St. Francis (NY) Women's Hoops Team Finishes Tenth In The Nation In Team GPA
7/17/2012
Atlanta, GA -- The St. Francis College Women's Basketball Team ranked among the Division I Top-10 in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll for the 2011-12 season, the WBCA announced today.
“I am extremely happy for the young women in our program who have earned this recognition, said Terriers' new head coach John Thurston. “They worked very hard this past year through some very emotional and stressful times. Unlike basketball records, this achievement is something they can use for the rest of their lives. I would like to thank our assistant coaches, their professors, and Cristine DePalo in Academic Enhancement who all do such a great job of providing support and encouragement for our women. This is a proud day for St Francis, the athletic program and the outstanding young women in our basketball program.”
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 17th in which the WBCA has produced the honor rolls.
“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
Here is the complete 2012 WBCA Academic Top 25 for NCAA Division I (**-NCAA tournament; *-left after season):
|
Rank |
Institution |
2011-12 Head Coach |
Team GPA |
|
1 |
Green Bay** |
Matt Bollant* |
3.616 |
|
2 |
South Dakota State** |
Aaron Johnston |
3.610 |
|
3 |
DePaul** |
Douglas Bruno |
3.604 |
|
4 |
South Dakota |
Ryun Williams* |
3.595 |
|
5 |
American |
Matt Corkery |
3.563 |
|
6 |
Youngstown State |
Robert Boldon |
3.550 |
|
7 |
Utah Valley |
Cathy Nixon |
3.524 |
|
8 |
North Dakota |
Gene Roebuck* |
3.505 |
|
9 |
Florida Gulf Coast** |
Karl Smesko |
3.474 |
|
10 |
St. Francis College |
Brenda Milano |
3.456 |
|
11 |
Montana State |
Tricia Binford |
3.435 |
|
12 |
Northern Colorado |
Jaime White |
3.421 |
|
13 |
Western Carolina |
Karen Middleton |
3.406 |
|
14 (tie) |
New Mexico |
Yvonne Sanchez |
3.403 |
|
14 (tie) |
Northern Iowa |
Tanya Warren |
3.403 |
|
16 |
North Dakota State |
Carolyn DeHoff |
3.402 |
|
17 |
Montana |
Robin Selvig |
3.399 |
|
18 |
Indiana-Purdue, Fort Wayne |
Chris Paul |
3.398 |
|
19 |
Bradley |
Paula Buscher* |
3.396 |
|
20 |
Denver |
Erik Johnson* |
3.387 |
|
21 |
Bucknell |
Kathy Fedorjaka* |
3.382 |
|
22 |
Yale |
Chris Gobrecht |
3.352 |
|
23 |
Sacred Heart** |
Edward Swanson |
3.349 |
|
24 |
Bowling Green |
Curt Miller* |
3.347 |
|
25 |
Eastern Washington |
Wendy Schuller |
3.337 |