April 15, 2025

Eagle triumvirate earns CSC Academic All-America honors

AUSTIN, Texas. – Prior to 2024, Carson-Newman had never had a men’s basketball player earn Academic All-America honors.

AUSTIN, Texas. – Prior to 2024, Carson-Newman had never had a men's basketball player earn Academic All-America honors.

That count sits at five after the release of the 2025 CSC Academic All-America teams Tuesday afternoon.

Jack Browder (Kingsport, Tenn.), the CSC Academic All-America Team Member of the Year, goes back-to-back as a first-team selection. John Zhao (Sevierville, Tenn.) repeats as second-team choice, while Nick Brenegan (Greenville, S.C.) makes his first career appearance on the third team.

Their selections bring Carson-Newman's all-time Academic All-America honorees to 77 total. Carson-Newman has had 56 Academic All-Americans in the last 11 years – second-most in the South Atlantic Conference in that span to Wingate.

This is the first time in the history of the athletic department three players from the same team have been recognized with Academic All-America honors in the same year.

"It is categorically insane to have three Academic All-Americans in one year," head coach Chuck Benson said. "I love Jack, John and Nick for everything they stand for. It is an incredible payoff for all three of them."

With a 4.0 GPA, Browder became the eighth SAC Scholar Athlete of the Year from C-N men's basketball and the league's 10^th repeat winner. He joined Colin Martin as repeat winners from C-N. Carson-Newman's eight scholar athlete honorees are the most in league history. Mars Hill and Newberry have both had five players recognized.

The South Atlantic Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year award is presented annually to one student-athlete in each of the Conference's championship sports and is voted on by the SAC's Faculty Athletic Representatives Committee. The winners are selected based on their achievements in academics, athletics, service, and leadership.

The Kingsport, Tennessee native holds a perfect 4.0 grade point average while studying business administration. Browder has collected a variety of academic accolades over his three seasons with the Eagles. He is a three-time Carson-Newman Dean's List Member, a three-time Platinum Eagle Scholar, a three-time Hope Scholar, a three-time Presidential Scholar and a two-time CSC Academic All-District team member. Last year he earned first team Academic All-America honors and was selected as Carson-Newman's first male recipient of the SAC's President's Award as well as the D2CCA Regional Scholar Athlete of the Year. He was recognized this season at the SAC men's basketball championships in Rock Hill as the Elite 23 winner, as the student athlete competing at the finals site with the highest GPA.

Browder led C-N with 19.7 points per game. He also averaged a team-best 8.8 rebounds per game. He has produced 30 double-digit scoring efforts this season, including 15, 20-point efforts. He led the conference with 14 double-double games this season, and was the only player in the league in the top four in scoring and rebounding.

A four-time SAC Player of the Week honoree, Browder was named NABC National Player of the Week on Dec. 10.

The junior turned in back-to-back 30-point games, and is the first Eagle this century to score 30 points in three straight games.

He has scored 99 points in a three-game stretch – the fifth time this century a player has scored more than 90 in a three-game span for C-N. Browder's 99 are second only to Charles Clark's 110 during the stretch where he had his 54-point triple-double and earned his second national player of the week award.

For the week, Browder averaged 33 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks per game. He made 75 percent of his shots, 88.9 percent of his threes and all 16 of his free throws.

He started his week with a career-night in an 87-81 loss to UVA Wise. He scored 36 points and grabbed 16 boards – both career days. The 16 rebounds are the tied for the seventh-most in school history and the third-most in the NCAA Division II era.

Zhao has been drafted and signed with the Arecibo de Capitanes of the top league in Puerto Rico, the Baloncesto Superior Nacional.

Zhao becomes the ninth C-N men's basketball player coached by Benson to continue playing basketball at the professional level.

Zhao was a transcendent shooter for Carson-Newman. A 2023-24 consensus all-region selection, Zhao is one of six players in NCAA Division II history to make 80 threes in a season on at least a 50 percent clip, an achievement he attained as a junior.

Zhao wraps his C-N career as the program's all-time leader in three-point efficiency. He made 45.5 percent of his triples for his career. His 236 career made threes are fifth all-time.

His 52.5 percent mark from deep as a junior reset the program's single-season record for three-point efficiency, while his 85 threes as a senior are seventh all-time.

Zhao scored 1,418 points in his C-N career, good for 18^th all-time in school history. With a 188-of-226 effort at the free throw line, Zhao was also the fifth-most efficient free throw shooter in school history.

He averaged north of 18.5 points per game in his final two seasons on the banks of Mossy Creek, topping out with a ballistic 38-point game as a junior at Emory & Henry on Jan. 24. Zhao had seven career 30-point nights. The Eagles were unbeaten when he topped 30 points and were 27-4 across his 31 career 20-point efforts.

Brenegan is the only player in school history to hit 90 threes in consecutive seasons. He finished his career second in school history and fourth in SAC history with 287 career threes.

Brenegan averaged 13.5 points while making 50 percent of his shots and 44.6 percent of his threes.

NCAA DIVISION II

CSC Academic All-America® Team Member of the Year:

Jack Browder, Carson-Newman

FIRST TEAM
Name School Yr. GPA Major

Jack Browder (1) Carson-Newman Jr. 4.00 Business Administration

Xavion Brown Dallas Baptist University Jr. 3.89 Kinesiology

Hunter Soper Lake Superior State University Sr. 3.89 Social Science & Secondary Teaching

Alex Steen (2) Florida Southern College Jr. 3.60 Business Administration

Marcus Tomashek Michigan Technological University Jr. 3.70 Forestry

SECOND TEAM
Name School Yr. GPA Major

Tray Alexander Pace University Gr. 3.54/4.00 Data Science