Five University of Louisville athletics teams are among the nation’s leaders within their sports in the most recent multiyear Academic Progress Rate (APR) data, the NCAA released on Tuesday.
UofL’s men’s and women’s basketball, women’s cross country, women’s golf and volleyball are among the top 10% in their respective sports in the latest multiyear APR, which measures academic eligibility, retention and graduation for student-athletes.
It is the seventh occasion in the last eight years the Cardinals’ men’s basketball team has received public recognition through the NCAA Academic Performance Program. A league-high matching five Cardinals were named to the 2020 All-ACC Academic Team and UofL has produced an ACC-best 36 selections over its six years in the league. Jordan Nwora was named to the 2019-20 CoSIDA Academic All-America second team.
Louisville and Stanford are the only two schools from Power Five conferences that have earned the APR recognition in at least seven of the last eight years. The men’s basketball team has attained a collective 3.0 grade point average for 22 of the last 24 semesters, including a 3.160 cumulative team mark for the Spring 2020 semester under head coach Chris Mack.
It is the third-straight year that the Cardinals’ women’s basketball team has received public recognition through the NCAA Academic Performance Program. Four team members earned their degrees this semester, including Yacine Diop (M.S. in Sport Administration), Bionca Dunham (B.S. in Criminal Justice), Jazmine Jones (B.S. in Criminal Justice with a minor in Communication), and Kylee Shook (B.A. in Communication with a minor in Sociology). The team achieved a 3.688 grade point average for the 2020 Spring semester GPA, highest in the Coach Jeff Walz era over the last 13 years, and its 2019-20 academic year GPA of 3.415 was the second-highest.
The Cardinals have earned a GPA above 3.0 for the last 12 straight semesters and 11 of 16 team members made the Dean’s List for the Spring semester (3.5+ GPA). Dana Evans and Jazmine Jones were both named to the All-ACC Academic Team.
This marks the fourth consecutive year that the women’s cross country team is earning the honor. Under head coach Dale Cowper, the team earned USTFCCCA All-Academic honors this fall with a team GPA of 3.30. Three members of the team, Bailey Beery, Brittney Hansen and Lauren Radenhausen, earned their undergraduate degrees this semester. Two-time All-American Dorcas Wasike was named the ACC Women’s Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year while also being named to the 2018 USTFCCCA All-Academic Team.
The women’s golf program is receiving the recognition for the 10th consecutive year. The team has produced 19 semesters in a row with a GPA of 3.4 and eight with a 3.5 or higher. Coached by Whitney Young, the Cardinals achieved a 2020 Spring GPA of 3.58. Last summer, four golfers were named Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) All-American Scholars, including Olivia Cason, Lauren Hartlage, Delaney Shah and Lauren Thibodeau.
UofL’s volleyball team, which reached its first-ever NCAA Elite Eight in 2019, posted an impressive 3.845 GPA for the 2020 Spring semester, with all 15 student-athletes achieving above a 3.0. In addition, 11 of coach Dani Busboom Kelly‘s student-athletes made Red and Black Scholars List with cumulative GPAs above 3.25. Six volleyball players made the Dean’s Scholar List with a perfect 4.0 GPA and a total of seven students made Dean’s List with a 3.5 GPA or better. Tori Dilfer, Alexis Hamilton, Aiko Jones, Melanie McHenry, Anna Stevenson and Amaya Tillman were named to the All-ACC Academic list with McHenry being awarded the ACC Postgraduate Scholarship for Volleyball.
A total of 83 teams from Atlantic Coast Conference member schools were honored with APR Public Recognition Awards, second-most among Power 5 conferences. The ACC is one of two Power 5 conferences to have at least two teams recognized from each of its member schools. The ACC has led all Power 5 conferences in 14 of the 15 years since the NCAA began APR public recognition of Division I teams. A total of 525 ACC teams have earned APR Public Recognition Awards over the past six years, which leads all Power 5 conferences.
Louisville’s five teams are among nearly 1,400 teams from 326 Division I universities that were recognized for academic excellence for ranking among the top 10 percent of their sports in the most recent APR. Multiyear APRs for the most-recent single-year figures from 2018-19 for all Division I sports teams will be released on May 19. The process for determining an Academic Progress Rate score is included at this link.
