FORT MYERS, Fla. – For the second consecutive year, the FGCU men's basketball team has earned the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Team Academic Excellence Award as announced by the organization today. This comes a day after five Eagles were honored for individual academic excellence as part of the NABC Honors Court program.
 
 "To earn this distinction in consecutive years shows the commitment our student-athletes and staff have to enhancing the program from a holistic approach," said head men's basketball coach Michael Fly. "We have a fantastic support staff in the Hartley Academic Resource Center led by our Associate AD for Academic Services Kelly Jean Brock. I'm proud of the work our players have done and look forward to getting them back on campus in the near future as we gear up for the new academic year."
 
To earn the honor, programs must achieve a cumulative grade-point-average of 3.0-or-better for the 2019-20 season. Last season marked the first year the Eagles had earned the team award. FGCU and Liberty were the only teams in the ASUN to be named among the honorees.
 
This past year, as a team, FGCU had back-to-back tremendous semesters in the classroom with a program-record 3.35 team GPA in the spring. For the spring semester, a total of 15 Eagles had 3.0-or-better GPAs with Hector and Hoffman each posting perfect 4.0s.
 
Yesterday five Eagles were named to the NABC Honors Court: rising seniors Sam Gagliardi (Gig Harbor, Wash./Gig Harbor HS/Citrus College) and Justus Rainwater (Enumclaw, Wash./Enumclaw HS/Cochise College) each earned the honor alongside recent graduates Tracy Hector, Jr. (Riverdale, Ga./Jonesboro HS/Florida A&M), Kyle Hoffman (Lawrence, Kan./Ottawa University) and Ryan Rocuant (Estero, Fla./Estero HS). With five honorees, FGCU led the state of Florida with the most players and ranked second in the ASUN just behind Liberty (6).
 
For a full list of NABC honorees, click here.

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E.A.G.L.E. CAMPAIGN
IT TAKES A TEAM to achieve our newest goal - a $10 million campaign to address student-athlete needs in continued academic success, life skills, mental health, nutrition, and strength and conditioning as well as departmental needs in facility expansion and improvement as well as mentoring and leadership training for coaches and staff. The name embodies our mission and the purpose of the E.A.G.L.E. Campaign - Eagle Athletics Generating Lifetime Excellence. Join Our Team and pledge your gift today to help the Eagles of tomorrow!
 
COACH FLY
Michael Fly was introduced as the fourth FGCU men's basketball head coach on April 5, 2018. He had spent the previous seven years as an assistant coach on the Eagles' staff. In his time with the Eagles, he helped FGCU to a 164-108 record (.618 winning percentage), including six ASUN Tournament Final appearances, three NCAA Tournament victories, three ASUN Tournament titles and three ASUN Regular Season Championships, two berths in the NIT, a CIT appearance and a run to the Sweet 16. He has coached 13 all-conference selections while with the Green and Blue, including two ASUN Player of the Year honors in Sherwood Brown and Brandon Goodwin, two ASUN Defensive Player of the Year selections in Bernard Thompson and Demetris Morant and one ASUN Newcomer of the Year in Schadrac Casimir. Of the top-10 players in career points at FGCU, Fly has helped develop eight of them, including all-time leading scorer Thompson (1,835). Additionally, the Kentucky alumnus has coached both the ASUN all-time assists leader Brett Comer (845; 24th in NCAA history) and FGCU all-time leading rebounder Chase Fieler (714).
 
#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.
 
ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 82 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 13 seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just nine seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 38 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. Seven FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport – including women's basketball (No. 24, 2019-20) and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as three of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green and Blue posted a department-best sixth-place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors' Cup and top-100 showing nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida best seven teams earn the NCAA's Public Recognition Award for their Academic Progress Rate (APR) in their sport and have had the highest percentage of teams so honored from these two groups over each of the past three years. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.46 GPA in the classroom in the spring 2020 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 22 consecutive semesters. The 2019 Fall and 2020 Spring semesters each saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher team GPA. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 – being recognized as one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.
 
--FGCUATHLETICS.COM--