ATLANTA – The Illinois State women's basketball team was named to the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Academic Top-25 Team Honor Roll for the 2013-14 season, as announced Thursday. The Redbirds cracked the top-10, as they finished ninth on the list with a team cumulative grade-point average (GPA) of 3.549.
"Being a student-athlete is a challenging feat, but at the same time it is also very rewarding, and to see the GPA's that these institutions have collected is impressive," WBCA COO Shannon Reynolds said. "The WBCA congratulates all of these student-athletes and their coaches for their hard work and dedication."
The WBCA Academic Top-25 annually recognizes NCAA Division I, II and III, as well as NAIA and junior and community college women's basketball teams across the nation that carry the highest combined grade-point average (GPA) inclusive of all student-athletes on their rosters for the entire season. The Redbirds set a women's basketball program record during its best semester with a team GPA of 3.549, including five student-athletes with a perfect 4.0 GPA.
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 GPA's 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.
ISU was joined by fellow in-state rivals, as well as Missouri Valley Conference foes in the top-10, as Western Illinois (fifth), Drake (sixth), Northern Iowa (seventh) and DePaul (eighth) were also recognized. Missouri-Kansas City was the top Division I team with a combined GPA of 3.628.
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