INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) has unveiled the results of the 2025-26 Men's Basketball Preseason Poll. The G-MAC Tournament Champion Malone University men's basketball team was selected to place tenth in the conference this season with 49 points.
 
The University of Findlay, the defending regular season champions, were voted as the preseason favorites with eight first-place votes and 126 points. Ashland University (117 points) and Thomas More University (112 points) received two first-place votes apiece and are second and third in the poll. Cedarville University and Hillsdale College round out the top five with 105 points and 81 points.
 
The Pioneers were 16-16 overall last season and 9-11 in conference play, but got hot at the right time to win the G-MAC Tournament. Malone reached the NCAA Tournament for the second time in program history thanks to the at-large bid from the league and battled #12 Missouri S&T in overtime.
 
Charlie Wallrapp enters his third season as head coach for the Pioneers this season. He is 31-29 overall and 3-1 in postseason play. Wallrapp lost a majority of his roster due to graduation, including all-conference player Simon Blair, Ryan Bartley, Tre Baumgardner III and Tahleik Walker. Malone will have just 11.0% of minutes played, 5.2% of points scored and 6.5% of rebounds back from last season so there are lots of opportunities for new players to step into crucial roles.
 
The Pioneers return just four student-athletes from last year's squad in Jacob Ernst, Joey DeGeorge, Jake Bruns and Logan Forbes. Those men will come together with eight transfers and six freshmen on the 2025-26 roster in search of continued success for the program. Bruns, Tyruse Boock and Emmanuel Oladeru will make up the senior class for Malone in 2025-26.

Juniors for the Pioneers will be Jailin Johnson, Nic Williams, Josiah Pierre and Isaac Cherry. The sophomore class is Ernst, DeGeorge, Kellen Leake and Damon Folds. Forbes used a redshirt one season ago and enters his redshirt freshman season in 2025-26. True freshmen for the program are Nick Wigton, Austin Niekamp, Crew Cain, Leo Perettie, Tate Aljancic and DeLan Davis. 
 
The season begins for the Pioneers on Friday, November 14 at Tiffin University. The Dragons are hosting the G-MAC/GLVC Crossover event where Malone will first face Lewis University beginning at 3:00 P.M.