AMHERST, N.Y. -- Daemen University women's basketball head coach Nate Beutel and men's basketball head coach Mike MacDonald have been named the 2025-26 Basketball Coaches Association of New York, Inc. (BCANY) Division II Coaches of the Year, the organization released this week. The BCANY is a service organization with membership open to any basketball coach at any level in New York State from high school, Division I, II-III and Junior College levels with the goal to provide services to fellow coaches, players and the game of basketball in general. 

In his first season at the helm of the Daemen women's basketball program, Beutel led his group of experienced Wildcats to an impressive 2025-26 campaign, finishing the season with an NCAA Division II-era best 26-4 record while winning the program's seventh straight ECC regular season title with a 15-1 conference record. Daemen opened the year on a 9-2 run, with their two losses to #5 Gannon and Montana State Billings averaging just 7.5 points, before ratting off 10 straight victories including a seven-point win over #18 Bentley. The Wildcats dropped their sole ECC loss in a four-point heartbreaker to ECC regular season co-champions Mercy on Feb. 13, but the Wildcats finished the season strong with three big conference wins before heading to the postseason. Hosting the ECC Tournament for the sixth straight year, Daemen cruised to a 75-61 semifinal win over Staten Island and put together a comeback victory over #2 seed Mercy, 73-68, to win the program's fifth straight -- and sixth overall -- ECC Tournament championship. As the #3 seed in the NCAA Division II East Region Tournament, the Wildcats topped #6 seed Felician (75-62) in the regional quarterfinals and took down #2 seed Bentley (58-55) in the region semifinals but fell to #5 Holy Family (62-78) in the East Region Finals, marking the fourth time in six seasons that Daemen advanced to the Sweet 16. 

Earning the BCANY Division II Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season, MacDonald led the Wildcats to another fantastic season in his 12th year at the helm. After posting a program-record 28-1 record in 2024-25 that saw Daemen at the top of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) rankings for the first time in program history, the Wildcats rebounded from their early exit from the previous postseason and continued their unbeaten regular season record deep into the season, starting the year 20-0 and ranking as high as No. 2 in the nation. Daemen's historic 51-game regular season win streak was snapped in a loss to eventual national champion #10 Gannon on Jan. 21. From there, Daemen rebounded by winning the next 13 match ups, collecting their second straight undefeated ECC regular season (16-0) and won the East Region title for the second time in program history after cruising through the regional tournament with victories of 111-78 (vs. #8 seed Goldey-Beacom), 85-62 (vs. #5 seed Saint Michael's) and 94-68 (vs. #3 seed Saint Anselm in the regional championship) to advance to the Elite Eight where they lost in a three-point heartbreaker, 74-77, to #5 seed Lander on March 25. Daemen finished the historic 2025-26 season with a program-best 33-2 record and the Wildcats' second trip to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight. MacDonald was named the 2026 ECC Men's Basketball Coach of the Year as well as earning the Harry Statham Coach of Impact Award from Small College Basketball. 
 

Division	Women's	Men's
Division I	Megan Griffith - Columbia	Jerry McNamara - Sienna
Division II	Nate Beutel - Daemen	Mike MacDonald - Daemen
Division III	Meg Barber - NYU	Maurice Kearney - Cortland
JUCO DII	Demetrius Rhodes - Monroe CC	Tom Rickard - SUNY Orange
JUCO DIII	Kevin Jones - Fulton Montgomery CC	Terry George - Genesee CC