CHICAGO (July 18, 2018) – Three Loyola University Chicago men's basketball student-athletes have been named to the 2017-18 National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Honors Court it was announced today. Earning the award from Loyola were rising redshirt senior Clayton Custer (Overland Park, Kan./Blue Valley Northwest/Iowa State), and graduated seniors Nick DiNardi (Palos Park, Ill./Providence Catholic) and Ben Richardson (Overland Park, Kan./Blue Valley Northwest).
 
To qualify to the NABC Honors Court, individuals must be a junior or senior, have attended the institution for at least one year and own a cumulative grade-point average of 3.2 or higher at the conclusion of the 2017-18 academic year. 
 
Loyola's three selections ranked third among Missouri Valley Conference institutions. 
 
The 2017-18 season was truly a historic one for the Loyola men's basketball program as the Ramblers recorded a school-record 32 wins, made their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1985, advanced to the NCAA Final Four for the first time in 55 years, and closed the year ranked No. 7 in the USA Today  Coaches Poll. 
 
Off the court, the Ramblers were equally as successful. Earlier this month, Loyola received a NABC Team Academic Excellence Award, and in the fall, it was announced that for the second straight year, Ramblers student-athletes ranked first in the nation with a 99 percent Graduation Success Rate (GSR). Individually, Custer collected CoSIDA Academic All-District V accolades, and both he and Richardson were Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete First Team and DI-AAA Scholar-Athlete Team selections.