Caleb Walker named NJCAA first-team basketball All-American

Butler's Caleb Walker has been named a first-team NJCAA All-American, the 13th basketball All-American in school history and Butler's first first-team selection since Michael Jackson in 1999.

The honor caps a season for Walker in which he won every accolade available. He was Jayhawk West Conference Player of the Year and Region VI Player of the Year, as well as Region VI Tournament MVP. He was also named NJCAA Player of the Week in January.

His best game may have been the Region VI championship game, when he scored 26 points and pulled down nine rebounds. Overall, Walker finished with nine double-doubles, and nearly had a triple-double in the first round of the national tournament, when he scored 18 points with nine rebounds and eight assists.

Walker, who is from Hutchinson, originally played both football and basketball at Butler. He had an interception return for a touchdown against Independence during his freshman year, but soon after left the football program to focus on his basketball career. During his two years with fellow sophomores Troy Pierce, Mark Morgan, Dushawn Brooks and Zeb Garrison, Butler basketball went 58-13 with a Jayhawk West runner-up finish in 2009 and a conference championship in 2010, and a Region VI championship and national tournament appearance in 2010.

Walker, who averaged 16 points and eight rebounds a game as a sophomore, has verbally committed to play for the University of Nebraska.

Walker is Butler's eighth first-team All-American, more than any other program in Region VI and tied with Northeast Mississippi for the fifth-highest total of all NJCAA programs in the country, trailing only San Jacinto (Texas), Southern Idaho, Moberly (Mo.), and Vincennes (Ind.).

Butler's other first-team selections were Len Wilson and Richard Smith during Butler's national championship season in 1953, Herbert Jones in 1990, Gaylon Nickerson in 1991, Cleveland Jackson in 1992, Lee Nailon in 1997, Michael Jackson in 1999 and Walker in 2010.