Sun Belt Academic Honors - 8/4/10

DENVER - The Sun Belt Conference announced their annual Academic Honor Roll and Commissioner's List last week, honoring student-athletes for their hard work in the classroom, and Denver men's basketball was among the DU teams strongly represented.

The SBC releases their lists during the summer after each school's grades have been finalized for the academic year.

The Commissioner's List honors those student-athletes who achieved a 3.5 grade point average, and there were 10 men's basketball players who did so. Six of them were Pioneers, including returners Travis Hallam, Chase Hallam, Brian Stafford and Tyler Thalken. No other team had more than one.

The Academic Honor Roll was a similar success story for Denver. Tom Chott, Justin Coughlin, Andrew Hooper, Kyle Lewis, Rob Lewis, Trevor Noonan and Nate Rohnert all earned at least a 3.0 GPA in 2009-10 to earn a spot. The seven players were the most among men's basketball teams. As a team, the Pioneers combined for a 3.32 GPA during the 2009-10 academic year.

In 2008-09, all 11 eligible DU men's basketball players made either the Academic Honor Roll or the Commissioner's List.

Pro Updates: The only two Pioneers to claim All-Sun Belt Conference First Team honors twice crossed paths yesterday at the Ritchie Center, when Nate Rohnert and Yemi Nicholson were wandering the halls.

Rohnert, who of course was an All-SBC First Selection the past two years, has remained a frequent visitor at the Ritchie Center, working out and hitting the hardwood as often as he can. That comes as no surprise to most of us around here, since Rohnert has been a gym rat since showing up on campus as a fresh-faced 18-year-old freshman.

Nicholson often stops by campus to say hello to old friends, when he returns from Europe each summer. Nicholson was an All-SBC First Team selection for Denver in 2005 and 2006. He was named SBC Player of the Year in 2005, when he led the Pioneers to their only Sun Belt Conference regular season title.

This is an exciting time of year for players like Rohnert and Nicholson, as professional teams around the world begin to fill their rosters. In fact, Nicholson just signed with Prostějov in the Czech Republic after playing last season with Pezinok in Slovakia and the previous year in Germany with Eisbaeren Bremerhaven.

Rohnert is talking to a few teams and hopes to have a deal finalized in the next couple of weeks. Likewise, Terrence Gordon, who has played in Tranas, Sweden, since graduating with both a Bachelor's degree and Master's degree from DU in 2006, is currently planning his next move.