For the 10th 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 today (July 19). In addition, five players have been honored on the NABC's 2021-22 National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Honors Court.
 
The team award was won by 300 colleges and universities for having a team cumulative grade point average of 3.0 and above for the 2021-22 season. Teams in NCAA Division I, II, II and NAIA Division I and II were eligible. This is the 10th year the award has been presented by the NABC, so Eastern has been chosen every year.
 
Eastern, Montana, and Idaho State were the only Big Sky Conference schools to recognized for the team award. For the Honor Court, Eastern had the second-most in the league behind Idaho State who placed six. Eastern 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 Division II and Whitworth from Division III.
 
Players on Eastern's 2021-22 team included Linton Acliese III, Angelo Allegri, Isaiah Amato, Rylan Bergersen, Tommaso Camponeschi, Yousef Elkugia, Austin Fadal, Michael Folarin, Imhotep George, Casey Jones, Mason Landdeck, Ellis Magnuson, Ethan Price, Victor Radocaj, Makai Richards, Casson Rouse and Steele Venters.
 
Among the 2,000 student-athletes recognized on the Honors Court, Casson Rouse was selected for the second-straight year. He was joined by Angelo Allegri, Imhotep George, Ellis Magnuson and Steele Venters. Rouse has since transferred, but the remaining quartet return for the Eagles in the 2022-23 season under second-year head coach David Riley.

The NABC Honors Court includes junior, senior and graduate student men's basketball players who finished the 2021-22 year with a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher.

A year ago, Eastern had six selections, and in 2018-19 it had an all-time school best of seven. Eastern also had six in 2017-18 and also had four in the 2014-15 school year. Of the 44 selections in school history, 42 of them have come in the last eight seasons starting in 2012-13. Besides Rouse, repeat winners have included Tanner Groves, Jack Perry, Mason Peatling, Jesse Hunt, Ty Gibson, Bogdan Bliznyuk, Venky Jois, Tyler Harvey, Daniel Hill and Julian Harrell.
 
Both George and Magnuson were selected to the Winter Big Sky Conference All-Academic team, along with two true freshmen in Ethan Price and Casey Jones. It was the first career honor for George, Price and Jones and the third for Magnuson.
 
Rouse earned his undergraduate degree in interdisciplinary studies from EWU and is now on to Seattle Pacific University to continue his academic and playing career. His season was cut to less than two games due to injury in 2021-22, but he was part of Eastern's regular season championship team in 2019-20 and the tournament championship team in 2020-21. In all, he played in 51 games (14 as a starter) and averaged 5.0 points, 1.5 assists and 1.6 rebounds while sinking 46-of-135 three-point attempts (34.1 percent) as an Eagle. He had a total of nine career games scoring in double figures (one with at least 20) and led Eastern in single games in scoring (5 times), assists (9), steals (3) and rebounding (2).
 
Allegri also earned his undergraduate degree in economics at Eastern Washington, but will continue his career in Cheney. He played in and started all 34 games during his first season at Eastern Washington, averaging 32.6 minutes per game. He averaged 12.1 points per contest, and shot 42.5 percent (149-351) from the field, 37.2 percent (77-207) from three-point range, and 66.1 percent (37-56) from the free throw line. Allegri scored in double figures in 23 games with a career-high 27 in a win over Portland State on March 5 to go with 13 rebounds for a double-double. He had four games with 20-plus points and was the team leader in rebounding, totaling 226. Allegri turned in four double-doubles on the season with a season-high 14 boards against Sacramento State on Jan. 30. His 77 three-pointers are ninth all-time in a single season in EWU history and his 207 attempts ranks ninth as well. He made at least three three-pointers in 13 games, including six on two separate occasions. Allegri scored 412 total points, and now sits at an even 1,000 in his career.
 
George played in 19 games during his debut season with the Eagles, averaging 10.3 minutes per contest. He scored 45 points, averaging 2.4 per game and scored a season-best seven points at UC Davis on Nov. 12.
 
Magnuson played in all 34 games, averaging 17.0 minutes per contest off of the bench. He scored 72 points to average 2.1 per game and ranked second on the team with 2.5 assists, totaling 84. In his 87-game career (44 as a starter), Magnuson is averaging 3.0 assists, 3.8 points and 1.4 rebounds per game. He's made 37.7 percent of his field goal attempts, including 39-of-125 (31.2 percent) from the 3-point arc. He's also made 62-of-77 career free throws for 80.5 percent. He has a total of 11 career games scoring in double figures.
 
Venters was a second team All-Big Sky selection in 2021-22. He played in and started 33 games for the Eagles as a redshirt sophomore and averaged 16.7 points per game to lead the team. Venters 43.7 percent from three-point range which ranked sixth nationally at the end of the season. He made 86 of his 198 attempts, which ranks eighth all-time in single-season history at EWU, and the 198 attempts is 10^th.  He finished the season ranked 67^th nationally in free throw percentage (84.7%), making 94 of his 111 attempts. From the field, he shot 45.6 percent (185-406). He also averaged 3.9 rebounds per game with 130 total, and added 73 assists for an average of 2.2 per game.
 
Eastern closed the 2021-22 season with an 18-16 overall record and an 11-9 mark in Big Sky play. The Eagles advanced to the second round of the Big Sky Championships, but made their eighth postseason appearance at The Basketball Classic where they lost to Fresno State, 83-74.
 
EWU Players Selected to the NABC Honors Court
2008-09             Andy Genao, Benny Valentine
2012-13             Jordan Hickert, Kevin Winford
2013-14             Tyler Harvey, Daniel Hill, Martin Seiferth
2014-15             Tyler Harvey, Daniel Hill, Venky Jois, Fred Jorg
2015-16             Julian Harrell, Venky Jois
2016-17             Bogdan Bliznyuk, Julian Harrell, Mario Soto
2017-18             Cody Benzel, Bogdan Bliznyuk, Grant Gibb, Ty Gibson, Benas Gricinuas, Jesse Hunt      
2018-19             Steven Beo, Ty Gibson, Jesse Hunt, Tyler Kidd, Mason Peatling, Josh Thomas, Luka Vulikic
2019-20             Kim Aiken Jr., Tanner Groves, Mason Peatling, Jack Perry
2020-21            Tanner Groves, Austin Fadal, Michael Meadows, Jack Perry, Casson Rouse, Jordan Veening
2021-22         Angelo Allegri, Imhotep George, Ellis Magnuson, Casson Rouse, Steele Venters