KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For a fourth 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. Four 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 2023-24 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 2023-24 season with a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or better.
Earning NABC Honors Court recognition are Kobe Funderburk, Jacob Hobbs, Connor Jordan and Josiah Morris.
Tusculum accounted for a 3.15 cumulative team GPA and was one of 20 sports teams at the University to boast a 3.00 team GPA.
Funderburk, a guard from Charlotte, North Carolina, earned his Bachelor of Arts degree last May while majoring in sport management. He returns to the NABC Honors Court for a second straight year after finishing with a 3.66 GPA and graduate with cum laude. He is a member of the South Atlantic Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll, Dean’s List, Charles Oliver Gray Honors List and the Tusculum Athletic Director’s Honor Roll. He is also the recipient of the Division II Athletic Directors Association Academic Achievement Award the last two years.
He appeared in 23 games last season where he averaged 5.0 points per game and shot a sizzling 47.4 percent from three-point territory (27-of-57). During his 70-game career at Tusculum, he went 73-of-166 from beyond the arc for 44 percent which is the second-highest ever by a Pioneer.
Hobbs, a 6-8 forward from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, earned both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Tusculum, including his Master of Business Administration in May. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree and finished with cum laude distinction while majoring in sport management. He is a member of the SAC Commissioner’s Honor Roll, Dean’s List, Gray Honors List and the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll. He also returns to the NABC Honors Court for a second straight year.
In his three seasons with the Pioneers, he amassed 369 points, 273 rebounds, 92 assists, 72 steals and 41 blocked shots. In his 25 starts last year, he averaged 7.1 points and 4.2 rebounds per game while shooting 52.9 percent from the floor which included 15 three-pointers made. He finished third on the roster with 20 blocked shots and fourth with 29 steals.
Jordan, a guard from Morristown, Tennessee, graduated in May with magna cum laude honors while earning his Bachelor of Science degree in Sport Science, Pre-Physical Therapy / Occupational Therapy.
The two-time NABC Honors Court selection finished with a 3.49 GPA while majoring in sports science.
He earned All-South Atlantic Conference second team honors last season as he led the Pioneers in scoring and steals and was named his team’s MVP. He averaged 16.3 points (12th in SAC) and 1.44 steals (8th in SAC) per game while also finishing second on the squad averaging 2.78 assists per game. He shot 82.5 percent from the free throw line (5th in SAC) and 42.3 percent from the field while hauling in three rebounds per contest. He scored in double figures on 23 occasions last year including 10 times with 20 or more points.
Including his two seasons at King University, Jordan scored 1,116 points in his collegiate career. His 84.3 free throw percentage in his two years at Tusculum is ranked fourth in program history.
Morris, a junior guard from Mt. Washington, Kentucky, has a 3.54 GPA while majoring in sports science. He is a member of the SAC Commissioner’s Honor Roll, Dean’s List, Gray Honors List and the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll. Last March, he was named to the CSC Academic All-District first team.
He played in all 27 games last year including 26 in the starting line-up. He was Tusculum’s top three-point shooter, averaging 2.56 three-point field goals made per game (6th in SAC) and shot 39 percent from three-point territory (9th in SAC). He finished third on the team averaging 9.8 points per game as he totaled 265 points on the year. Morris scored in double figures on 13 occasions.
Tusculum finished the year with a 14-13 record including 12-8 in conference play to finish fifth in the league standings and advanced to the quarterfinal round of the SAC Tournament. It was also TU’s sixth consecutive winning season, the longest such stretch in school history.
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