Lurken and Korinek (combined GPA about 3.85) are academic all-district

Senior Larissa Lurken                           Junior Jordan Korinek

This story is a big reason why I like women’s basketball in general and Kent State basketball in particular.

Senior Larissa Lurken and junior Jordan Korinek Tuesday were named to the College Sports Information Directors Academic All-District team.

Lurken and Korinek are star athletes by any reckoning. They both became 1,000-point scorers this season. Lurken may be the best player in the Mid-American Conference season; Korinek was a preseason all-MAC East selection.

And they’re both star students. Lurken has a 3.72 average in nursing (a 4.0 last fall). One day a week, she spends 12 hours doing a practicum at area hospitals. A year ago, she worked a 12-hour shift one Tuesday, then scored 37 points the next day.

Korinek has a 4.0 average in special education. That’s harder than it once was; even an A- destroys the perfect record. (When I first came to KSU, the university didn’t give pluses and minuses and a 4-point was easier to come by.)

Both are also very good people from the contact I’ve had with them.

Lurken and Korinek are student-athletes in the absolute best definition of the term. So are a lot of other women at KSU. The overall GPA of the women’s basketball team is somewhere around 3.3. Some of the team and individual grades on the gymnastics, soccer, softball, golf and volleyball teams have been spectacular over the years.

The two basketball players are now eligible for the Academic All-America team, which will be announced in March.

KSU has had three academic all-American women basketball players. Lindsay Shearer was academic player of the year in in 2006, the year she was the MAC player of the year on the court. Shearer was second team all-American in 2005 and third team in 2004. Like Korinek, she was an education major. She did get an A-. Her GPA was 3.97.

Kate Miller, a transfer who played just one season for the Flashes, was a first team all-American in 2002.

Carrie Templin was a second-team selection in 1997 and 1998 and on the third team in 1996.

The only other MAC player on the all-district team was Toledo junior guard Jay-Ann Bravo-Harriott, also an education major with a 4.0 average.