AUSTIN, Texas – For the first time in the history of the Carson-Newman men's basketball program, an Eagle has been named an Academic All-American by the College Sports Communicators (formerly CoSIDA), the organization announced Wednesday afternoon.
Not only did C-N have one player named to the Academic All-America teams, the Eagles were the only Division II institution and one of four programs nationwide with two players featured.
Jack Browder (Kingsport, Tenn.) and John Zhao (Sevierville, Tenn.) earned spots on the first and second teams, respectively.
Browder adds Academica All-America honors to his SAC Scholar Athlete of the Year award. Browder is the seventh C-N men's basketball player to win the award, and the first since Sawyer Williams was lauded at the conclusion of the 2016-17 season. Carson-Newman's seven scholar athlete honorees are the most in league history. Mars Hill and Newberry have both had five players recognized.
The Kingsport, Tennessee native holds a perfect 4.0 grade point average while studying business administration.
Browder is the only player in the SAC to land among the top ten in both scoring and rebounding this season. He finished second in the league in rebounding with 8.1 boards per game and sixth in scoring with 18.5 points per game. Along the way, he collected 11 double doubles.
He shot 48.3 percent from the field and 41.0 percent from three while canning 57 triples. Browder made a team-best 110 free throws at an 80.3 percent clip. Browder has scored in double-digits in all but two games this season, and entered the SAC tournament on a career-best 15-game streak scoring 10 or more.
He topped 20 points on 14 occasions throughout the season and joined Shaun Jones as the only players since 1985 with more than 240 rebounds in a season. For his efforts, he was named the TSWA Player of the Week, an All-SAC selection, and an All-SAC tournament team member.
Zhao was one of three players in the Southeast Region to earn consensus all-region honors from both the coaches (NABC) and the media (D2CSC).
A finance major, he carries a 3.82 GPA.
Zhao was C-N's first all-region honoree since Charles Clark earned a third all-region honor in 2017-18. Carson-Newman produced an all-region honoree every year from 2013-18. Zhao nets the eighth regional accolade for head coach Chuck Benson. The Sevier County product joins Charles Clark (three times), Antoine Davis (twice), Ish Sanders and Carson Brooks as Eagles to have earned all-region honors under Benson's guidance.
Zhao turned in the most efficient effort in the SAC this season. He finished fifth in the league in scoring at 19.1 points per game while averaging 61.5 percent shooting from the field and 52.5 percent shooting from three. He ranks 10th nationally in efficiency and second in the league, while topping the conference in three-point efficiency. Zhao leads the nation in three-point efficiency. He resets the program's single-season record for three-point efficiency with his 52.5 percent mark. Zhao finishes the year with 84 threes made tied for the sixth-most in a single season in school history.
He is one of four players in NCAA Division II history to shoot 52 percent or better from three for a season with at least 80 triples made in a year.
He tallied five weekly honors on the year, two from the league and three from the Tennessee Sportswriters Association. Zhao won honors from the TSWA on Feb. 13, Jan. 29 and Dec. 18.
Over a six-game stretch following a loss to Wingate on Jan. 20, Zhao averaged 27.33 points per game. That camee with some stupefying efficiency. He had a 67.9/61.3/84.4 slash line. He was 27-of-44 from deep in that stretch, an average of 4.5 threes per game.
He had his first-career double-double, with a 23-point, 10-rebound night in the win at Mars Hill on Feb. 9.
Zhao has scored in double digits in 26 games this season with 16, 20-point efforts and five, 30-point games.
He has the most 30-point games in a season by an Eagle since Charles Clarks' six in his SAC Player of the Year campaign in 2016-17.
Browder is the 28th student-athlete at Carson-Newman to receive recognition as a first-team Academic All-American.
They bring Carson-Newman's all-time Academic All-America honorees to 69 total, an incredibly nice accomplishment for the institution as a whole.
Carson-Newman has had 49 Academic All-Americans in the last decade – second-most in the South Atlantic Conference in that span to Wingate.
