2025–26 America East Conference men's basketball season

2025–26 America East men's basketball season
2025–26 America East men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Men's basketball
Teams	9
Regular season
Season champions	UMBC
Season MVP	TJ Hurley, Vermont
Top scorer	Angel Montas Jr., UMass Lowell – 20.0 ppg
Tournament
Champions	UMBC
Runners-up	Vermont
Finals MVP	DJ Armstrong Jr., UMBC

2025–26 America East Conference men's basketball standings
	Conf.				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
UMBC †	14	–	2	.875	24	–	9	.727
Vermont	12	–	4	.750	22	–	12	.647
NJIT	10	–	6	.625	16	–	17	.485
UMass Lowell	9	–	7	.563	15	–	18	.455
Albany	7	–	9	.438	11	–	21	.344
Maine	6	–	10	.375	8	–	24	.250
Bryant	5	–	11	.313	9	–	22	.290
New Hampshire	5	–	11	.313	9	–	21	.300
Binghamton	4	–	12	.250	8	–	23	.258

† 2026 AmEast tournament winner

The 2025–26 America East men's basketball season began with practices in September 2025 and will end with the 2025 America East men's basketball tournament in March 2026. This is the 46th year of competition in men's basketball for the America East Conference.

Head coaches

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Season	Overall record	America East record	NCAA Tournaments
Albany	Dwayne Killings	Marquette (asst.)	5th	51–76 (.402)	25–41 (.379)	0
Binghamton	Levell Sanders	Binghamton (asst.)	5th	55–67 (.451)	30–36 (.455)	0
Bryant	Jamion Christian	Pallacanestro Trieste	1st	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0
Maine	Chris Markwood	Boston College (asst.)	4th	48–48 (.500)	24–24 (.500)	0
UMBC	Jim Ferry	Penn State (Interim HC)	5th	60–68 (.469)	30–36 (.455)	0
UMass Lowell	Pat Duquette	Northeastern (asst.)	13th	175–188 (.482)	95–108 (.468)	0
New Hampshire	Nathan Davis	Bucknell	3rd	24–39 (.381)	13–19 (.406)	0
NJIT	Grant Billmeier	Maryland (asst.)	3rd	13–46 (.220)	6–26 (.188)	0
Vermont	John Becker	Vermont (asst.)	15th	329–132 (.714)	193–34 (.850)	6

Notes:

Season includes the 2025–26 season.
Record numbers are through the end of the 2024–25 season.

Preseason

Preseason coaches poll

2025–26 America East Preseason Coaches Poll^[1]
Rank	Team (First place votes)	Points
1	Vermont (7)	63
T2	Maine (1)	47
T2	Albany	47
4	UMass Lowell (1)	39
5	Binghamton	37
6	Bryant	35
7	UMBC	31
8	NJIT	13
9	New Hampshire	12

Preseason All-Conference Team

All-Conference Team^[2]
Quincy Allen, Bryant
TJ Hurley, Vermont
Demetrius Lilley, Binghamton
Amir Lindsey, Albany
TJ Long, Vermont
Josh Odunowo, UMBC

Regular season

Player of the Week Awards

Week	Player of the Week	Rookie of the Week
1^[3]	TJ Long Vermont	David Bolden NJIT
2^[4]	DJ Armstrong UMBC & Ari Fulton NJIT	David Bolden (2) NJIT
3^[5]	TJ Hurley Vermont	JJ Massaquoi UMass Lowell
4^[6]	Gus Yalden Vermont	Ty Tabales Bryant
5^[7]	Jah’Likai King UMBC	Ty Tabales (2) Bryant
6^[8]	Jaden Kempson Albany	Timofei Rudovskii Bryant
7^[9]	Gus Yalden (2) Vermont	Jake Blackburn Binghamton
8^[10]	Jeremiah Quigley Binghamton	Ty Tabales (3) Bryant
9^[11]	Angel Montas UMass Lowell	Ashley Sims II Bryant
10^[12]	Angel Montas (2) UMass Lowell	Timofei Rudovskii (2) Bryant
11^[13]	Amir Lindsey Albany	Tyler Bike New Hampshire
12^[14]	TJ Hurley (2) Vermont	Ace Flagg Maine
13^[15]	Sebastian Robinson NJIT	David Bolden (3) NJIT
14^[16]	Ari Fulton (2) NJIT	Victor Okojie UMass Lowell
15^[17]	Gus Yalden (3) Vermont	David Bolden (4) NJIT
16^[18]	Angel Montas (3) UMass Lowell	Ty Tabales (4) Bryant

