KANSAS CITY, Mo. (July 16, 2020) – Coming off their best season on the court in five years, the Northern Arizona men's basketball team also excelled academically, posting a team grade point average of 3.13 during the 2019-20 academic year. The Lumberjacks' GPA earned them the Team Academic Excellence Award by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) for the first time in program history.
The NABC Team Academic Excellence Award was established during the 2012-13 season, marking the eighth year that the NABC recognizes outstanding academic achievement by teams who hold a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better for the season.
NAU was one of four Big Sky teams, along with Eastern Washington, Idaho State and Montana, to be recognized with the Team Academic Excellence Award.
The 'Jacks, led by head coach
Shane Burcar, also had a conference-high five student-athletes recognized more than 1,350 men's basketball student-athletes across the country on the NABC Honors Court. In order to be named to the Honors Court, a student-athlete must be a junior or senior academically, hold a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 or higher and spent at least one year at their current institution.
Spring 2020 graduates
Brooks DeBisschop – also a First Team CoSIDA Academic All-American – and
Bernie Andre led the NAU honorees and were joined by
Luke Avdalovic,
Nik Mains and
Davy Cummard, who all just completed their junior years academically.
DeBisschop, Andre, Avdalovic, Mains and Cummard are the first Lumberjacks named to the NABC Honors Court in eight years.
NAU's five individual honorees by the NABC not only led the Big Sky, but ranked in a tie for fifth among Division I institutions. The Lumberjacks were one of five conference teams with at least one Honors Court recipient.
