Springfield, Ohio — Wittenberg University's men's basketball program placed a national-best eight student-athletes on the 2012 National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Honors Court in recognition of their athletic and academic accomplishments during the 2011-12 season.
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Clayton Black, class of 2012 from Lancaster, Ohio; Alex Brandt, class of 2012 from Lewis Center, Ohio; Michael Cooper, class of 2012 from Springfield, Ohio; Michael Duffy, class of 2012 from Lewis Center, Ohio; Sam Gardner, class of 2012 from Noblesville, Ind.; Josh McKee, class of 2012 from New Carlisle, Ohio; Eli Pavlatos, class of 2013 from South Charleston, Ohio; and Jacob Weide, class of 2012 from Fort Wayne, Ind.; all earned spots on the Honors Court list. Black, Brandt, Duffy, Gardner and Weide were all members of the Honors Court in 2011 as well.
To qualify for inclusion on the NABC Honors Court list, a student-athlete must be either a junior or senior and a member of the varsity team while maintaining a 3.2 grade point average or better.
Wittenberg finished the 2011-12 season ranked 11th in the d3hoops.com national poll after making its NCAA Division III-record 26th appearance in the national tournament, and its second in a row. Wittenberg also made seven appearances in the NCAA College Division between 1959 and 1974, giving the Tigers 33 all-time national tournament berths.
The Tigers made their 11th NCAA Division III Tournament appearance in Head Coach Bill Brown's 18 seasons at the helm, advancing to the national quarterfinals the hard way after earning an at-large berth. To reach the Elite 8, Wittenberg defeated Birmingham-Southern College, Carroll College (Wisc.) and North Central College on neutral courts before falling to Illinois Wesleyan University on March 10.
Wittenberg posted records of 24-7 overall and 14-2 in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) in 2011-12, winning the program's 11th NCAC regular season title in 23 years in the league.
Written By: Ryan Maurer