October 30, 2025

Browder garners preseason All-SAC First-Team honors

ROCK HILL, S.C. – Carson-Newman senior forward Jack Browder (Kingsport, Tenn.) has been named to the South Atlantic Conference’s preseason all-league first team, the conference office announced Thursday morning.

ROCK HILL, S.C. – Carson-Newman senior forward Jack Browder (Kingsport, Tenn.) has been named to the South Atlantic Conference's preseason all-league first team, the conference office announced Thursday morning.

Additionally, senior post Braden Ilic (Morristown, Tenn.) was named a player to watch by the league.

Browder earned Academic All-America First Team honors for a second straight year to go along with his spot at the head of the table on the team as the CSC Academic All-American of the Year. Browder is the first Carson-Newman student-athlete in any sport to win the award. He is 12th player in league history to win the award.

The junior followed Anderson's Nick Trull (2011-12) as the only men's basketball players to hoist this hardware. He is just the third man in the league's history to win the honor, joining Trull and Tusculum baseball's Taylor Rakes (2012-13). He also added a second straight SAC President's Award to his career laurels, becoming the seventh man in league history to win the award twice. 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 10th repeat winner. He joined Colin Martin as repeat winners from C-N.

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 produced 30 double-digit scoring efforts last season, including 15, 20-point efforts. He led the conference with 14 double-double games, 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 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.

C-N's sweet-shooting stretch five, ETSU transfer Braden Ilic averaged double-digits in his first season for C-N. Ilic buried 54 threes on the year at a 38 percent clip. He scored double-digits 22 times on the season and produced a trio of 20-point efforts, topping out at 26 in a game at Limestone. Ilic finished the year averaging 11.9 points per game while shooting 50.2 percent from the field and 35.8 percent from three. He also averaged 5.8 rebounds per game and 3.8 assists per game - second on the team. Ilic had 11 games where he dolled out at least five assists, topping out at nine at Emory & Henry (Nov. 26). He also produced a trio of double-doubles against Lake Superior State (Nov. 2), at Anderson (Nov. 30) and at Mars Hill (Jan. 20).

Carson-Newman opens the season at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 15 against Lees-McRae in Holt Fieldhouse in the SAC/Conference Carolins Challenge. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at 7:15 with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff on MIX 105.5 (WSEV-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live. A video stream is available with a subscription to FloSports at cneagles.com/flombb.