North Dakota State Women's Basketball 16th on WBCA Academic Top 25 Honor Roll

ATLANTA, Ga.–University of Wisconsin, Green Bay; Drury University; Northland College; Northwestern College and Salt Lake Community College are the top honorees in their respective divisions on the WBCA Academic Top 25 Team Honor Rolls for the 2011-12 season, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association announced today.

North Dakota State makes its fourth appearance at 16^th on the WBCA Academic Top 25 for the 2011-12 season. The Bison compiled a 3.402 grade point average led by Capital One Academic All-America® third team selection Janae Burich. NDSU also earned a spot in 2005, 2008 and 2010.

“Winners succeed in all aspects of their daily life; and this is a great accomplishment for our players who strive to do well through the rigors of being a student-athlete,” said NDSU head women’s basketball coach Carolyn DeHoff.

“We are proud of our players and understand the commitment they make on and off the court.  We want to congratulate our players and our academic support staff who assist in their success.”

The WBCA Academic Top 25 annually recognizes NCAA Divisions I, II and III; NAIA; and junior/community college women’s basketball teams across the nation that carry the highest combined grade point averages (GPAs) inclusive of all student-athletes on their rosters for the entire season.  The 2011-12 season is the 17^th in which the WBCA has produced the honor rolls.

Here are the top honorees by division, their head coaches and combined GPAs:

Drury and Salt Lake are No. 1 on the NCAA Division II and junior/community college honor rolls respectively for the third time.  It is Drury’s eighth appearance on the NCAA Division II honor roll; and its first since a No. 2 ranking in 2006.  The Lady Panthers finished atop the Division II standings in 2004 and 2005.  Salt Lake is making its 10^th appearance on the junior/community college honor.  The Bruins were No. 1 in the junior/community college standings in 2000 and 2003.  This season marks Green Bay’s second No. 1 finish on the NCAA Division I honor roll; its first occurring in 2001.  Meanwhile, Northland and Northwestern (Iowa) finish atop the NCAA Division III and NAIA standings respectively for the first time.

“I look forward to the release of the Academic Top 25 each summer,” said WBCA CEO Beth Bass. “Because our society places so much emphasis on winning games and championships, it is a refreshing change of pace when we recognize those teams that excel in the classroom.

“Like winning on the court, academic success on a team level does not happen by accident.  It requires a group of student-athletes who realize the importance of education and earning their degrees, coaches who expect and encourage their players to attend class and study, and administrators who provide strong academic support programs for their athletes,” said Bass.

“The teams composing the Academic Top 25 each year are always the real winners in women’s college basketball.”

A team’s GPA is calculated by dividing the total number of quality points earned by the total number of hours attempted by all team members in the academic terms (semesters or quarters) that the season spans. Weighted grades are converted to a 4.0 scale. The GPAs are rounded to the nearest thousandth of a point.  Teams are nominated for the honor by a WBCA-member head coach.  A team must have a 3.000 or better GPA to be nominated.

NCAA Division I

Green Bay leads the 2012 NCAA Division I honor roll with a 3.616 GPA.  It is the 10th appearance on the Division I honor roll for the Phoenix and their third under former head coach Matt Bollant, who left after five seasons to become head coach at the University of Illinois.  The Horizon League champions finished the season with a 33-2 record, losing to Kentucky, 65-62, in the second round of the NCAA Kingston Regional.

Five of the top 25 teams on the Division I honor roll earned a berth in the 2012 NCAA tournament.

Here is the complete 2012 WBCA Academic Top 25 for NCAA Division I (**-NCAA tournament; *-left after season):