Eric Castro (2004-05) as men’s basketball Academic All-Americans from SMU.

Rackauskas currently has a 3.88 grade-point-average in graduate school and will complete his masters in accounting in May of 2007. He finished his bachelor’s degree in economics with a 3.82 GPA in Dec. 2005. He is also a team captain for the Mustangs along with Jon Killen, Ike Ofoegbu, and Derrick Roberts.

“Donatas is an extremely bright individual that works very [deleted] and off the floor,” says SMU head coach Matt Doherty. “He is an excellent role-model as a student-athlete, and is very deserving of this honor.”

Rackauskas is in his fifth season at SMU after missing the 2004-05 season due to a knee injury. This year, he has started 13 of his 22 games played and ranks second on the team at six rebounds per contest. The Alytus, Lithuania, native is also averaging 8.3 points per outing. He is currently 12th at SMU with 65 career blocked shots.

ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District 6 Winners - University Division

FIRST TEAM

Donatas Rackauskas - SMU Gr. Alytus, Lithuania 3.88 (grad) Accounting – MSA

3.82 (Undergrad was Economics - BA)

Ryan Bright - Sam Houston State Jr. Deer Park, Texas 3.57 Kinesiology

Todd Abernethy - Mississippi Sr. Carmel, Ind. 3.32 Banking and Finance

Michael Neal - Oklahoma Sr. Mesquite, Texas 3.32 African and African-American Studies

Lance Brasher - Louisiana-Monroe Jr. Alexandria, La. 3.45 Education

[Diamond Girl]

Many congratulations for this honor. It's difficult to play sports and make good grades at the same time.

[PonyPride]

Doing one or the other is tough enough.
Kudos to Donatas.

[EastStang]

Question, I thought the B School required a year of working before you could get an MBA. They refused to make an exception for our QB several years ago, have they changed their policy? If so, I'm very happy to see that development.

[MustangIcon]

The MSA program is the 5 year accounting program at SMU. To sit for the CPA you must have completed 150ish total hours and like 30ish hours of accounting (a CPA might be able to give us exacts). A BBA in accounting can be obtained with 122 hours. You go for a 5th year to get the needed hours for your CPA and you complete a masters in accounting at the same time.