Evansville’s Balentine and Mockevicius Get National Recognition

The University of Evansville Purple Aces are having an amazing season. It is so fun to watch them play, both at the Ford Center and on TV. It is also really exciting to hear such positive comments for two players in particular...D.J. Balentine and Egidijus Mockevicius.

Big E (Mockevicius) is the leading rebounder in ALL of college basketball and has been named the MVC player of the week 5 times! He has been named a candidate for the Senior CLASS Award. This award is for basketball student-athletes who excel both on and off the court. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition. Egidijus was one of 30 men’s players selected to be on the list.

Meanwhile, D.J. Balentine continues to be a scoring machine. He is the leading scorer in the MVC. Before the season began, Balentine was named the #2 scorer in the NCAA by Sports Illustrated. who just named him earlier this week as "Player to Watch."

These two studs are done at UE after this season, but if they continue playing like they have so far, we'll hopefully get to see them next year in an NBA jersey!