July 15, 2008

www.siusalukis.com

ATLANTA, Ga. - The 2007-08 Southern Illinois women's basketball team was recognized by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) as a member of the Academic Top 25 Honor Roll for the second straight season.

SIU has made the team honor roll four out of the last five seasons under Saluki head coach Dana Eikenberg, ranking 12th in the nation, the highest ranking since Eikenberg took over with a 3.371 team grade point average.

"Our staff is proud of our program's academic succeed and the WBCA AHR ranking," Eikenberg said. "It requires great discipline to balance and succeed in the classroom during a season and Academic Services Kristina Therriault and Jeff Jones do a good job helping our student-athletes to stay on task. "

Five student-athletes from the women's basketball team made the Dean's List at SIU in the spring, while 11 of the women carry better than a 3.00 cumulative GPA.

The Salukis are one of four Missouri Valley Conference teams to make the honor roll. Indiana State (.3.591) ranks third, Northern Iowa (3.535) ranks sixth and Wichita State (3.289), 23rd.

According to the WBCA web site GPAs are calculated by dividing the total number of quality points earned by each student-athlete on an institution's roster in the given academic terms by the total number of hours earned by the team. The GPAs are rounded to the nearest thousandth of a point. Per a motion passed by the WBCA Board of Directors in 2007, teams making the list of Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll must obtain at least a 3.000 overall GPA.

The WBCA Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll for NCAA Division I is as follows:
School - 2007-08 Head Coach (Team GPA)
1 South Dakota State University - Aaron Johnston (3.669)
2 Kansas State University - Debbie Patterson (3.652)
3 Indiana State University - Jim Wiedie (3.591)
4 Eastern Washington University - Wendy Schuller (3.584)
5 Western Carolina University - Kellie J. Harper (3.543)
6 University of Northern Iowa - Tanya E. Warren (3.535)
7 Eastern Illinois University - Brady Sallee (3.475)
8 Manhattan College - Myndi Hill (3.430)
9 Utah Valley State College - Cathy Nixon (3.419)
10 University of Northern Colorado - Jaime White (3.414)
11 Montana State University - Bozeman - Tricia L. Binford (3.392)
12 Southern Illinois University at Carbondale - Dana Eikenberg (3.371)
13 Niagara University - Kendra Faustin (3.361)
14 Liberty University - Carey Green (3.354)
15 Saint Bonaventure University - Jim Crowley (3.352)
16 University of Maine - Cindy Blodgett (3.345)
17 American University - Melissa McFerrin (3.342)
T18 Canisius College - Terrence E. Zeh (3.326)
T18 North Dakota State University - Amy Ruley (3.326)
20 Oakland University - Beckie Francis (3.312)
21 Dartmouth College - Christina Wielgus (3.311)
22 University of New Mexico - Don Flanagan (3.308)
23 Wichita State University - Jane Albright (3.289)
24 Valparaiso University - Keith Freeman (3.286)
25 Columbia University - Paul E. Nixon (3.278)