PORTLAND, Ore. - The Great Northwest Athletic Conference announced its Men's Basketball Preseason Coaches Poll on Thursday afternoon, with Seattle Pacific selected to finish eighth in the standings by the league's coaches.
The Falcons found themselves in eighth after gaining 36 points in this year's poll. Saint Martin's claimed six of the 10 first-place votes and tallied 88 points to top the poll. Central Washington was close behind with 84 points and one first-place vote for second in the poll, while Northwest Nazarene followed third with three first-place votes and 80 points.
SPU is coming off a 14-12 regular season in 2025-26. The Falcons beat fourth-ranked Point Loma 80-73 at Royal Brougham on Nov. 29 and advanced to the GNAC Championships. Off the court, the Falcons won the GNAC Team Academic Championship and placed eight players on the GNAC All-Academic Team.
Nine players return from last season's roster, led by senior guard Theo McMillan. Redshirt seniors Connor Drinkwine and David Zachman, 6-foot-10 forward Cole Holum, sophomores Brant Heppner, Aengus Sutherland, and Yoav Ziklik, and redshirt freshmen Sebastian Arius and Nirvaan Misra also return.
McMillan led the Falcons in both rebounding (6.4 per game) and assists (5.6 per game) last season. He started all 25 games he played and averaged a team-high 33.0 minutes, scoring 9.4 points per game on 53.2 percent shooting. He finished with 141 assists against 60 turnovers and earned GNAC Honorable Mention and GNAC All-Academic honors. McMillan returned to SPU after a standout season at Clark College, where he averaged 17.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 6.2 assists and was named First Team All-NWAC South Region. He was First Team All-Conference at Camas High School as a senior.
Drinkwine gave the Falcons a perimeter threat, shooting 52.0 percent from the field and 37.8 percent from 3-point range (28-for-74) last season. The 6-foot-6 guard appeared in 25 games with 11 starts and averaged 6.7 points in 22.0 minutes. He scored a season-high 16 points in a 66-63 win over Central Washington on Jan. 15 and played a season-high 37 minutes in the overtime win at Simon Fraser.
Heppner emerged as a reliable shooter in his first season. The 6-foot-8 forward appeared in 26 games, averaging 5.8 points and 2.7 rebounds in 17.0 minutes per game off the bench. He shot 43.5 percent from the 3-point range (37-for-85), the most made 3-pointers of any returning Falcon. His season highs were 15 points against Saint Martin's on Jan. 1, eight rebounds against Douglas College on Dec. 19, and 34 minutes against Alaska Anchorage on Feb. 21.
Fazio added eight Pacific Northwest natives in the 2026 signing class, five first-year student-athletes and three transfers. Brandon Tagle, Josiah Bowman, Jackson Whitaker, Lucas Stevens, and Ryder Zanon will get their first experience in collegiate basketball this season. Will Landram, Logan Stempniak, and Malcolm Clark will join the Falcons as transfers for 2026-27.
Tagle finished his career at Kentwood High School with 1,733 points, the third-most in program history, and school records for assists (449) and made 3-pointers (231). He was league MVP as a senior and a two-time All-State selection. He also played quarterback.
Bowman is a 6-foot-6 O'Dea High School product. He earned Second Team All-Metro honors, was selected to the Washington 3A All-Star Team, and scored a career-high 29 points while helping O'Dea reach the state tournament.
Whitaker scored more than 2,000 career points at Liberty High School, averaging 26.0 as a senior. He was a three-time First Team All-KingCo selection and played for Team Washington in the annual game against Team Oregon.
Landram joins SPU after beginning his collegiate career at the University of Washington. At Gig Harbor High School, he earned four letters in basketball and three in football.
Stempniak arrives from Northwest University for his final season of eligibility. At Kentwood High School, he averaged 20.0 points and 13.0 rebounds as a senior and was NPSL MVP.
Clark comes off a championship season at Skagit Valley College. He averaged 15.7 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks while shooting 61.7 percent, as the Cardinals won a school-record 30 games and the 2026 NWAC Championship. Clark had 23 points, 14 rebounds, and four blocks in the title game and was named to the All-NWAC Tournament Team.
The Falcons 2026-27 schedule features seven nonconference games, six of them in California, an exhibition at Division I Eastern Washington, and 18 Great Northwest Athletic Conference games leading to the GNAC Championships on March 4-6 in Nampa, Idaho.
"The good thing for us is that we have 18 games to prove everyone wrong," head coach Keffrey Fazio said.
SPU men's basketball season and single-game tickets for the 2026-27 season are available online. Action starts in November, ahead of the Falcons' home opener on Dec. 3 against Central Washington at 7:30 p.m.
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