KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Olivet Nazarene University men's basketball team again showed its commitment to excellence on and off the court, earning the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Team Academic Excellence Award for the 2025-26 season. The league office announced its award-winners Thursday afternoon.

ONU posted an impressive team GPA of 3.39 in the 2025-26 academic year to earn the award for the 10th consecutive season.

The Tigers had four players named to the NABC Honors Court, including repeat selections Caleb Corro (MBA), Eli Edwards (Psychology), and Will Baden (Computer Engineering). Junior Jeremiah Renchen (Business Administration/Economics) earned the distinction for the first time from the NABC.

The NABC Team Academic Excellence Awards recognize men's basketball programs that completed the 2025-26 academic year with a team GPA of 3.0 or higher. The NABC Honors Court honors junior, senior, and graduate student men's basketball players who finished the year with a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher, have played at least one year at their current institution, and are members of an NCAA Division I, II, III, or NAIA institution with an NABC member coach.

In addition, the NAIA announced back in February its Scholar-Athlete honor roll presented by Daktronics.

Six Tigers, including Eli Edwards, Will Baden, Jeremiah Renchen, and sophomores Trent Rayborn (Accounting), Mason Wood (Sport Management), and Luke Yeager (Economics-Finance) were all recognized for their efforts in the classroom this year.

In order to qualify for the honor, a student-athlete must maintain a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale and have attended one full year at the university. 

The ONU men's basketball team finished 19-10 overall to record their eighth consecutive winning season under head coach Nick Birkey.

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