CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Miami RedHawks have been picked to repeat as Mid-American Conference regular season champions and claim their first MAC Tournament title since 2007 in the 2026-27 MAC Men’s Basketball Preseason Poll, as voted on by the league’s head coaches. The RedHawks received nine first-place votes to win the regular season title and five votes to capture the MAC Tournament championship at Rocket Arena in March.

The Toledo Rockets were picked to finish second with 177 points and received four votes to win the MAC Tournament.

Akron (110 points), Kent State (108) and Ohio (82) rounded out the top five in this year’s preseason poll. UMass received two votes to win the MAC Tournament, while Kent State earned one vote to claim the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Ten of the league’s top men’s basketball players were also selected to the Preseason All-MAC First and Second Teams.

2026-27 MAC Men’s Basketball Preseason Poll
First Place Votes (x)
1. Miami – 130 (9)
2. Toledo – 117 (2)
3. Akron – 110
4. Kent State – 108 (1)
5. Ohio – 82
6. UMass – 79
7. Bowling Green – 63
8. Western Michigan – 58
9. Eastern Michigan – 56
10. Buffalo – 47
11. Ball State – 40
12. Central Michigan – 25

Tournament Champions: Miami (5), Toledo (4), UMass (2), Kent State (1)

Preseason All-MAC First Team
Mohammad Habhab, Eastern Michigan, Forward, R-So.
Evan Ipsaro, Miami, Guard, Sr.
Javan Simmons, Ohio, Forward, R-Sr.
Luke Skaljac, Miami, Guard, Jr.,
Chansey Willis Jr., Kent State, Guard, Sr.

Preseason All-MAC Second Team
Sean Jones, Toledo, Guard, R-Sr.
Evan Mahaffey, Akron, Wing, 5th-Sr.
Austin Parks, Toledo, Center, Sr.
Jackson Paveletzke, Ohio, Guard, 5th-Sr.
Tahj Staveskie, Akron, Guard, R-Sr.

https://getsomemaction.com/news/2026/10/...teams.aspx

WMU's entire coaching staff and basically all players are brand new. I don't know how you even consider where we'd land (but bottom half is definitely a good guess).

With John Groce gone, the MAC feels much more wide open than it usually does. It will be interesting to see how Akron looks this year. And I realize Miami has a lot of guys coming back, and we should definitely be good, but I'm not expecting to reach the heights of last season without Peter Suder. He was special.

Miami should be good enough for another Top 4 finish at least, how well we do beyond that will depend on Ipsaro’s recovery and the development of our returners. The past two seasons show that Steele’s system works if he has the talent; in theory the core of Skaljac, Ipsaro, Kirby, Atlason, and Woolfolk (elgibility pending) is dangerous with our incoming transfers even if 31-0 isn’t happening again.

Akron 92 YSU 76. Tahj is going to cause a lot of MAC teams trouble.