Bittner earns second first-team Academic All-District honor

FRESNO, Calif. --- Fresno State senior guard/forward Sam Bittner was named a 2018-19 Google Cloud first-team Academic All-District 8 honoree, the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) announced on Thursday morning.

Bittner, who is a three-time Mountain West scholar athlete and three-time Academic All-MW selection, has helped lead Fresno State (19-7, 10-4 Mountain West) to two postseason appearances and the Bulldogs are in third place in the conference standings heading into their final four games of the regular season. Fresno State plays at No. 6 Nevada on Saturday at 5 p.m. PT on CBS Sports Network and 940 AM ESPN Radio.

This season, Bittner is the only Bulldog to have started in all 26 games and has averaged 7.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.2 steals per game. He leads the team and is tied for 51st in the nation in 3-point shooting efficiency (45.3 percent, 34-for-75).

In his four-year career at Fresno State, Bittner has played in 102 games with 65 starts. He started four games (played in 18) as a freshman when the Bulldogs went to the 2016 NCAA Tournament. Bittner is a former walk-on, who has since earned a scholarship and has consistently improved every season. He is majoring in business administration (entrepreneurship) and has a cumulative 3.90 grade point average at Fresno State.

Bittner, who is now a two-time academic all-district honoree, is the second Bulldog ever to be honored as a CoSIDA Academic All-District selection, along with three-time academic all-district honoree Nedeljko Golubovic, who was recognized from 2009-11. Bittner also earned the academic all-district nod last season.

Bittner is one of five student-athletes and the only MW student-athlete named to the District 8 first-team this season, along with Brooks DeBisschop (Northern Arizona), TJ Haws (BYU), Nate Renfro (San Francisco) and Stephen Thompson, Jr. (Oregon State). Bittner will be one of 40 Division I student athletes on the Google Cloud Academic All-America® Team ballot, with national winners announced in mid-March.

The 2018-19 Google Cloud Academic All-District® Men's Basketball Team, selected by CoSIDA, recognizes the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the court and in the classroom. The Google Cloud Academic All-America® program separately recognizes basketball honorees in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA.

For more information about CoSIDA's Google Cloud Academic All-District® and Academic All-America® Teams program, visit www.AcademicAllAmerica.com or the Academic All-America® home page on CoSIDA.com.

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Fresno State Athletics

Bittner earns second first-team Academic All-District honor

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