Men's Basketball | 10/20/2026 9:42:00 AM

AMHERST, N.Y. -- For the fourth time in five seasons, the Daemen University men's basketball team is the top team in the East Coast Conference Men's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll, the league announced today. The back-to-back defending champion Wildcats garnered eight of the possible nine first-place votes among the league's head coaches. Daemen redshirt senior Phil Nwugwo (Rochester, N.Y.) was also named the ECC Preseason Player of the Year, marking the second straight season a Daemen player has earned that title.

Daemen earned 80 points to sit atop the preseason poll. St. Thomas Aquinas College earned 61 points in second place, followed by the College of Staten Island with 56 and the ECC tournament runners up Roberts Wesleyan University in fourth place with 51 points and one first-place vote. D'Youville University (46), Molloy University (45), Queens College (28), Mercy University (21) and the University of the District of Columbia (17) round out the poll. 

The Wildcats come into the 2026-27 campaign as the reigning East Coast Conference and NCAA Div. II East Region champions after a historic 2025-26 campaign that saw a program-best 33-2 record after sweeping the conference (16-0) for the second straight season. After becoming the first ECC program to record back-to-back undefeated regular season since Philadelphia Textile in the 1992-93 and 1993-94 seasons, Daemen earned their second consecutive ECC tournament title with wins over #5 seed D'Youville (73-59) and a big 20-point victory over #6 seed Roberts Wesleyan (86-66) in the conference championship game. The Wildcats hosted the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row and cruised through the region, dominating in all three games (111-78 over #8 seed Goldey-Beacom, 85-62 over #5 seed Saint Michael's, 94-73 over #3 seed Saint Anselm) en route to hoist the program's second East Region trophy, first since 2021, and punch their ticket to the Elite Eight. Daemen entered as the #4 seed and played #5 Lander in an instant classic in the Elite Eight, trading points throughout the game before the Wildcats fell in a three-point heartbreaker, 74-77, to the eventual national champion runners up Bearcats. Daemen finished the 25-26 season atop the ECC in 16 statistical categories, and in the top 10 in the NCAA in seven areas. The Wildcats led the conference in assists to turnover ratio, assists per game, blocks per game, effective field goal ratio, field goal percentage, fastbreak points, field goal percentage defense, fouls per game, rebounding margin, rebounds per game, scoring defense, scoring margin, three-point percentage, three-point percentage defense, turnovers per game, and winning percentage. The Wildcats led NCAA Div. II in blocks, and ranked in the top-10 in assists (2nd), winning percentage (2nd), scoring margin (4th), rebound margin (6th), fouls per game (8th), and rebounds per game (9th). Daemen has won 42 straight ECC regular season games, a streak that dates back to Feb. 9, 2024. 

Daemen's top returner Nwugwo returns for his redshirt senior season after a breakout campaign in 2025-26 and is named the ECC Preseason Player of the Year. Nwugwo played in all 35 games for the Wildcats last year, including making 11 starts in the middle of the season, and finished the year averaging 8.9 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game. While in the starting lineup, Nwugwo averaged 13.8 points and 7.1 rebounds per game. He finished the year ranking fifth in total blocks with 38 and ninth in blocks per game in the conference. With Nwugwo as a key member of the Wildcats starting lineup this season, he had a standout performance in Daemen's exhibition game against St. John Fisher on Saturday, finishing with 32 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks while shooting 66% from the floor and pulling down a game-high seven offensive boards. 

The Wildcats open up the 2026-27 campaign on the road at Saint Anselm in Manchester, New Hampshire in a rematch of the 2026 East Region Championship game on Monday, Nov. 9. 

2026-27 ECC Preseason Poll

1.	Daemen	80 points (8 first-place votes)
2.	St. Thomas Aquinas	61 points
3.	Staten Island	56 points
4.	Roberts Wesleyan	51 points (1 first-place vote)
5.	D'Youville	46 points
6.	Molloy	45 points
7.	Queens	28 points
8.	Mercy	21 points
9.	District of Columbia	17 points