The Fort Lewis College basketball teams earned two more academic accolades recently in what’s been a strong offseason for both in terms of academic awards.
The Skyhawk men were selected to receive one of the National Association of Basketball Coaches’ inaugural Team Academic Excellence Awards. In order to earn the award, a team must count the grade-point averages of all men’s student athletes competing in the 2013-13 season and must reach a mark of 3.0 or better. Fort Lewis made the cut by finishing with a team GPA of 3.0.
The women’s team, meanwhile, earned a spot on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Academic Top 25 in Division II, which ranks the top GPAs in every NCAA division, the NAIA and junior colleges.
In the Division II rankings, FLC finished tied for 15th with Ursuline College with a collective team GPA of 3.492. The Skyhawks were one of six teams on the list to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, alongside fellow Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference member Colorado Mesa (eighth), and Michigan Tech, Ashland, Minnesota State-Mankato and Gannon.
Northwest Missouri State, coached last year by former FLC head coach Mark Kellogg, was fifth with a 3.577 GPA. Kellogg recently departed NWMSU to take the same position at West Texas A&M.
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