School	POTW	ROTW
Albany	2	0
Binghamton	1	1
Bryant	0	7
Maine	0	1
UMBC	2	0
UMass Lowell	3	2
New Hampshire	0	1
NJIT	3	4
Vermont	6	0

Postseason

America East tournament

The conference tournament will be played from March 8 to March 15, 2026. All tournament games will be hosted at the higher seed's campus site. Teams are reseeded after quarterfinals.

NCAA Tournament

The conference champion will receive an automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.

Seed	Region	School	First Four	First round	Second round	Sweet Sixteen	Elite Eight	Final Four	Championship
		TBD	N/a	―	―	―	―	―	―

Conference awards

Award	Recipient(s)
2026 America East Men's Basketball Individual Awards
Player of the Year	TJ Hurley, Vermont
Coach of the Year	Jim Ferry, UMBC
Defensive Player of the Year	Okechukwu Okeke, Albany
Sixth Man of the Year	Caden Diggs, UMBC
Rookie of the Year	David Bolden, NJIT
Newcomer of the Year	Gus Yalden, Vermont
Reference:^[19]

First Team	Second Team	Third Team	Defensive Team	Rookie Team
2026 America East Men's Basketball All-Conference Teams
TJ Hurley, Vermont Jah’Likai King, UMBC Amir Lindsey, Albany Angel Montas Jr., UMass Lowell Gus Yalden, Vermont	DJ Armstrong Jr., UMBC TJ Biel, Maine Ari Fulton, NJIT Sebastian Robinson, NJIT Ace Valentine, UMBC	Belal El Shakery, New Hampshire Austin Green, UMass Lowell Okechukwu Okeke, Albany Jeremiah Quigley, Binghamton Xavier Spencer, UMass Lowell	TJ Biel, Maine Logan Carey, Maine TJ Hurley, Vermont Josh Odunowo, UMBC Okechukwu Okeke, Albany	Tyler Bike, New Hamshire David Bolden, NJIT Ace Flagg, Maine Timofei Rudovskii, Bryant Ty Tabales, Bryant

References

^ "America East Releases Men's #AEHoops 2025-26 Preseason Poll and Preseason All-Conference Team". americaeast.com. October 20, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.
^ "America East Releases Men's #AEHoops 2025-26 Preseason Poll and Preseason All-Conference Team". americaeast.com. America East Conference. October 20, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.
^ "Men's #AEHoops Week 1: Long's Career Day Nets Weekly Honor". americaeast.com. November 10, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.
^ "Men's #AEHoops Week 2: UMBC, NJIT & Vermont Post Unbeaten Weeks". americaeast.com. November 17, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.
^ "Men's #AEHoops Week 3: Tight Contests Around the League". americaeast.com. November 24, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.
^ "Men's #AEHoops Week 4: Yalden's Big Week Nets Weekly Honor". americaeast.com. December 1, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.
^ "Men's #AEHoops Week 5: Five Teams Earn Non-League Wins". americaeast.com. December 8, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.
^ "Men's #AEHoops Week 6: Four Teams Earn Non-League Wins". americaeast.com. December 15, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.
^ "Men's #AEHoops Week 7: Yalden's Big Day Leads to Weekly Honor". americaeast.com. December 22, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.
^ "Men's #AEHoops Week 8: League Play Starts Saturday". americaeast.com. December 29, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.
^ "Men's #AEHoops Week 9: Bryant, UMass Lowell, NJIT, Vermont Win League Openers". americaeast.com. January 5, 2026. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
^ "Men's #AEHoops Week 10: UMass Lowell & UMBC Post 2-0 Weeks". americaeast.com. January 12, 2026. Retrieved January 14, 2026.
^ "Men's #AEHoops Week 11: UAlbany, NJIT, UNH Post Unbeaten Weeks". americaeast.com. January 20, 2026. Retrieved January 21, 2026.
^ "Men's #AEHoops Week 12: Four Teams Post Perfect 2-0 Weeks". americaeast.com. January 26, 2026. Retrieved January 28, 2026.
^ "Men's #AEHoops Week 13: NJIT Battles to Top of Standings". americaeast.com. February 2, 2026. Retrieved February 2, 2026.
^ "Men's #AEHoops Week 14: NJIT Takes Over First Place". americaeast.com. February 9, 2026. Retrieved February 18, 2026.
^ "Men's #AEHoops Week 15: Top Three Teams Post Unbeaten Weeks". americaeast.com. February 16, 2026. Retrieved February 18, 2026.
^ "Men's #AEHoops Week 16: UMBC, NJIT, Vermont Secure Top Four #AEPlayoffs Seeds". americaeast.com. February 23, 2026. Retrieved February 24, 2026.
^ "Vermont's TJ Hurley Named Player of Year to Highlight 2025-26 Men's #AEHoops Honorees". americaeast.com. March 6, 2026. Retrieved March 6, 2026.

