Quartet of Eagles, men's basketball program lauded by NABC

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Carson-Newman's men's basketball program has been named a recipient of the National Association of Basketball Coaches' Team Academic Excellence Award and four Eagles have been named to the NABC Honors Court, the organization announced Wednesday.

The NABC Team Academic Excellence Awards recognize men's basketball programs that completed the 2025-26 academic year with a team GPA of 3.0 or higher. The NABC Honors Court, meanwhile, includes junior, senior and graduate student men's basketball players who finished the 2025-26 year with a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher.

The NABC's academic awards recognize teams and athletes from all levels of college basketball.

Carson-Newman has received the Team Academic Excellence Award in four consecutive years. After carrying a 3.17 GPA in 2022-23, the team upped it to 3.37 in 2023-24 and topped that with a 3.46 last year. This year's team carried a 3.22 GPA.  

Carson-Newman was one of five schools from the SAC to receive the Team Academic Excellence Award. 

Matt Bilbrey (Crossville, Tenn.), Jack Browder (Kingsport, Tenn.),  David Gorianskii (Tralee, Ireland) and Rylan Houck (Oxford, Ala.) were the four Eagles to earn individual recognition.  

Browder and Gorianskii were repeat honorees from last season.