Northwest Wayne News

The Wayne State University men's basketball team has received the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Team Academic Excellence Award for the 2024-25 academic year. This award is given to men's college basketball programs that achieve a team grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or higher over the previous academic year.

Wayne State reported a team GPA of 3.324, with a 3.18 GPA in the Fall semester and a 3.46 in the Winter semester.

Six players from Wayne State were also named to the NABC Honors Court: Kareem Aburashed, Jon Brantley, Bryce Esman, Eli Lohr, Chris Mutebi, and Kelvin Tamakloe. To qualify for the Honors Court, student-athletes must be juniors, seniors or graduate students and varsity players with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.2 at the end of the academic year.

Aburashed achieved a 3.33 GPA while majoring in Marketing; Brantley earned a 3.45 GPA as an MBA student; Esman had a 3.91 GPA in Marketing; Lohr posted a 3.36 GPA in Biomedical Engineering; Mutebi recorded a 3.58 GPA in Public Health; and Tamakloe had a 3.29 GPA studying Finance.

The NABC Team Academic Excellence Awards recognize teams across all levels of college basketball that meet or exceed the required team GPA standard each year. The NABC Honors Court acknowledges individual junior, senior and graduate student men's basketball players who finish the academic year with at least a cumulative 3.2 GPA.

"Education is one of the NABC's five core values, and we are proud to recognize the academic accomplishments of these programs and individual student-athletes across our sport," said NABC Executive Director Craig Robinson. "The dedication and hard work of these athletes, along with their coaches and support staff members who prioritize academic success, deserves to be widely celebrated."

For this cycle, over 2,400 players were named to the NABC Honors Court and nearly 400 programs received Team Academic Excellence Awards.