Western Kentucky’s men’s basketball program was selected for the 2024-25 Team Excellence Award, while Jalen Jackson and Tyler Olden were named to the Honors Court by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, the organization announced Thursday morning.

The awards represent achievement in the classroom by men’s college basketball teams and individual players.

The NABC Team Academic Excellence Awards recognize programs that completed the 2024-25 academic year with a team GPA of 3.0 or higher. The NABC Honors Court, meanwhile, includes junior, senior and graduate student men’s basketball players who finished the 2024-25 year with a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher.

The Hilltoppers were one of nearly 400 programs to receive NABC Team Academic Excellence Awards for 2024-25 while Jackson and Olden were two of over 2,400 student-athletes to earn spots on the NABC Honors Court.

WKU posted a 3.2 GPA during the 2024-25 academic year with 11 student-athletes achieving a GPA of 3.0 or better.

Jackson, a native of San Antonio, Texas, capped off his final season at WKU earning an overall GPA of 3.27 and making a significant all-around impact on the floor. Appearing in 32 games with 17 starts, Jackson logged the fifth-most minutes on the team at 20.6 per contest and helped anchor the Hilltopper defense. He averaged 3.3 points, 2.0 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.2 steals per game while ranking third on the team in steals and second in total assists for the season. Against Marshall, Jackson tallied a season-high of 10 points, going a perfect 3-for-3 from the field while tying his single-game career-high with six steals in games against FIU and Louisiana Tech.

Olden, a native of Scottsdale, Arizona, finished his final season at WKU with a 3.33 overall GPA and appeared in nine games for the Hilltoppers during the 2024-25 campaign. Olden connected on 3-pointers in games against Campbellsville and Liberty, adding a rebound and a steal in those contests, and scored two points with a rebound against New Mexico State.