AMHERST, N.Y. – For the second consecutive season, the 2026 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Championship East Regional will be hosted at Lumsden Gymnasium as the Daemen University men's basketball team was selected as the top seed in the East Region. The No. 4 ranked Wildcats come into the NCAA Tournament with a 30-1 overall record after winning the program's second straight East Coast Conference Tournament title with an 86-66 victory over #6 seed Roberts Wesleyan on Sunday afternoon.
The East Regional is one of eight regional tournament taking place across the country later this week. The full 64-team tournament bracket was announced on Sunday night in the Division II Selection Show on NCAA.com.
The tournament consists of a 64-team field, including 23 automatic bids, with regionals determining the eight quarterfinalists that will advance to the Men's Elite Eight in Pittsburg, Pa. on March 25-27. Daemen is one of 23 conference champions to earn an automatic qualifying bid to the tournament. The Division II Men's Basketball Committee selects the remaining 41 at-large bids.
Daemen enters the regional as the No. 1 overall seed and host for the second year in a row and will face No. 8 Goldey Beacom of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference in the first round on March 14. Other matchups include CACC Tournament champions No. 2 Felician facing No. 7 Adelphi of the Northeast 10, NE-10 Tournament champions No. 3 Saint Anselm taking on No. 6 Assumption (NE-10) and No. 4 Bentley playing NE-10 foe No. 5 Saint Michael's.
Game times, ticket and broadcast information for the East Region Championship will be announced later this week.
In the midst of another storybook season, the Wildcats have compiled a program-record 30 wins, going 30-1 on the year while posting their second straight undefeated ECC regular season record (16-0). Daemen became the first ECC team to tally back-to-back undefeated conference records since Philadelphia Textile in the 1992-93 and 1993-94 seasons. The top seed in the 2026 ECC Tournament, the Wildcats took down #5 seed D'Youville 73-59 in the semifinals and finished the tournament with a big 86-66 victory over #6 seed Roberts Wesleyan in the championship game. Redshirt junior
Benjamin Bill (Hamburg, N.Y.) was named the Most Outstanding Player of the ECC Tournament after averaging 22 points per game. 2026 ECC Player of the Year
Zach Philipkoski (New Hartford, N.Y.) and 2026 ECC Defensive Player of the Year
Justin Hemphill (Buffalo, N.Y.) were both named to the All-Tournament Team.
This marks the fifth time in program history that Daemen has advanced to the NCAA Tournament. Hosting the 2025 East Region as the No. 1 team in the nation last season, the Wildcats cruised to an 80-68 victory over #8 seed Brockport in the regional quarterfinals but matched up against ECC rival #5 seed St. Thomas Aquinas in the semifinals, marking the fourth time the Wildcats and Spartans met on the court. Daemen led for the majority of the game, but STAC mounted a comeback to top the Wildcats 79-74 and end Daemen's undefeated season. The Wildcats deepest tournament run came during the 2020-21 campaign when they defeated No. 1 St. Thomas Aquinas, 71-70, in the East Region final and advanced all the way to the Elite Eight.
A full opening-round preview will be posted to daemenwildcats.com later this week.
