KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For a sixth consecutive season, the Tusculum University men’s basketball program has been named a recipient of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Team Academic Excellence Award. Three TU student-athletes have also been named to the NABC Honors Court.
The NABC Team Academic Excellence Award recognizes men’s basketball programs that completed the 2025-26 academic year with a team grade point average of 3.0 or higher. The NABC Honors Court includes junior, senior and graduate student men’s basketball players who finished the 2025-26 season with a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or better.
Earning NABC Honors Court recognition are: Bryce Jackson, Damjan Vukcevic and Wesley Johnson.
Tusculum, led by head coach JT Burton, accounted for a 3.19 cumulative team GPA and was one of 20 sports teams at the University to boast a 3.00 team average. TU is also one of five South Atlantic Conference men’s basketball programs honored.
“College basketball student-athletes do incredible things on the court, but their achievements in the classroom are equally worthy of celebration,” said NABC Executive Director Craig Robinson. “Education is one of the NABC’s core values, and the hundreds of programs and thousands of athletes represented on these awards reinforce the commitment to academic success that exists across all levels of our sport.”
Jackson, a graduate student from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is a two-time NABC Honors Court selection. He is a member of the SAC Commissioner’s Honor Roll, Athletic Director’s Honor Roll, Dean’s List, President’s List and Charles Oliver Gray Honors List. He is a two-time recipient of the Division II Athletic Directors Association (D2ADA) Academic Achievement Award and was twice named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District first team. In 2025, he was a CSC Academic All-America third team choice. He was the 2024 recipient of the SAC Men’s Basketball Elite 23 Award.
Last year, he led the Pioneers in scoring for a second straight year, averaging 16.2 points per game (6th in SAC). He also topped the team with 75 assists (2.7 apg – 16th in SAC), and second with 34 steals (1.2 spg – 24th in SAC). He averaged 5.0 rebounds per contest (22nd in SAC) and shot a TU-best 77.8 percent from the free throw line (13th in SAC).
During his 83-game career, Jackson has scored 1,265 points (19th in TU history) and his 120 steals are the eighth-most by a Pioneer. He is also listed in the TU top-10 in field goal attempts (971 – 7th), free throws made (341 – 7th), free throw attempts (432 – 7th) and free throw percentage (.789 – 9th). He has scored in double figures 58 times during his career including 22 with 20 or more points.
Vukcevic, a junior from Podgorica, Montenegro, has a 3.37 GPA while majoring in business. He is a member of the SAC Commissioner’s Honor Roll and the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll.
He played in 27 games with three starts last season where he averaged 6.6 points and 4.1 rebounds per game. He was second on the team in blocked shots, averaging 1.1 per game (9th in SAC).
Johnson, a graduate student from Raleigh, North Carolina, is a member of the SAC Commissioner’s Honor Roll, Athletic Director’s Honor Roll and is a 2026 CSC Academic All-District first team honoree.
He played in all 28 games with 25 starts while averaging 6.4 points and 3.2 rebounds per game.
Over 2,300 players earned spots on the NABC Honors Court and over 400 programs received NABC Team Academic Excellence Awards for this year.
