Ohio University men’s basketball earns NABC 2022-23 Academic Award recognition
The NABC has announced the recipients of the 2022-23 NABC Team Academic Excellence Awards and NABC Honors Court, representing outstanding achievement in the classroom by men's college basketball teams and student-athletes. Along with the Ohio University men's basketball team earning team recognition, Ben Roderick and Dwight Wilson III were named to the Honors Court.
The NABC Team Academic Excellence Awards recognize men's basketball programs that completed the 2022-23 academic year with a team GPA of 3.0 or higher. The NABC Honors Court, meanwhile, includes junior, senior and graduate student men's basketball players who finished the 2022-23 year with a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher.
Roderick (Powell, Ohio) a senior sport management major with a 3.59 GPA, finished his final season in the Green and White playing in 33 games, starting 17. This season, Roderick averaged 5.2 points a game, while shooting .367 from the field, .386 from three and .674 from the line, He also averaged 2.9 rebounds a game. This season, Roderick scored a season-high 15 points against Eastern Illinois and was named to the Bobcat Battle All-Tournament Team. He also grabbed a season-high six rebounds three times and made three 3-pointers against EIU on Nov. 25.
Roderick was also named to the 2022-23 Academic All-District® Men's Basketball Team, selected by College Sports Communicators and was named Academic All-MAC.
Wilson III (Tallahassee, Fla.), a graduate student earning masters in Coaching Education and Management sports a 3.38 GPA. Wilson III finished the season leading Ohio with 15.4 points and 9.2 rebounds a game. He played in 32 games this season, making 32 starts, while shooting .618 from the field and .711 from the line.
During MAC play, Wilson III played and started all 18 games, while averaging 17.5 points and 8.9 rebounds a game, while shooting .645 from the field and .709 from the line. Wilson III scored a career-high 31 points on Jan. 24 against Western Michigan and grabbed a season-high 17 rebounds at BGSU on Jan. 7. He also grabbed his 1,000th career rebound on Feb. 21 against Northern Illinois, making his only the fourth Bobcat in program history to have 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds. This season he led Ohio in scoring 12 times, with 11 double doubles and led the team in rebounding 28 times.
Wilson also earned a spot on the All-MAC Second Team following the season and was named All-District 14 Second Team and Academic All-MAC.
The NABC's academic awards include honorees from all levels of college basketball.
"Education is a core value of the NABC, and we are privileged to recognize these outstanding student-athletes and the coaches and support staff who invest in their development," said NABC Executive Director Craig Robinson. "The hundreds of teams and thousands of players that qualified for NABC academic awards this season are a testament to our sport's ongoing prioritization of success in the classroom."
Over 1,800 players earned spots on the NABC Honors Court and over 300 programs received NABC Team Academic Excellence Awards for 2022-23.