The Chicago, Ill., native earned the 2013 NCAA Elite 89 Award, presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's championships. Blackshear, who is majoring in communications, boasts a 3.4 cumulative grade-point average. He was a member of the 2014 UofL Athletic Director's Honor Roll while helping the men's basketball team produced a 3.33 combined GPA for the 2014 fall semester, the second-highest ever for the Cardinals and the highest among Louisville's nine men's sports programs.
Through 28 games this season, the forward is averaging a career-best 10.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. He has 33 steals and just 27 turnovers in 839 minutes played. Blackshear scored a career-high 31 points against Cal State Northridge, adding six rebounds and four steals while burying a career-high 6-of-11 three-pointers. He ranks second on the team in free throw percentage, connecting on 74.4 percent from the line. The team captain has scored in double figures in 42 career games and ranks fourth on the team in scoring this season.
Blackshear is one of two players to represent the ACC. North Carolina's Marcus Paige was also named a second team selection.
