KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Four members of the 2017-18 Suffolk men's basketball squad have been named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Honors Court, recognizing their excellence in the classroom throughout the year. Warfa Abdillahi, Jim Djema, Steven DiPrizio and Michael Hagopian all rising seniors earned the honor for the first time in their careers.
Bolstered by the foursome, Suffolk put together one of the best seasons in program history with the most wins (15) in over a decade and the highest conference victories (9) since 2005-06. The quartet helped the Rams upset the GNAC Tournament field as the sixth seed to advance to the semifinals for just the fourth time since joining the league in 1999-2000.
To be eligible for the award a student-athlete must have been either a junior or senior academically and had maintained a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher. Suffolk's four student-athletes are the most among GNAC honorees with both Norwich and Saint Joseph's (Maine) seeing a trio of their student-athletes take home the feat.
Suffolk has seen seven student-athletes recognized by the NABC on the Honors Court in the Jeff Juron era with Curtis Casella, Adam Chick and Caleb Unni all earning the recognition Juron's first season, 2015-16.