NABC News Release
For the eighth consecutive year, the Eastern Washington University men's basketball team has been honored with the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Team Academic Excellence Award announced Thursday (July 16).
The award was won by 308 colleges and universities for having a team cumulative grade point average of 3.0 and above for the 2019-20 season. Teams in NCAA Division I, II, II and NAIA Division I and II were eligible. This is the eighth year the award has been presented by the NABC, so Eastern has been chosen every year.
Eastern, Gonzaga and Seattle were the only NCAA Division I schools in the state of Washington to be honored, and were joined by Seattle Pacific and Saint Martin's from NCAA Division II, and Pacific Lutheran from Division III.
Eastern, Idaho State, Montana and Northern Arizona were the only Big Sky Conference schools to be recognized.
Players on EWU's 2019-20 team included
Kim Aiken Jr.,
Steven Beo, Jacob Davison, Austin Fadal, Jacob Groves, Tanner Groves, Elijah Jackson, Tyler Kidd, Ellis Magnuson, Michael Meadows, Abdullahi Mohamed, Mason Peatling, Jack Perry, Tyler Robertson, Casson Rouse and
Jordan Veening. Players who redshirted were
Steele Venters and
Adriel Linares.
The Eagles in the 2019-20 season had their-second highest win total in 37 years as a NCAA Division I member with 23 victories, and their 16 league triumphs were the most in their 33 years in the Big Sky. Eastern won the outright regular season championship in the Big Sky, joining the 2003-04 squad to accomplish that feat. The Eagles finished sixth in the nation in scoring offense (80.9 per game) and were fourth in assists (17.5).
But one of the best seasons in EWU men's basketball history came to a screeching halt on March 12 when cancellations of both the Big Sky Conference and NCAA Division I tournaments dashed EWU's promising postseason hopes in the 2019-20 campaign. The COVID-19 virus wiped out the league tournament shortly before the Eagles were to play their first game versus Sacramento State. A few hours after that, the NCAA Tournament was canceled as well, ending EWU's season.
