Eagle trio earns CSC Academic All-District honors
AUSTIN, Texas - Three Carson-Newman men's basketball players have earned College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honors, the organization announced Tuesday at noon.
AUSTIN, Texas - Three Carson-Newman men's basketball players have earned College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honors, the organization announced Tuesday at noon.
Jack Browder (Kingsport, Tenn.) made the list for a third straight year. Matt Bilbrey (Crossville, Tenn.) logs his second accolade, while Rylan Houck (Oxford, Ala.) makes the list for his first time.
The 2025-26 Academic All-District® Men's Basketball teams, selected by College Sports Communicators, recognize the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the court and in the classroom. The CSC Academic All-America® program separately recognizes men's basketball honorees in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA.
Academic All-District® honorees were considered for advancement to the CSC Academic All-America® ballot.
Student-athletes selected as CSC Academic All-America® finalists are denoted with an asterisk and will advance to the national ballot to be voted on by CSC members. First-, second- and third-team Academic All-America® honorees will be announced April 14, 2026.
Browder was the SAC's Player of the Year in 2025-26 and a first-team All-SAC selection. Browder joins Charles Clark (2016-17), Antoine Davis (2012-13) and Kyle Gribble (2002-03) as Eagles to earn the league's player of the year accolade. He is the third coached by head men's basketball coach Chuck Benson.
In addition to Browder's Player of the Year honor, he also earns all-league honors for the third time in his career and his second on the first team.
Browder is also on the watch list for Small College Basketball's Bevo Francis Award, given to the top player in all Small College Basketball, as well as the Trevor Hudgins Award, which goes to the best four-year player in Small College Basketball.
Jack Browder finished his career with 2,098 career points. He is fourth all-time in both Carson-Newman and SAC scoring history. Browder is fifth among active NCAA Division II players in career scoring and 15th among all players in all divisions.
With 897 career rebounds, Browder is fourth among active Division II players in career rebounds. Browder, plus Hall of Famers Mike Ogan and Tommy Everette are the only three members of the 1,500/700 club in Carson-Newman history. Browder is the only player in the NCAA era to do that.
Browder is one of three active players in college basketball with 2,000 career points and 800 career rebounds. Carl Cleveland at Young Harris (The Southeast Region Player of the Year) and Gonzaga's Graham Ike are the only others in the NCAA. Browder's 897 rebounds are the fifth-most in school history and sixth in SAC history.
With 39 career double-doubles, Browder already has career mark for Carson-Newman for all-time double-doubles (at least in the NCAA era where we have game-by-game stats). He has the most double-doubles among active NCAA Division II players. He has the eighth-most double-doubles amongst players in all divisions. Browder's 14 double-doubles this year lead the SAC and are fourth nationally.
Browder is the only player in NCAA Division II to lead his league in scoring and rebounding. Browder is also the only player in the country in the top 20 in both scoring and rebounding. Browder is third in scoring at 25.0 points per game and 17th in rebounding at 9.6 boards per game.
Browder has 725 points this season. The most by an Eagle in a single-season in the NCAA-era and the seventh-highest scoring total in league history. Browder is averaging 25.0 points per game this season. He and Mike Ogan are the only players in Carson-Newman history to average 25 a game over the course of a season. Browder and Mars Hill's Sammy Emile are the only two to do it in SAC history.
He has set the SAC single-game record for free throws made in a game without missing. Connecting on all 21 of his foul shots on senior day in an overtime loss to Lenoir-Rhyne.
With 241 made free throws this season, he is both the SAC and school record holder for free thows made in a season.
Browder has been recognized as the league's player of the week three times this season.
He had five, 30-point games this year, including a 46-piece against Mars Hill. He produced the fourth-highest single-game scoring effort in school history and the ninth-best night in South Atlantic Conference history. The 40-point point night is the eighth all-time in C-N history. He scored 20 points in the first half before dropping 26 after halftime. Going 17-of-17 at the free throw line broke Tommy Everette's 59-year old school record for the most free throw attempts in a game without missing. A record which stood for one game before he broke it agaisnt Lenoir-Rhyne.
Browder scored 115 points in his last three games, the highest three-game stretch in school history in front of the 110 points Charles Clark scored around his then-school record 54-point game his junior year against Coker in 2016-17.
Meanwhile, Matt Bilbrey has produced in his sophomore season.
The Eagles point guard is averaging 14.7 points per game. He has done so while shooting 44.9 percent from the field and 41.4 percent from three. Bilbrey has canned 67 triples this season – the 24th most in a season in school history. He ranks seventh in career three-point percentage in school history at 41.7 percent. Bilbrey has knocked down multiple threes per game in 18 contests. He has drained five against Coker (Dec. 6), Tennessee Wesleyan (Dec. 31) and at Emory & Henry (Jan. 7).
The sophomore has dished out 3.8 assists per game.
He has led C-N in assists 15 times this season. He has 11, five-assist games this year, including a pair of career-best eight-dime days against Newberry (Jan. 17) and at North Georgia (Nov. 26).
Bilbrey has scored in double-digits in a career-best six-game stretch entering the conference tournament. He has scored 10 or more points in all but four of C-N's games this year. He has a septet of 20-point nice this year, including a career-best 23 at Emory & Henry (Jan. 7).
Bilbrey swiped a career-high five steals at Coker (Dec. 6).
Finally, Houck averaged 9.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game on a 51.2/40.8/75.0 slash line. He started all 29 games for C-N and turned in 13 double-digit scoring efforts.
