KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Coach Ben Howlett's West Liberty University men's basketball team was honored Thursday by the National Association of Basketball Coaches as a recipient of the NABC's eighth annual Team Academic Excellence Award.
    In order to qualify for the award, teams must have compiled a combined grade point average of 3.00 or higher for the entire 2019-20 academic year. The Hilltoppers, who checked in with a 3.11 GPA, were the only Mountain East Conference team to earn the award and joined West Virginia University as the state's only team honorees.
    "The young men in our program have consistently demonstrated a commitment to excellence on and off the court over the years," Howlett said. "It's a credit to their dedication that they were able to overcome the unique challenges we faced this season and continue to achieve at a high level. That's just one more reason why I love coaching these guys!"
    West Liberty rolled to its third consecutive Mountain East Conference title in March and followed that up by becoming the first MEC regular-season champion ever to follow that up with an MEC Tournament title. Ranked No. 7 in the nation, the Hilltoppers were preparing to host the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region Tournament when all NCAA sports were halted by the pandemic.
    Located in Kansas City, Missouri, the NABC was founded in 1927 by Phog Allen, the legendary basketball coach at the University of Kansas. Allen, a student of James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, organized coaches into this collective
group to serve as Guardians of the Game.
    The NABC has nearly 5,000 members consisting primarily of university and college men's basketball coaches. All members of the NABC are expected to uphold the core values of being a Guardian of the Game by bringing attention to the positive aspects of the sport of basketball and the role coaches play in the academic and athletic lives of today's student-athletes.