With a few coaches' kids on his Monmouth College team, Todd Skrivseth knows his group has some players with a high basketball IQ.
But as it turns out, the Fighting Scots boast some high academic IQs, too, none higher than Jason Huber '26 of Carpentersville, Illinois. With his 3.98 grade-point average, Huber earned the prestigious Elite 20 honor at the Midwest Conference men's basketball tournament, which Monmouth hosted in Glennie Gym.
Each year, the MWC honors the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA who is participating in his or her sport's culminating championship event. The award recognizes the commitment of the student-athlete toward the pursuit of excellence in both the athletic and academic realms as measured by reaching the pinnacle of competition within the league, while also achieving the highest academic standard among peers.
"I've got to give a shout-out to my coaches and teammates for us making the tourney," said Huber, who was surprised to hear his name when the award was announced, thinking that perhaps teammate Ganon Greenman '25 of Alpha, Illinois, was the honoree. "Without those guys, I wouldn't even be eligible for it. I'm thankful that I'm blessed to have so many great people around me - my family, coaches, players and professors. I'm very fortunate to be in such an environment, and it's an honor to represent Monmouth College in a positive light."
Making A's with J's
Huber has come oh-so-close to a perfect 4.0, with the lone blemish being an A- he received in "Modern Global History." Technically, that was Huber's hardest A, but he also recalled having to work especially hard in a Spanish course in his very first semester on campus.
"I was still adjusting to college at that point, and I really didn't know how hard I had to work yet," he said. "I really had to earn that A."
His most enjoyable A's have come in courses taught by Dick Johnston.
"Dicky J's almost become, like, a friend," Huber said of the relationship he's built with the popular business professor. "He challenges us to learn, and he's taught me a lot of things."
Huber also singled out "History of American Music" with "my guy, Stevie J" (as in Jackson) - and a sports management class with Chris Goble (who proves that not all Monmouth professors are known by single-letter surnames).
Sports management is an avenue that Huber might pursue beyond Monmouth. The son of longtime Dundee-Crown High School basketball coach Lance Huber is considering following his father's footsteps. One path to doing so is becoming a graduate assistant at the next level, as he studies for either an MBA or a master's degree in sports management.
"I've always wanted to get into coaching," said Huber. "Being a grad assistant would give me a chance to be involved and see how much I like it and if I want to pursue it full-time. I love teaching the game, and I love teaching people. It's super important to share with people what you know."
If coaching hits a wall, the talented student understands "I've got a lot things to fall back on. My mom (Kristin) would say I'm not as planned out as I need to be," but hey, Mrs. Huber, he didn't plan to win the Elite 20 honor, either, and look how well that turned out.
Huber entered Monmouth as a 4.0 student from Dundee-Crown, and he passed on some of that credit to his mom, a guidance counselor at the school, "for helping me get into the right classes."
'Unfinished business'
As Huber pointed out, he couldn't have received the Elite 20 honor unless Monmouth was one of the four teams to make the MWC tourney. He said he had a feeling early on that the Scots' season could be special, in part because of first-year player Zay Brown, who was named the conference's Newcomer of the Year and Player of the Year.
"We had open gyms and the first month of practices, and Zay was playing well," said Huber. "I remember thinking to myself, 'How will this translate in a game?' Because I'd never seen him play in a game, and he hadn't played organized ball in a couple years."
In Monmouth's season opener, Huber got his answer, as Brown scored 27 points in 26 minutes in a Scots victory. As the season wore on, Brown topped that mark three times, most notably in a 31-point, 19-rebound effort against Cornell that clinched the outright MWC title.
Monmouth then won its 20th game in the regular-season finale, tying the program's all-time victory mark, before falling 81-79 to Lake Forest in a conference semi-final.
"It hurts, because our group had such a special year," said Huber. "We're a really close group, and we care for each other. Lake Forest just made one or two more plays than us. We know, deep down, we were better. It just hurts. And now I have a chip on my shoulder, honestly."
The junior guard laid out a plan for the 2025-26 campaign."We set the record for wins, cool, but we didn't win the tournament," said Huber. "So for next year, we have unfinished business. We want to win the conference again, host again and finish the job."
A side benefit of that could be Huber repeating his Elite 20 honor at the MWC tourney. If he stays on his current pace, it would take a perfect 4.0 to beat him.
Comments