Howard College basketball teams earn NJCAA academic honors in 2025-26

Howard College’s basketball programs landed in the same academic spotlight on July 30, when the athletics department listed both teams among its NJCAA Academic Teams of the Year. The women posted a 3.74 team GPA and the men finished at 3.36, numbers that sat alongside Howard’s softball mark of 3.76 and baseball’s 3.60 in a department-wide showing of classroom strength.

The double recognition turned basketball into part of a broader schoolwide standard rather than a one-team story. Howard College has framed its athletics identity around “Championship culture lives here,” and the program backed that language with an April 15 Evening of Excellence celebrating student achievement. Together, those markers point to a campus environment where academic standing is treated as part of the job for every roster, not a side note once the final buzzer sounds.

That matters especially in junior college basketball, where eligibility and transfers depend on staying on track. Howard’s men already spent the spring proving how much the program can carry on the court: the Hawks beat College of Southern Idaho 82-67 on March 31 to win the NJCAA Division I men’s basketball national championship, their second title in program history and first since 2010. Howard trailed 30-29 at halftime in Hutchinson, Kansas, then took control with a 53-37 second half. The team also entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed for the first time in school history after finishing the regular season 26-4 and winning the WJCAC title and Region V championship.

The postseason run showed the roster’s top-end talent, too. In one double-overtime tournament win, Kuai Deng posted 31 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists, while Terry Copeland Jr. added 31 points, a reminder that Howard’s basketball success was built on production as much as pedigree. The academic honors now give that same roster a second marker of quality.

The NJCAA’s Academic Team Awards recognize teams each year for classroom dedication, and the organization said 1,446 teams earned honors in 2025-26 with a 3.00 GPA or higher, including two teams that finished at a perfect 4.00. Against that national backdrop, Howard’s placement of both basketball teams on the list shows a program operating with discipline on both ends of college life in Big Spring, Texas.