KANSAS CITY, Mo. (July 15, 2026) – For the sixth time in the past seven years, Northern Arizona men's basketball has earned the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Team Academic Excellence Award in recognition of its success in the classroom. All six of NAU's Team Academic Excellence Awards have come during head coach Shane Burcar's tenure.
The NABC Team Academic Excellence Award recognizes programs that finish the academic year with a team grade point average of 3.0 or higher. During the 2025-26 academic year, the Lumberjacks posted a 3.24 cumulative GPA.
NAU was one of six Big Sky Conference programs to receive the honor, which was established during the 2012-13 season.
In addition to the team recognition, five Lumberjacks earned NABC Honors Court distinction, tying the program's single-season record set in 2020. It also marks the fourth time in school history that NAU has produced at least four NABC Honors Court recipients in a single season.
Diego Campisano (human relations) earned the honor for the third time, joining Nik Mains and Keith Haymon as the only three players in program history to receive at least three NABC Honors Court awards.
Oakland Fort (psychological sciences) and Ryan Abelman (mechanical engineering) each collected their second career Honors Court recognition, while Isaiah Shaw (human relations) and Arne Osojnik (psychological sciences) earned the distinction for the first time.
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