ST. LOUIS, Mo. —
Andrew Alia and
Eli Shetlar of Drake men's basketball have been named to the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Team, the league announced on Thursday morning.
Alia, who played in seven games last year averaging 1.7 points, and Shetlar, who was redshirted last year, have been key contributors in the transition under first year coach Eric Henderson.
Alia scored a career-high 19 points in the victory against Evansville on Jan. 28, while leading Drake in the game with nine rebounds. The Kenosha, Wisconsin native then tallied his first career double-double with 13 points and a career-best 11 boards against Bradley on Jan. 31. He went for another double-double at Illinois State on Feb. 6 with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Playing in all 31 games with 30 starts, the redshirt junior is averaging 7.2 points and 4.6 rebounds. In the classroom, Alia has a GPA of 3.84 majoring business law.
Shetlar has started the last 18 consecutive games for Drake and leads the team with 69 three-point baskets while averaging 8.8 points and 4.3 rebounds. Shetlar's 69 three-pointers this season have him ranked tied for 18th in Drake single season program history. Shetlar owns a GPA of 3.71 in finance.
2026 MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE SCHOLAR-ATHLETE FIRST TEAM
Andrew Alia, Drake R-Jr. 3.84 Business Law Kenosha, Wis. / St. Joseph
Jack Daugherty, Illinois State So. 3.79 Sports Communication Brookfield, Wis. / Brookfield Central High
Xavier Hall, Indiana State Sr. 3.65 Computer Science Shawnee Mission, Kan. / Bishop Miege (Truman)
Will Hornseth, UNI So. 3.98 Sociology De Pere, Wis. / De Pere High
Johnny Kinziger, Illinois State Jr. 3.61 Finance De Pere, Wis. / De Pere High
Tyler Lundblade, Belmont Gr. 4.00 MBA Dallas / Greensboro Day School (TCU/SMU)
Undergrad: 4.0 Marketing
Ty Pence, Illinois State Jr. 3.74 Business Administration St. Joseph, Ill. / St. Joseph-Ogden
Kyle Pock, UN Jr. 3.97 Biochemistry Bolivar, Mo. / Bolivar High
Brigham Rogers, Belmont Jr. 3.63 Finance Woodstock, Ga. / Blessed Trinity High
Drew Scharnowski, Belmont R-So. 3.82 Exercise Science Burlington, Ill. / Burlington Central High
Eli Shetlar, Drake R-So. 3.71 Finance Wichita, Kan. / Andover (Indiana State)
Brayden Shorter, Murray State Jr. 3.50 Marketing Springfield, Mo. / Kickapoo (Washburn)
Sam Silverstein, UIC Gr. 4.00 Graduate Studies Glencoe, Ill. / New Trier (Harvard/Cal Baptist)
Undergrad: 4.0 Applied Mathematics
Tristan Smith, UNI Gr. 4.00 Kinesiology & Sport Performance Elizabeth, Col. / Elizabeth High (Concordia NE)
Undergrad: 3.82 Exercise Science
Tucker Tornatta, Valparaiso So. 3.57 Business Evansville, Ind. / Reitz Memorial (Indianapolis)
Landon Wolf, Illinois State R-Sr. 3.93 Risk Management and Insurance Cedar Falls, Iowa / Cedar Falls High (UNI)
Kai Yu, Bradley R-So. 3.81 Communication Studies Zhuhai, Guangdong, China (Liberty)