[PSEASON-1] "America East Releases Men's #AEHoops 2025-26 Preseason Poll and Preseason All-Conference Team". americaeast.com. October 20, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.

[2] "America East Releases Men's #AEHoops 2025-26 Preseason Poll and Preseason All-Conference Team". americaeast.com. America East Conference. October 20, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.

[3] "Men's #AEHoops Week 1: Long's Career Day Nets Weekly Honor". americaeast.com. November 10, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.

[4] "Men's #AEHoops Week 2: UMBC, NJIT & Vermont Post Unbeaten Weeks". americaeast.com. November 17, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.

[5] "Men's #AEHoops Week 3: Tight Contests Around the League". americaeast.com. November 24, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.

[6] "Men's #AEHoops Week 4: Yalden's Big Week Nets Weekly Honor". americaeast.com. December 1, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.

[7] "Men's #AEHoops Week 5: Five Teams Earn Non-League Wins". americaeast.com. December 8, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.

[8] "Men's #AEHoops Week 6: Four Teams Earn Non-League Wins". americaeast.com. December 15, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.

[9] "Men's #AEHoops Week 7: Yalden's Big Day Leads to Weekly Honor". americaeast.com. December 22, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.

[10] "Men's #AEHoops Week 8: League Play Starts Saturday". americaeast.com. December 29, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.

[11] "Men's #AEHoops Week 9: Bryant, UMass Lowell, NJIT, Vermont Win League Openers". americaeast.com. January 5, 2026. Retrieved January 5, 2026.

[12] "Men's #AEHoops Week 10: UMass Lowell & UMBC Post 2-0 Weeks". americaeast.com. January 12, 2026. Retrieved January 14, 2026.

[13] "Men's #AEHoops Week 11: UAlbany, NJIT, UNH Post Unbeaten Weeks". americaeast.com. January 20, 2026. Retrieved January 21, 2026.

[14] "Men's #AEHoops Week 12: Four Teams Post Perfect 2-0 Weeks". americaeast.com. January 26, 2026. Retrieved January 28, 2026.

[15] "Men's #AEHoops Week 13: NJIT Battles to Top of Standings". americaeast.com. February 2, 2026. Retrieved February 2, 2026.

[16] "Men's #AEHoops Week 14: NJIT Takes Over First Place". americaeast.com. February 9, 2026. Retrieved February 18, 2026.

[17] "Men's #AEHoops Week 15: Top Three Teams Post Unbeaten Weeks". americaeast.com. February 16, 2026. Retrieved February 18, 2026.

[18] "Men's #AEHoops Week 16: UMBC, NJIT, Vermont Secure Top Four #AEPlayoffs Seeds". americaeast.com. February 23, 2026. Retrieved February 24, 2026.

[19] "Vermont's TJ Hurley Named Player of Year to Highlight 2025-26 Men's #AEHoops Honorees". americaeast.com. March 6, 2026. Retrieved March 6, 2026.

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America East Conference men's basketball
Teams	Albany Great Danes Binghamton Bearcats Bryant Bulldogs Maine Black Bears New Hampshire Wildcats NJIT Highlanders UMass Lowell River Hawks UMBC Retrievers Vermont Catamounts
Championships & awards	List of conference champions Conference tournament Player of the Year
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