NCAA Recognizes Cougars for Academic Achievement

PROVO -- BYU men’s basketball is among the teams the NCAA has honored for earning multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores in the top 10 percent of all squads in their respective sports.

The NCAA’s APR calculation includes eligibility, retention and graduation to provide a clear picture of the academic culture of each sport. High-performing teams receiving this year's Public Recognition Awards posted APR scores ranging from 978 to a perfect 1,000.

This marks the fourth-straight year the men’s basketball team has received public recognition from the NCAA. The Cougars are the only men’s basketball program to earn APR recognition and an NCAA Tournament berth in each of the last four seasons.

“This is a great honor and achievement for our team,” said assistant coach John Wardenburg, who is responsible for overseeing the team’s academics. “It is a result of hard work by our players and our academic staff led by E.J. Caffaro. They commit themselves to spending the time to be successful in the classroom and on the court.”

In NCAA Division I men’s basketball 37 teams qualified for public recognition out of 342 programs. BYU is one of only 11 teams in the country that received high academic achievement honors and also qualified for the NCAA Tournament. Other NCAA Tournament teams that received APR recognition include Butler, Kansas, Lehigh, Notre Dame, Michigan State, Texas, Texas A&M Washington, Utah, West Virginia and Xavier. Utah is the only other men’s basketball team in the Mountain West Conference to earn recognition.

Along with its academic success, BYU men’s basketball finished with a program record 30 victories (30-6 overall and 13-3 in the MWC) and achieved the following for a fourth-straight season: 25-plus wins, receiving an NCAA Tournament bid and being ranked in the top 25. With its 99-92 double-overtime win over Florida, the Cougars advanced in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1993.

Click here for the release from the NCAA