CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Harvard men's basketball program has earned the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Team Academic Excellence Award for the 2019-20 academic campaign. The honor marks the sixth consecutive season in which the team has been recognized for its collective effort in the classroom.
 
To be eligible for the award, which was created by the NABC Committee on Academics, teams must achieve a cumulative GPA of 3.00 or better for the academic year. Additionally, the institutions must count the GPA of all men's basketball student-athletes who competed during the 2019-20 season.
 
The Crimson is the only program nationally to capture six straight NABC Team Academic Excellence Awards and is one of three from the Ivy League to land on the prestigious award list. Joining Harvard as honorees are Penn and Yale.
 
The team award comes one day after the NABC announced its Honors Court with outgoing seniors Justin Bassey, Chris Lewis and Henry Welsh, and rising senior Reed Farley representing the Crimson. To be considered for the Honors Court, student-athletes must be a junior or senior, have been at their school at least one season, have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.20, and have its coach be an NABC member. Harvard's four award winners were tied for the most in the Ancient Eight along with Columbia and Yale.
 
On the hardwood this past season, the Crimson reached the 20-win plateau for the first time since the 2014-15 campaign, as it compiled a 21-8 record. En route to its fifth-highest win total in program history, Harvard defeated Power-5 conference foes Texas A&M and California, and enjoyed a pair of lengthy winning streaks (8 games and 6 games) along the way.