KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The IUPUI basketball team earned academic honors for the 2017-18 campaign on Wednesday (July 11), collecting a Team Academic Excellence Award from the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). The sixth annual awards were created by the NABC Committee on Academics. This marks the second straight year IUPUI has been recognized since the awards began being given in 2013. The awards recognize outstanding academic achievement by a team with a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or better for the 2016-17 season.

"I'm proud of our guys for continuing to get the job done in the classroom. Our upperclassmen take their academic really seriously and that trickles down to the younger guys and has really become a staple within our program," head coach Jason Gardner said. "Max Miller is a key part of our program and he deserves a lot of credit for the guys' success in the classroom. All in all, I'm really pleased with the direction of our program in terms of academic success.

"It was honestly a total team effort as every young man in the program took care of what they needed to do in the classroom."

Gardner's team posted a 3.26 grade point average for the year, including a 3.27 mark during the fall semester. Both Aaron Brennan and D.J. McCall were voted Academic All-Horizon League last season 

IUPUI was one of just three Division I programs from the state of Indiana to earn the award, joining Butler and Notre Dame. IUPUI was also one of just three Horizon League programs to earn the award along with Northern Kentucky and Wright State.