Stong Selected to NABC Honors Court in 2023
July 20, 2023 | Men's Basketball
LOS ANGELES – UCLA men's basketball graduate Russell Stong has been named to the 2022-23 NABC Honors Court, as announced by the National Association of Basketball Coaches on Thursday.
Stong, an Honors Court selection for the third straight season, graduated from UCLA this spring with degrees in mechanical engineering and business economics. He spent his fifth and final season of college basketball with the Bruins in 2022-23, helping UCLA advance to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 for the third consecutive season. Stong intends to enroll in UCLA's graduate program in engineering in 2023-24.
The NABC Honors Court includes junior, senior and graduate student men's basketball players who finished the 2022-23 school year with a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher. The NABC's academic awards include honorees from all levels of college basketball.
Stong was named to the NABC's Honors Court as a junior in 2020-21 and senior in 2021-22, prior to his fifth-year season in 2022-23. He played in 11 games for UCLA last season, making one start on Senior Night in Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom. Through five seasons, Stong played in 37 contests.
About the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC)
Located in Kansas City, Missouri, the NABC was founded in 1927 by Phog Allen, the legendary basketball coach at the University of Kansas. Allen, a student of James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, organized coaches into this collective group to serve as Guardians of the Game. The NABC currently has nearly 5,000 members consisting primarily of university and college men's basketball coaches. All members of the NABC are expected to uphold the core values of being a Guardian of the Game by bringing attention to the positive aspects of the sport of basketball and the role coaches play in the academic and athletic lives of today's student-athletes. The four core values of being a Guardian of the Game are advocacy, leadership, service and education. For additional information about the NABC, its programs and membership, go to www.nabc.org.
