NABC Team Excellence Awards & Honors Court
 
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) announced the organization's academic awards for the 2024-25 season Wednesday as the Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team was named a recipient of the Team Excellence Award while eight individuals were named to the Honors Court list.
 
To be eligible for the NABC Team Academic Award, a team must have achieved a GPA of 3.0 or higher during the 2024-25 academic year, while the NABC Honors Court recognizes players who are juniors, seniors, or graduate students academically, and have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.2 or higher at the conclusion of the 2023-24 academic year.
 
Of the Orediggers' 18-man roster last season, eight individuals earned Honors Court recognition led by repeat six honorees including Juani Dassie, Majok Deng, Dom Girish Reagan Koch, Adam Krasovec and Silas McCurnin and a pair of first-timers in Ben Hammond and Grant Pressly.
 
Dassie, a Mechanical Engineering major, repeated this season as a CSC Academic All-District selection and also earned RMAC Academic Honor Roll honors for the first time. The native of Argentine appeared in 32 games off the bench this season and averaged 5.9 PPG as he continued to be one of the most dangerous three-point artists in the RMAC. He shot .474/.431/.769 last season with 50 of his 64 field goals being of the three-point variety as he ended his career .462 shooting rate from deep would have ranked second all-time had he met the minimum attempts requirement in the record books.
 
Deng, who recently signed a professional contract to play for Cultural Leonosa in Spain, graduated in May with an M.S. in Natural Resource & Energy Policy. A two-year graduate transfer from Pepperdine, Deng ended his collegiate career by posting one of the most decorated seasons of all-time at Mines. A two-time All-American by the NABC and D2CCA, Deng was also voted RMAC Player of the Year and was selected the NABC's Division II College All-Star Game where he helped lead the West squad to a win. The only player to start all 34 games last season, Deng averaged 14.9 PPG and shot .466/.379/.886 and led the conference from the free throw line while also being in the top 10 in scoring average and three-pointers.
 
Girish earned his second academic honors from the NABC following a season in which he appeared in 13 games as a reserve and shot 4-6 from the floor and 3-4 from beyond the arc. Girish also earned Academic Honor Roll honors from the RMAC earlier this spring as he pursues a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
 
Hammond, a first-year player for the Orediggers last season, did not see game action after transferring in from Northeast Community College. An Electrical Engineering major at Mines, Hammond was a First All-Academic selection at the JUCO level where he averaged 14.1 PPG over 60 games in his first two seasons as a collegian.
 
Koch earned his third Honors Court nod after he completed his second degree from Mines this May, adding a Master's in Engineering & Technology Management to an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering. A three-time RMAC Academic Honor Roll recipient and CSC Academic All-District selection in his career, he started twice in 34 games this season and shot .494/.474/.818 for the season and averaged 6.9 PPG. Koech recorded numerous career-high marks in the 2024-25 season, including field goals, three-pointers, free throws, rebounds and assists and turned in the third-best shooting performance from behind the arc in program history.
 
Krasovec, who graduated in May with a degree in Computer Science, closed out his final season in Golden with RMAC Academic Honor Roll honors along with his second Honors Court selection. This season, he started once in 30 games and averaged 5.8 PPG while shooting .479/.387/.789. The big man from Hungary dished out a career-high 45 assists last season and scored in 15 straight games to end the campaign.
 
McCurnin also earned his second set of academic honors from the NABC in just his second season in Golden as he continues to showcase his academic prowess as he works toward a degree in Civil Engineering. The Fort Collins native appeared in 15 games off the bench in his debut season and scored his first points at UT Dallas on November 16. He was also named to the RMAC's Academic Honor Roll this season.
 
Pressly earned his first academic honors from the NABC after he too became a two-time graduate of Mines this May, completing and M.S. in Engineering & Technology Management following an undergraduate degree in Business Engineering & Management Science in May of 2024. The Plano, Texas native turned in the best season of his career in his final trip in an Oredigger uniform, earning Honorable Mention All-RMAC honors and serving as co-captain. He led the team and was tied for the top spot in the conference with 125 assists, while his 3.2 assist/turnover ratio led the league and was eighth in NCAA Division II. He also became the sixth player in program history to record 10 or more assists in a single game, doing so on January 4 against Northern New Mexico.
 
Fans can keep up with Mines men's basketball on X and Instagram at @minesmbb. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, X and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.