KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) announced the sixth annual Team Academic Excellence Awards, created by the NABC Committee on Academics, on Wednesday, with Mercer and UNCG earning the distinction.

The awards recognize outstanding academic achievement by a team with a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or better for the 2017-18 season. In order to earn an NABC Team Academic Excellence Award, institutions in the NCAA, NAIA and NJCAA must count the GPAs of all men’s basketball student-athletes who competed during the 2017-18 season.

Mercer and 2017-18 SoCon regular-season and tournament champion UNCG each had three student-athletes earn spots on the Academic All-SoCon, announced Monday.

In addition, coach Bob Hoffman’s squad helped Mercer lead the SoCon with 309 total academic Honor Roll selections. The Bears have claimed three straight Barrett-Bonner Awards, given annually to the school that places the highest percentage of its student-athletes on the league’s academic Honor Roll.