SAN FRANCISCO – UCLA junior center Thomas Welsh has earned second-team Pac-12 All-Academic honors for the second straight season, as announced by the conference office on Tuesday.
 
Welsh, a 7-foot center from Redondo Beach, Calif., has become the third men's basketball player in school history to have earned Pac-12 All-Academic Team honors in multiple seasons (joining George Zidek and Alfred Aboya in that category). Freshmen are not eligible for the conference's all-academic honor.
 
Welsh, who arrived at UCLA in the summer of 2014 after graduating from Loyola High School (Los Angeles), has posted above a 3.0 cumulative grade point average as an economics major. He secured honorable mention All-Pac-12 Team acclaim when the all-conference awards were announced Monday.
 
With UCLA set to open Pac-12 Tournament play this week, Welsh has averaged 10.6 points, a team-leading 8.7 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. He currently ranks seventh among all Pac-12 players in field goal percentage (57.5%), is tied for eighth in double-doubles (8) and eighth in blocked shots per game (1.4).
 
To be eligible for the conference's academic team, a student-athlete must have a minimum 3.0 cumulative grade-point average and be either a starter or significant contributor.
 
First-team all-academic selections included Josh Hawkinson (Washington State), Daine Muller (Oregon State), Dorian Pickens (Stanford), Gligorije Rakocevic (Oregon State) and Stephen Thompson Jr. (Oregon State).
 
Joining Welsh as second-team selections were Casey Benson (Oregon), David Collette (Utah), Tres Tinkle (Oregon State) and Parker Van Dyke (Utah).
 
Welsh, Benson and Pickens earned all-academic acclaim for the second time in their careers, while Hawkinson captured the conference's all-academic award for the third straight season.
 
No. 3 UCLA (28-3) will return to action in the quarterfinal round of the Pac-12 Tournament on Thursday, March 9. The Bruins will face the winner of Wednesday night's first-round matchup between No. 6-seed USC and No. 11-seed Washington. UCLA's game on Thursday will be nationally televised on ESPN (8:30 p.m. PT).