2025-26 WAC Men's Basketball Weekly Release - Week 1

THE NEW SEASON OF WAC BASKETBALL IS ABOUT TO BEGIN
The 2025-26 NCAA men’s basketball season officially kicks off this upcoming week, with five of the seven WAC members in action on opening day Nov. 3. All seven teams will have the chance to compete in the WAC Basketball Tournament at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas in March of 2026. As a conference the WAC enters the 2025-26 campaign ranked 15th in the preseason Kenpom.com NCAA Division I ranking of all 31 conferences. 

CBU TABBED ATOP THE PRESEASON 2025-26 WAC COACHES POLL
California Baptist was tabbed as the preseason favorite in the WAC Men’s Basketball Coaches Poll for the upcoming season. All seven WAC head coaches cast votes for the 2025-26 preseason predicted order of finish and all-conference awards that were released on Oct. 28.

California Baptist claimed five first-place votes to finish ahead of defending regular season champion Utah Valley (one first-place vote) in the WAC preseason coaches poll. Abilene Christian, UT Arlington (one first-place vote) and Tarleton State rounded out the top five teams in the preseason rankings.

CBU’S DANIELS NAMED PRESEASON WAC PLAYER OF THE YEAR
CBU graduate guard Dominique Daniels Jr. was named the unanimous 2025-26 WAC Preseason Player of the Year by the WAC coaches after landing on the All-WAC First Team last season. Daniels led the conference with 19.6 points per game and 196 made field goals in 29 starts (17.4 PPG, 75.8 FT% in 13 conference starts) for the Lancers in 2024-25.

Daniels was joined on the 2025-26 preseason all-conference team by Abilene Christian senior forward Bradyn Hubbard (13.1 PPG, 6.3 RPG in conference play in 2024-25), UT Arlington senior guard Raysean Seamster (12.1 PPG, 5.8 RPG in conference play in 2024-25), Utah Tech senior forward Ethan Potter (5.3 PPG, 3.7 RPG in conference play at Utah Valley in 2024-25) and Utah Valley redshirt junior guard Trevan Leonhardt (conference-high 5.2 AST/G and 3.4 AST/TO ratio in 2024-25).

THRICE IS NICE IN THE WAC IN 2025-26
The 2025-26 WAC conference schedule features each of the seven basketball programs playing 18 league games, with WAC members set to play nine games at home and nine games on the road against conference opponents.

Over a total of 21 game dates beginning on Dec. 29, three WAC conference games per date will feature league competition on the road to WACVegas at season’s end. The WAC regular season schedule is set to close on March 7, leading into the 2026 WAC Basketball Tournament from the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

WATCH THE WAC ON ESPNU THIS SEASON
WAC basketball fans will be able to catch a marquee men’s basketball matchup on ESPNU during the 2025-26 conference season.

Abilene Christian will host its first linear WAC men’s basketball conference game live from Moody Coliseum in Abilene on Feb. 12 at 8 p.m. (CT), welcoming UT Arlington for a key league showdown. Abilene Christian previously traveled to Grand Canyon for a conference ESPNU game in February of 2023, while UT Arlington defeated Tarleton State in February of 2025 at the College Park Center in Arlington in its conference regular season debut on a linear ESPN network.

All other WAC conference controlled basketball games will be available on ESPN+ throughout the 2025-26 season.

WAC BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT BACK IN LAS VEGAS
The 2026 edition of the WAC Basketball Tournament is slated for March 11-14 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. All seven WAC teams will qualify for the tournament, with the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the men’s and women’s draws earning byes into the semifinal round of the tournament on March 13. The No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 seeds are set to begin tournament play in the quarterfinals on March 12.

ABILENE CHRISTIAN VP FOR ATHLETICS LASSITER RETURNS TO NCAA MBB COMMITTEE IN 2025-26
Abilene Christian University Vice President for Athletics Zack Lassiter was first appointed to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee in October of 2024. Lassiter is in his second year of a five-year term that will expire in August of 2029. The 12-member committee works directly with NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt and the national office men’s basketball staff on the administration of the NCAA DI Men’s Basketball Championship. Lassiter has previously served on three different local organizing committees (Salt Lake City, Portland, and Orlando) that successfully received bids to host NCAA tournament games and was the tournament director twice in Salt Lake City, once as a first/second round site and as the aforementioned regional final site in 2010.