PITTSBURG, Pa. - Friday the Chatham Men's Basketball team will start their 2026-2027 season at home in the Chatham Classic against Hartwick.

The Cougars 2025-2026 season ended after they fell in the semifinal round of the PAC Championship Tournament. They finished last season with a 12-4 conference record and an 18-8 overall. 

They were predicted to finish third in the PAC south division in the conference this year, but as they head into this season their outlook might be a little different than it was last season. "I think some of the adjustments and changes that we felt we needed to make based on last year was because our team last year minimized mistakes and maximized some of its ability in terms of figuring out what our best formula was to win even if it took us a while. Defensively we didn't make many mistakes and offensively we took care of the ball and had good shot selection. For this season we wanted to focus on being more athletic and physical, which I believe we are. We have to try to play a little bit faster offensively. I think we have to play a little bit more aggressive defensively more than maybe we were able to last year" said Coach Brian Baudinet. 

He further emphasized that, "I think we have a little bit more depth, a little bit more athleticism so I think we have to utilize that to maximize our ability this year."
 
Baudinet, entering his 2nd season as the men's head coach, said he thinks their schedule this season is going to be really challenging. "The PAC continues to get tougher and tougher. Last year was the best the league has ever been, and I fully anticipate that it will be even stronger. The league returns a lot of key players, so I think it's getting more challenging by the year. I even think our non-conference will challenge us. We're playing some tough games that traditionally have been good programs. We're playing Carnegie Mellon who's good every year and were playing at Hood College, who is ranked pre-season #3 in the country after they made it to the sweet sixteen last year. Then our conference schedule in the first semester starts with Franciscan, St. Vincent, W&J, which are games against teams who are annually at the top of our league. By Christmas were going to have a good sense of where we stand, were going to be tested and challenged, and that's not easy for a team with a lot of new players. 

With the team losing a big amount of experience from last year, we asked Baudinet what expectations he is holding his veteran players to and how it will impact the newcomers and transfers. "We had a lot of roster turnover. We graduated 7 of our 9 players in our rotation last year. We don't bring back a lot of guys this year with real experience. We do bring backDrew Vizenor who started for us and was a double figure scorer for us, which is great because he took a huge step forward last year from the previous year and he's just a good player who's easy to play with and he's difficult to play against. We also bring back Sam Norfleet who played significant minutes for us last year and he's definitely taken a step forward and were going to expect a lot of big things from him. Then brought in a lot of new guys who we expect to be impactful, but we still need to get them to gel like transfers Tajh Williams, Rocco Spadafora, and Marcel Gardner. We brought in a freshman, Greg Taylor, who is one of the high school guys I recruited very hard because I just think physically and athletically, he's very good. He's an athletic guy, he's physical and I just think he has a very high ceiling. 

Coach really wants to see his team be successful this season, but for that to happen certain things are going to have to show. "For use to try and have a successful season and maximize our potential it's building trust, understanding what it takes on a daily basis to be a high successful program, being consistent, and learning how to compete to the level of our expectations. We want them to focus more on playing for each other and not being so concerned about themselves. When the team is thriving, ironically its going to make them shine more as individuals. I think if we can make significant progress in those areas and continue to improve, this team does have potential and I think it takes time and is a process, but hopefully the results will follow if we can stick to the process over a period of time.
 
The Cougars open their season this Friday, November 6^th at 5PM in the Chatham Classic for a match up against Hartwick.