By Blake Haas
BLOOMINGTON – With success in the past season on the basketball court, Illinois Wesleyan Men’s basketball has received another honor but this time for work inside the classroom.
The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), who recognizes players across the country for their excelled work in academics during the 2017-2018 basketball season has announced that six players from the Illinois Wesleyan basketball have been named to the Honor Court.
“We are really proud of the accomplishments on the court, but we are equally proud of how our players performed in the classroom,” added Illinois Wesleyan Men’s basketball coach Ron Rose. “As a team we were honored by receiving our sixth award in a row Honors Court, which means your team cumulative grade point average over 3.0, and ours was over 3.3 this past semester. In terms of the six young men who were recognized by the NABC that is a terrific honor.”
Titan players that earned the recognition were senior Tyler Burdine (business administration) and juniors Danny Baker (accounting), Colin Bonnett (economics), Nick Coleman (accounting), Jason Gregoire (economics and financial services) and Brady Rose (business – marketing).
“Those young men really took their academic work seriously. That is one of the things that we take a lot of pride in at Illinois Wesleyan,” added Rose. “When these guys come in it’s because they want a balanced experience, they want to play high level basketball and they want to get a great education and enjoy the great college life that Illinois Wesleyan provides.”
In order to be named to the Honors Court a student-athlete must meet a high standard of academic criteria including having a grade point average (GPA) of 3.2 or higher at the conclusion of the 2017-2018 academic year, member of a NCAA Division I, II, III, or NAIA Division I or II institution with a NABC member coach. In addition, players academically must be a junior or senior and a varsity player.
“One of the things that we promise these guys is that we are not going to allow basketball to prevent you [the players] from getting a great education,” said Rose. “In order to be a student at Illinois Wesleyan you have to have a pretty strong academic profile in high school so we are attracting good students and then are allowing them to be successful once they are here.”
Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].
