Canyons Men’s Basketball Recognized with NABC Academic Excellence Award

By Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information Director

The College of the Canyons men's basketball program has been named a 2025-26 National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Team Academic Excellence Award winner, recognizing the team's collective achievements in the classroom during the past academic year.

Of the more than 400 programs that received NABC Team Academic Excellence Awards for 2025-26, Canyons was the only California Community College program, and one of only 15 community college programs from across the nation, to receive this honor.

"This recognition reflects the dedication our student-athletes bring to every aspect of their college experience," said COC men's basketball head coach Howard Fisher. "It further demonstrates that success in the classroom and success in competition go hand-in-hand."

The NABC Team Academic Excellence Awards recognize programs that completed the 2025-26 academic year with a team GPA of 3.0 or higher. NABC academic awards are presented annually to teams from all levels of college basketball from across the nation.

"College basketball student-athletes do incredible things on the court, but their achievements in the classroom are equally worthy of celebration," said NABC Executive Director Craig Robinson. "Education is one of the NABC's core values, and the hundreds of programs and thousands of athletes represented on these awards reinforce the commitment to academic success that exists across all levels of our sport."

The Cougars posted a combined GPA of 3.13 during the 2025-26 season. 

COC men's basketball players logged nearly 2,900 hours at The Learning Center (TLC), the college's on campus academic support center. That equated to an average of more than 152 hours per student-athlete during the 2025-26 school year.

At year's end, all three of the team's sophomores — Donovan Cornelius, Justin Perez and Wyatt Wilson — graduated with associate degrees and transferred to four-year universities.

"Our program culture reflects the direct correlation from academic success to on-court success and I'm proud of our student-athletes for representing that," Fisher added.

Canyons finished the regular season with an overall record of 16-12 and 7-7 mark in conference play to place fifth in the Western State Conference (WSC), South Division standings. 

COC saw three players from its 2025-26 squad recognized as members of the All-WSC South Division team, with two earning First-Team recognition. Cornelius and freshman Dwayne Boston Jr. were both named All-WSC, South Division First-Team. Freshman Craig Irons was an Honorable Mention selection.

The Cougars then competed in the 3C2A Southern California Regional Playoffs for the first time since the 2017-18 season. The No. 23 seed Cougars were eliminated from the postseason by No. 10 San Bernardino Valley College in the opening round.

Stay up to date on all this season's action by following the College of the Canyons Athletic department on social media at @COCathletics on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.