KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The SIU men’s basketball team was recognized by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) with the Team Academic Excellence Award, created by the NABC Committee on Academics. The award recognizes outstanding academic achievement by teams with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better during the 2020-21 season.
Additionally, Sekou Dembele and Will Keller were recognized as members of the NABC honors court. To be eligible for the honors court, the student-athletes must be juniors and seniors with a 3.2 or higher cumulative GPA at the end of the 2020-21 academic year, and have matriculated at least one year at his current institution.
The Saluki men’s basketball team holds a cumulative GPA of 3.603 through the conclusion of the 2020-21 year. The team had a 3.635 GPA in spring 2021 and set a program record with a 3.750 team GPA in fall 2020. After the season, Trent Brown and Lance Jones both earned spots on the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete teams. Saluki men’s basketball helped the entire student-athlete population earn the MVC All-Academic award in 2020-21, given to the MVC school with the highest GPA among all student-athletes in the 2020-21 academic year.
