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Posted: Mar 15, 2023

Cody Baer Selected to NABC All-District First Team 

File photo.
File photo.

KANSAS CITY, Mo.  – Eureka's Cody Baer (Peoria, Ill./Dunlap/Southwestern Illinois) has been named First Team All-District by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

This is the fourth postseason honor that the Red Devils' star big man has received after a standout junior season – and it's the first time a Eureka men's basketball player has been chosen to the First Team since Mark Lessen in 2013. 

Baer, who was previously named SLIAC Player of the Year, First Team All-SLIAC and First Team All-Region 8 by the D3hoops.com, is the seventh EC player to receive All-District recognition from the NABC, following Craig Negangard (2004), Chris Tarpley (2007), Michael Zasada (2010), Mark Lessen (2013), Shea Feehan (2018) and Ian Milsteadt (2022). Baer joins Negangard, Zasada and Lessen as First Team honorees.

This season, Baer was the only player in the SLIAC to average a double-double. He ranked second in the conference in scoring with 17.2 points per game while pulling down a league-high 11.6 rebounds per game, collecting 290 boards on the season. He was third in the league in field-goal percentage at 53.8 percent and third in total field goals, making 172 of 320 attempts. 

His 11.6 boards per game average was the second-highest in a single season in program history, and his 290 rebounds was the second-most in program history. Baer finished the season ranked sixth in NCAA Division III in defensive rebounds with 9.6 per game and 14th in the country in rebounds per game (11.6) He pulled down 20 or more rebounds four times and had at least 15 six times. His 23-board performance at Greenville on Jan. 28 tied the SLIAC record for rebounds in a single game. 

As a scorer, Baer reached double figures 21 times, posted 20 or more seven times, and he racked up a career-high 43 points against Greenville on Jan. 28 in the same game that he grabbed 23 rebounds. Defensively, he racked up 34 blocks – good for second in the league and tied for seventh-most in a single season in program history. He also contributed 29 assists and 18 steals.