Men's Basketball earns NABC Academic Excellence Award

07/21/2020 | 6:00:00 | Men's Basketball

NABC Release

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The SIU men's basketball program earned the Team Academic Excellence Award from the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), the organization announced Monday. The award recognizes outstanding academic achievement by a team with a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or better for the 2019-20 season.

The Salukis posted a 3.158 GPA in fall 2019, which was the highest GPA for the program on record, and the program shattered that mark with a 3.706 program GPA in spring 2020. Barret Benson earned Academic All-District and MVC Scholar-Athlete team honors, with a perfect 4.0 GPA in his master's program.

SIU was one of three Missouri Valley Conference programs to earn the honor, along with Loyola and Bradley. In order to earn a NABC Team Academic Excellence Award, institutions in the NCAA, NAIA and NJCAA must count the grade point averages of all men's student-athletes who competed during the 2019-20 season.