UMBC

ATLANTA—The UMBC women’s basketball team was recognized on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll for the second year in a row, the organization announced Monday.

The Retrievers’ 3.374 grade-point average ranked 20th among NCAA Division I schools during the 2010-11 academic year. South Dakota State finished first with a 3.666 team GPA.

“I am very proud of our players’ performance in the classroom,” head coach Phil Stern said. “We have a well-rounded group of young ladies who are leaders on our campus and in our community.”

UMBC is one of 10 programs on the list to qualify for the 2011 postseason after earning an automatic berth to the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) as the America East regular-season champion.

At the end of June, the America East Conference recognized 10 of UMBC’s 13 total women’s basketball student-athletes on the league’s winter/spring academic honor roll for earning a GPA of 3.0 or better during the spring semester, with eight team members garnering commissioner’s honor roll status for a GPA of 3.5 or higher. Furthermore, four Retrievers posted a 4.0 in the spring, with senior guard Michele Brokans (Lansdale, Pa./Lansdale Catholic) earning a perfect mark in both the fall and spring terms.

In addition, junior guard Michelle Kurowski (Hicksville, N.Y./Hicksville) earned a number of academic honors in 2011, including America East Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete, Capital One Academic All-District First Team, Division I-AAA Athletics Directors Association Scholar-Athlete Team and America East All-Academic Team.

Kurowski graduated magna cum laude in just three years and will attend graduate school at UMBC during the 2011-12 season while competing on the court with the Retrievers. Brokans and senior guard Chelsea Barker (Waterville, Maine/Messalonskee) also earned their degrees in May, while the team’s third senior, forward Meghan Colabella (Upper Montclair, N.J./Montclair), completed her first year of graduate school. Like Kurowski, Colabella, a 2009 America East All-Academic Team selection, graduated with honors in just three years, earning her degree in 2010.

“We are extremely proud of the women’s basketball program,” associate vice president and director of athletics Dr. Charles Brown said. “Not only did they excel on the basketball court as regular-season champions, but they matched that outstanding performance with great academic results and high graduation rates.”

UMBC is one of two schools from the America East to qualify for the honor, as Hartford ranks seventh with a 3.456 cumulative GPA. In addition, the Retrievers are the only program from the state of Maryland to make the list. Furthermore, women’s basketball earned the highest team GPA of any UMBC squad for the 2010-11 academic year.

Last season, UMBC made its first-ever appearance in the top 25, placing third with a mark of 3.578, the highest-ever finish by an America East school.

The WBCA Academic Top 25 annually recognizes NCAA Divisions I, II and III; NAIA; and junior college/community college teams across the nation that carry the highest combined grade-point averages inclusive of all student-athletes on their rosters for the entire season. The 2010-11 season is the 14th in which the WBCA has presented the standings.

“With the increased importance and scrutiny of the APR (academic progress rate) in the landscape of intercollegiate athletics, these remarkable teams are setting the bar for academic excellence,” WBCA CEO Beth Bass said. “Congratulations to all these student-athletes and their coaches.”

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 GPAs 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.