COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Colorado State University Pueblo senior men's basketball guard Sam Howery (Colorado Springs, Colo./St. Mary's) was a three-peat selection to the 2025-26 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Men's Basketball All-Academic First Team that was announced by the league office on Monday afternoon.

For a student-athlete to earn RMAC All-Academic First Team honors, the selected student-athlete must meet the following requirements: a) Must be an athlete in one of the conference-sponsored championships sports; b) Must carry a 3.500 cumulative grade point average from the most recently completed semester; c) Must have completed at least two consecutive semesters or three consecutive quarters at their current active member institution; d) Must use a season of competition.

Howery has a 3.99 cumulative GPA in Marketing at CSU Pueblo and ranks fourth among the 10 honored student-athletes on the RMAC All-Academic First Team. In addition, the 10 honorees posted a combined cumulative GPA of 3.94. In addition, he is one of two repeat first-team honorees from last season.

During the 2025-26 season, Howery saw action in all 30 games and made 17 starts. On the season, he averaged 3.7 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game and had a team and RMAC-best 3.10 assist-to-turnover ratio. He was second on the team in assists with 90 and was third on the team in steals with 30. He scored in two games this season and three times in his career, including tallying a career-high 11 points this season at Adams State. This season he had four or more assists in 10 games, including back-to-back career-high seven assists games this season against Adams State and Fort Lewis. In his time with the Pack, he played in 97 career games and made 23 starts and scored 263 points, pulled down 161 rebounds, dished out 191 assists, collected 70 steals and blocked four shots. He posted a career assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.32 as he had 191 assists and 82 turnovers. 

Along with announcing the 10 members of the RMAC All-Academic First Team, the league also announced its RMAC Academic Player of the Year, and this year's honor went to Black Hills State redshirt sophomore guard Cam Lowe. Lowe, who was also named the RMAC Men's Basketball Player of the Year, carries a 3.93 cumulative GPA in Exercise Science.

Howery and Lowe are joined on the All-Academic First-Team by Colorado School of Mines redshirt freshman guard Braydon Jacob (3.89 / Mechanical Engineering), Western Colorado junior forward Tyler Halligan (3.97 / Business Administration), Adams State senior forward Wyatt Helming (3.80 / Business Administration), South Dakota Mines redshirt junior guard Abel Hutchinson (3.88 / Civil Engineering), UCCS redshirt senior guard Alex Hurr (4.00 / Marketing), South Dakota Mines graduate student forward Martin Poznanovic (4.00 / Computer Science), Black Hills State junior guard Blake Vollmer (4.00 / Business Administration) and South Dakota Mines junior forward Guido Wanschelbaum (3.96 / Industrial Engineering). Vollmer is a repeat first-team selection from last year.

In addition to RMAC All-Academic First Team selections, the league also unveiled its 2025-26 RMAC Academic Honor Roll for men's basketball, and the Pack had four players, besides Howery, named to the honor roll.

The Pack players named to the Academic Honor Roll were redshirt sophomore forward Ty Adam (3.77 / Business Management), redshirt junior guard Landen Dvorsky (3.70 / Economics/Finance), redshirt sophomore guard/forward Corbin Garver (3.83 / Economics/Finance), redshirt freshman guard Max Howery (3.99 / Marketing), and senior forward Andon Mindrup (3.56 / Economics/Finance).

Requirements for selection to the RMAC Academic Honor Roll are to have a cumulative GPA of 3.30 or above and have completed two consecutive semesters at the institution.

The Pack men's basketball team concluded the 2025-26 season with a 22-8 overall record and finished tied for second in the RMAC with a 15-5 record and advanced to the semifinals of the RMAC Tournament, where they lost 57-56 to No. 2-seeded Colorado Mesa in Spearfish, S.D. The 22 wins are the most since the 1997-98 squad also posted a 22-8 record.