When Jake Byrne was 16 years old, he realized he wasn’t going to make the NBA. However, Eastern’s starting power forward the last two seasons also realized at the time he could work toward another goal with three letters: his MBA.

Byrne walked across the stage last May at Lantz Arena and obtained his bachelor’s degree in finance.

It took just three years.

He is now working on receiving his master’s in business administration. Byrne said he will try to finish the 33-hour program in two years. After that, Byrne has his sights set on finding a job on Wall Street.

His immediate goal tonight focuses on helping the Panthers prepare for their season opener Nov. 10. Eastern hosts Division III Monmouth College at 7:15 p.m. in the first exhibition game of the year.

The 6-foot-8, 230-pound senior averaged 7.7 points and 4.1 rebounds last season. But his most impressive statistic might be his undergraduate GPA.

He graduated with a 3.93 cumulative grade point average, earning only two B’s in nearly 120 hours’ worth of classes at Eastern.

“It’s pretty incredible,” Eastern men’s basketball head coach Mike Miller said. “You don’t see that happen every day. On the bus, he’s studying, he’s doing work. He’s an achiever; he gets things done.”

Byrne said he came to Eastern after graduating from Elsberry High School in Elsberry, Mo., with nearly 21 credits through a dual-credit program at his high school. He also took summer school classes before enrolling as a freshman, putting him nearly a year ahead.

He took 15 hours the next five semesters and summer school classes every summer.

His final semester as an undergraduate, he was able to only take 12 hours.

“It was one of those things where I knew not many people have been able to do it,” Byrne said. “It was just something I knew that I could do. Also, it’s another thing to beef up the résumé. As I’m already sending the résumés out to people, it’s one of the things where they’ve been impressed.”

His high school teachers at said Byrne needed to study either engineering or finance in college.

Byrne chose finance because he said he is “kind of a nerd in math.”

“I love working with numbers and combine that with money – it makes it even better,” he said.

Business professor Richard Whitaker taught Byrne in two classes, Management and Financial Institutions and Long-term Financial Management.

Whitaker said Byrne’s poise in classroom presentations stood out. Whitaker also said Byrne’s good communication skills are essential for the field.

“The comment that I make to my students is the single-most important communication skill is having something to say,” Whitaker said. “In other words, having some tangible facts to present to people. But you have to have the interpersonal skills in order to be able to do that. And that’s true whether or not you’re working with individuals, with financial planning, (or in) financial institutions or the corporate world.”

Business professor Vicki Hampton had Byrne in one class. She said she knew right away he took his academics seriously.

“He never hesitated to come up to office hours when he had problems because he wanted a good grade,” Hampton said. “When you start seeing that light bulb come on, that’s the best part of being a teacher. He’s very intuitive with his education.”

Hampton said she could always count on Byrne to answer a question in class.

“It’s not just a natural gift,” she said. “And you could always tell because if you’d ask a question, he’d have the answer because you know he’s read it, where as a lot of the kids may not have even opened the book yet.”

Sophomore center Ousmane Cisse, business management major, said he is trying to emulate Byrne’s standards.

“He knows what he’s after,” said Cisse, whose GPA is above 3.0 and whose plans are to also earn his bachelor’s in three years. “I’ve been learning a lot from Jake as an athlete, as a student and as a person. He gives a lot of advice. He’s a good example with his GPA. I want to do that.”