Sophomore Connor May drives past a UChicago defender. With an average of 17.2 points per game, May is the Bears’ leading scorer. (Ella Giere | Photo Editor)

Coming into the 2025-2026 season, the No. 24 WashU men’s basketball team had lofty expectations. They started the season ranked as the No. 5 team in Division III and were coming off a deep run in the NCAA tournament that ended in a bittersweet Final Four loss. This year, the Bears were poised to contend not only for another tournament run, but also a University Athletic Association (UAA) championship. After a tumultuous regular season, WashU came up short for the conference title, but the Bears will enter the playoffs on a five-game winning streak. WashU are geared up to contend for their first national championship in over 15 years.

“Starting [in the tournament], everyone’s zero and zero,” head coach Pat Juckem said. “You know, it doesn’t matter whoever you play at this point, either a champion of their league, a champion of their tournament, or had a great season, or all three of those. It’s more about us being us.”

The Bears will open their tournament campaign against Transylvania University, the champions of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference, on Friday, March 6, at the Field House. The winner of the WashU-Transylvania game will face either the No. 22 University of Wisconsin–Whitewater or Loras College in the second round matchup on Saturday, March 7. 

Finishing with an overall 18-7 record (8-6 in conference), the Bears are heading into the tournament hot. While a midseason dip put their tournament hopes in jeopardy, WashU ended the regular season  on a five-game winning streak, capped off with a strong wire-to-wire victory over the No. 4 University of Chicago. 

The Bears must double down on their regular-season strengths to put together a strong playoff run. This season, WashU has been especially dominant on the boards, averaging nearly 10 more rebounds per game than their opponents. 

The Bears are led by senior guard Yogi Oliff and sophomore forward Connor May in rebounding with 7.2 and 7.0 a game, respectively. Both players are top 10 in the conference in rebounding and have shown to push the fast break after defensive boards, a vital part of WashU’s offensive strategy.

“Everything else I just learned from Yogi [Oliff] and the coaches, it’s amazing,” first-year guard Josh Kim said. “[We’re] really excited, man, that pressure, pressure creates diamonds.”

Getting out in transition has helped the Bears’ offensive efficiency. WashU is second in the UAA in both field goal and 3-point percentage and has outshot its opponents by more than 4% from the field overall this season. The Bears’ outside shooting has been led by sharpshooter junior guard Ryan Cohen, whose team-high 6.4 3-pointers a game goes along with an impressive 42% shooting clip from behind the arc. WashU has also been consistently able to find the open man this season, averaging over 15 assists per game as a team, nearly five more than their opponents.

“We execute our game plan well,” Kim said. “We trust our process, knowing we got hoopers, so we just got to share the ball and do what’s best for us.”

The strategy of outrebounding the opponent, finding good looks, and maintaining a strong perimeter presence has allowed the Bears to achieve the success they’ve had in the second half of UAA play. But to make a deep tournament run, they’ll need to address their biggest weakness: taking care of the ball.

The Bears average 12 turnovers a game, over two whole turnovers more than they force from their opponents. The Bears have trailed their opponents this year in points off turnovers, which has led to a few heartbreaking finishes. The team is 0-5 in games decided by less than 5 points, and they’ll need to take care of the ball more down the stretch to close out games against the best defenses D-III has to offer.

“We’ve lost some [games], some tough ones where we had leads late, maybe turned it over versus press,” said Juckem. “You know, you’ve got to finish it right. And that’s just toughness and guys learning and growing in it. We’ve been there before, and there is belief in ourselves.”

 WashU will face Transylvania on March 6 at 7:35 p.m. in the WashU Field House.