MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – Silloway Gymnasium will serve as the site for the NESCAC Championship weekend as the top-seeded Wesleyan men's basketball team prepares for a Semifinal round showdown against the five-seed Bates on Saturday at 2 PM. Two-seed Tufts and three-seed Trinity will duel it out in the second Semifinal game on Saturday at 4:30 PM before the two winning teams return on Sunday at Noon for the 2026 NESCAC Championship game.
 
Presale tickets for Championship Weekend can be purchased now while the remaining tickets will be sold on-site starting 90 minutes before the start of play (12:30 PM on Saturday, 10:30 AM on Sunday) while doors to Silloway open 60 minutes prior to tip-off on both days of competition. All ticket information can be found on the NESCAC website.
 
Coming off a recording breaking 2024-25 campaign that saw the Cardinals start the year 26-0, rise to the No. 1 national ranking and advance to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in team history, this year's team has followed that up with yet another strong season. Wesleyan finished the regular season with a 19-5 record while the team went 9-1 in NESCAC play and 12-0 at home, earning the #1 seed for the NESCAC Tournament for the second straight year and third time in the past five seasons. Wesleyan defeated the eight-seed Conn. College last Saturday by a score of 87-78 to advance to the Semifinal round of the NESCAC Tournament for the eighth time in team history and first time in consecutive seasons since 2001-02 and 2002-03.
 
The Cardinals enter the weekend ranked No. 16 nationally in the D3hoops.com poll while the team sits eighth in the NCAA Power Index (NPI), which is the ranking system used to determine NCAA Tournament bids and host sites. Both Trinity (#2) and Tufts (#7) are ranked inside the Top 10 in the NPI while Bates is all but assured a spot in the NCAA Tournament, coming in ranked #26.
 
Having graduated a pair of 1,000 point scorers in Nicky Johnson and Shane Regan from last year's Final Four team, Wesleyan features several returners in bigger roles while still holding true to its identity that brought so much success last season in rebounding and defense. Through 25 games, Wesleyan ranks fourth nationally in rebounding margin (+10.5) while the Cardinals sport the 26^th-best field goal percentage defense (39.8) and 29^th-best scoring defense (66.5) in the nation. The Cardinals cash in on free throws, hitting 77.5 percent for the season which ranks 12^th nationally, while the team commits less than 11 turnovers per game which ranked inside the Top 50 in Div. III.
 
In conference play, Wesleyan averaged 76.6 points per game, second-highest per-game average in the league, while the Cardinals allowed an average of 65.9 points per game to rank fourth-best in the conference. The three-point line has been an efficient weapon employed by the team, hitting 36.1 percent from beyond the arc in conference play during the regular season, while the Cardinals led the NESCAC by a wide margin in rebounds per game (43.1) and rebounding margin (+11.2).
 
After spending most of his freshman season as a role player off the bench, Zach Wolinski '28 is a two-time NESCAC Player of the Week this season, one of only two players in the NESCAC to earn multiple POW awards in 2025-26. The sophomore guard leads the team in scoring, averaging 18.1 points per game, while he leads the league in points per game in NESCAC competition at 22.3. He averages more minutes per game than any player in the NESCAC (33.8) and is shooting at a 46.3 percent clip overall, 36.7 percent from three, and 84.8 percent from the line. Wolinski has scored in double figures in all but one game this season and recently poured in 33 and 32 points in consecutive games on the same weekend against Colby and Bowdoin.
 
Sam Pohlman '26 played behind the program's all-time assist leader in Nicky Johnson for his first three years on campus and has blossomed into a big-time performer in his first year as a regular starter for the Cardinals. Pohlman leads the NESCAC and ranks seventh nationally averaging 6.4 assists per game while he also puts in 12.9 PPG and grabs 5.8 rebounds per contest. He has 10+ assists in three of the past four games entering the weekend including a career-high 15 assists (the most by a Cardinal in at least 30 seasons) against Bates.
 
Oscar Edelman '28 is a dual threat from both the interior and from beyond the three-point line as the sophomore averages 10.2 points per game with 6.2 rebounds per game in just 24.2 minutes. Fritz Hauser '26 is a four-year starter at forward and enjoying the best year of his career in 2025-26, averaging career-highs in points (9.3), rebounds (5.3), field goal percentage (42.6), three-point percentage (36.7), and free throw percentage (72.7) while he recently drained eight three-pointers in a 30-point performance against Bates.
 
Ben Lyttle '27 has three straight games with 10+ points including double-doubles in back-to-back games entering the weekend. He leads the team in rebounding (7.0 per game) and shoots 36.1 percent from three on the year. Other key contributors off the bench include Jackson Cormier '26 (5.7 PPG, 50.5 FG%), Jaalan Watson '29 (5.4 PPG, 45.2 3FG%), and Josh Cameron '27 (2.5 PPG, 3.4 RPG).
 
Wesleyan will feature in the first Semifinal game on Saturday, taking on the five-seed Bates at 2 PM. The two sides met just two weekends ago on Sunday Bowl Sunday (Feb. 8) in a game that saw Hauser net a career-high 30 points on 8-for-13 shooting from three while a big 28-6 second half run proved the difference in an 83-61 win for the Cardinals. This is just the second time these two sides have met in the NESCAC Tournament, with the only other meeting coming back in 2015 (Wes won 66-59 in the Quarterfinal round).
 
The Cardinals are making their 18^th all-time appearance in the NESCAC Tournament and are seeking the team's third NESCAC title as Wesleyan previously won titles in 2022 and 2016. Wesleyan make a run to last year's NESCAC title game, defeating Amherst in the Quarterfinals and Hamilton in a double overtime thriller in the Semifinals, before falling to the eventual NCAA National Champion Trinity 75-67 in the title game.