AMHERST, N.Y. -- For the second consecutive season, the Daemen University men's basketball team will kick off the year with an exhibition game in downtown Buffalo! Head coach
Ryan Grandits announced that the Wildcats will open the 2026-27 season facing St. John Fisher University at the KeyBank Center on Saturday, October 17 as part of the men's basketball doubleheader. St. Bonaventure University will play the Penn State University in a Division I exhibition game following the Daemen and St. John Fisher game. Game times and ticket sales will be announced at a later date.
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 2025-26 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. Following the end of the season, head coach Mike MacDonald left Daemen to take the head coaching position at St. Bonaventure after an 11-year tenure as the Wildcats bench boss. Shortly after, Daemen named former longtime assistant
Ryan Grandits as the seventh head coach in program history. Grandits spent the 2025-26 season as the head coach of Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Grandits inherited a program that has gone 61-3 over the last two seasons, won a pair of ECC titles, gone undefeated in conference play in back-to-back seasons and earned the East Region title for the first time since 2021. The Wildcats return nine players from the 2025-26 campaign. Redshirt senior forward
Phil Nwugwo (Rochester, N.Y.) highlights the returners after a breakout redshirt junior season where he finished sixth on the team in scoring, averaging 8.9 points and 4.8 rebounds per game along with shooting an impressive 61.9% from the field and totaling 38 blocks defensively. 2025-26 newcomers
Nakyhi Harris (Buffalo, N.Y.) and
Jaiden Harrison (Buffalo, N.Y.) also return to the team after playing solid minutes in their first season with the Wildcats.
The season opening exhibition game will be the fifth time in program history that the Wildcats square up with the Cardinals, and the first time since the 1987-88 season. St. John Fisher made history this past season in the Empire 8 Conference Championship Tournament, becoming the first No. 8 seed in league history to beat a No. 1 seed. They ended the year with a 13-14 overall record after falling in the conference tournament semifinals.
Daemen's full schedule will be released later this summer.
