Denison Men's Basketball Captures NCAC Title, Enters Tourney as No. 1 Seed

CLEVELAND, OH – Denison (12-4) closes the 2025-26 North Coast Athletic Conference regular season with the program’s second-straight NCAC men’s basketball championship title.
 
Wooster leads all NCAC men's teams with 19 titles overall, while Wittenberg is second all-time with 13 total titles, followed by Ohio Wesleyan with seven, Allegheny with four, and Denison and Wabash with two apiece.
 
As league champions, the Big Red have earned the top seed and hosting rights for the 2026 NCAC men’s basketball final four. The seeding for the tournament follows the regular-season standings with the top-six teams earning a berth into the postseason. The two-team tie between DePauw (11-5) and John Carroll (11-5) for second was broken via the conference tiebreaker system for seeding purposes only.
 
In the quarterfinal matchups on Tuesday, February 24, No. 6 Oberlin (6-10) travels to No. 3 John Carroll for a 5:00 p.m. start, while No. 4 Wittenberg (10-6) hosts No. 5 Wabash (9-7) with 7:00 p.m. tipoff. During the regular season, the Blue Streaks earned two wins over the Yeomen, 86-69 on Jan. 14 and 89-76 on Feb. 11, while the Tigers swept the Little Giants, 73-65 on Jan. 21 and 64-63 on Feb. 18. The quarterfinal game at John Carroll will be part of a doubleheader with the women, who will play after the men’s contest at 7:00 p.m. One ticket will be good for both quarterfinal matchups.   
 
In the semifinal round on Friday, February 27, in Granville, No. 2 DePauw will take on the quarterfinal winner of John Carroll versus Oberlin at 5:00 p.m., while top-seeded Denison will square off against the winner of the Wabash versus Wittenberg quarterfinal for a 7:30 p.m. showdown. The gym will be cleared between the first and second game and separate tickets will be required for each semifinal game.
 
The tournament final is set for 7:00 p.m. on Saturday at Denison as the semifinal winners will compete for the tournament title and receive the NCAC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The game will be part of a doubleheader with the women, who will play before the men’s final at 3:00 p.m. The gym will be cleared in between those games and separate tickets will be required for both contests.
 
TOURNEY TALK: Top-seeded Denison is the defending NCAC Tournament champion after defeating Wooster 79-68 in the 2025 tournament final to claim the program’s second tourney title, first since 2016. The Big Red look to advance to the final for the fourth time in program history … Second-seeded DePauw, which last won the tourney title in 2015, returns to the field for the ninth-straight year and the 13th time in the last 14 competitive seasons … The John Carroll Blue Streaks, in their first NCAC season, will be making an appearance in the conference tournament as the three seed … The fourth-seeded Wittenberg Tigers return to the NCAC tourney after missing out a season ago and are in the hunt for their first tournament crown since claiming back-to-back titles in 2018 and ’19 … Fifth-seeded Wabash has qualified for the tournament every year it has been contested since joining the NCAC in the 1999-00 academic year … Oberlin, the six seed, returns to the tournament for the fourth-consecutive season and is in search of the team’s first quarterfinal win since 2020 … Wooster leads all NCAC teams with 17 tournament titles. Together, the Fighting Scots and Wittenberg (8) own 25-of-40 tournament crowns while Ohio Wesleyan (5), Allegheny (3), Wabash (3), Denison (2), DePauw (1), Kenyon (1) own the remaining 15 trophies (no tournament was conducted in 2021) … The Wittenberg Tigers head into the NCAC Tournament with the league’s second-highest postseason winning percentage at .675 (54-26), followed by Wabash in third at .522 (24-22), while DePauw sits in sixth at .421 (8-12), followed by Denison is seventh at .360 (18-32) and Oberlin is ninth .214 (6-22) … Wooster has advanced to the tournament final a league-leading 31 times, while Wittenberg follows with 18; Ohio Wesleyan has 10 appearances in the tourney final, followed by Allegheny (8), Wabash (6), Denison (3), Kenyon (3), and DePauw (1).
 

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