ATLANTA, Ga. (August 11, 2020) – For the eighth time in school history and the fourth year in a row, the Wyoming Cowgirl basketball team earned a spot on the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll, it was announced Tuesday by the organization.
 
The Cowgirls tied for 20^th on the Division I list with Northern Arizona with a 3.646 team GPA for the 2019-20 season. Wyoming is the only Mountain West school to crack the list.
 
The Cowgirls have had a banner year in the classroom, as nine student-athletes were named academic all-Mountain West, and 10 Cowgirls earned MW Scholar-Athlete honors from the league.
 
On the court, Wyoming finished the year with a 17-12 record, and those 17 wins are a new program record for wins by a first-year head coach, as Gerald Mattinson was in his first year at the helm of the Cowgirls. Wyoming finished in a tie for third in the Mountain West and advanced to the semifinals of the conference tournament. Two Cowgirls were recognized by the league as Tereza Vitulova earned all-MW honors and Jaeden Vaifanua was named to the conference's all-freshman team.
 
The WBCA Academic Top 25 recognizes NCAA Division I, II and III, NAIA and two-year GPAs inclusive of all student-athletes on their rosters for the entire season. The 2019-20 season is the 25th in which the WBCA has compiled the honor rolls.
 
South Dakota, coached by Dawn Plitzuweit, finished first among NCAA Division I members with a 3.793 cumulative team grade-point average. Seton Hill, coached by Mark Katarski, led NCAA Division II members with a 3.831 GPA. Buena Vista, coached by David Wells, took top honors in NCAA Division III with a 3.865 GPA. Indiana Tech, coached by Jessie Biggs, was No. 1 in the NAIA division with a 3.806 GPA. Miles, coached by Taylor Harris, led all two-year college members with a 3.771 GPA.
 
A team's GPA is calculated by dividing the total number of quality points (A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0) earned by the total number of academic hours attempted by all team members in the academic terms (semesters or quarters) that the season spans. Weighted grades are converted to a 4.0 scale. The GPAs are rounded to the nearest thousandth of a point. Teams are nominated for the honor by the WBCA member head coach. A team must have a 3.000 or better GPA to be nominated.
 
Founded in 1981, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association is the professional association for coaches of women's and girls' basketball at all levels of competition. The WBCA offers educational resources that coaches need to help make themselves better leaders, teachers and mentors to their players; provides opportunities for coaches to connect with peers in the profession; serves as the unifying voice of a diverse community of coaches to those organizations that control the game; and celebrates those coaches, players and other individuals who excel each year and contribute to the advancement of the sport. Visit www.WBCA.org for more details about the Association.
 
NCAA Division I

Rank	Institution	Head Coach	GPA
1	University of South Dakota	Dawn Plitzuweit	3.793
2	Youngstown State University	John Barnes	3.782
3	Robert Morris University	Charlie Buscaglia	3.777
4	Western Illinois University	JD Gravina	3.751
5	Southern Utah University	Tracy Sanders	3.742
6	Bowling Green State University	Robyn Fralick	3.726
7	Houston Baptist University	Donna Finnie	3.723
8	Lipscomb University	Lauren Sumski	3.714
9	Belmont University	Bart Brooks	3.709
10	Marist College	Brian Giorgis	3.698
T11	Northern Illinois University	Lisa Carlsen	3.696
T11	South Dakota State University	Aaron Johnson	3.696
13	University of Wisconsin-Green Bay	Kevin Borseth	3.692
14	Drake University	Jennie Baranczyk	3.690
T15	Lehigh University	Susan Troyan	3.665
T15	Loyola University Maryland	Joe Logan	3.665
17	University of Maine	Amy Vachon	3.655
T18	Bucknell University	Trevor Woodruff	3.651
T18	Lafayette College	Kia Damon-Olson	3.651
T20	Northern Arizona University	Loree Payne	3.646
T20	University of Wyoming	Gerald Mattinson	3.646
22	University of Montana	Shannon Schweyen	3.634
23	Purdue University Fort Wayne	Niecee Nelson	3.631
24	Southern Illinois University	Cindy Stein	3.625
25	Cornell University	Dayna Smith	3.619