BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- The Navy men's basketball team placed first in the 2025-26 Patriot League Preseason Poll and senior guard
Austin Benigni was selected as the preseason player of the year in the voting by the league's head coaches. The league office made the announcement of both ballot results today.
The Mids garnered 79 points and received seven of the 10 first-place votes (coaches were not allowed to vote for either their team or their players). Boston University, which Navy defeated in the quarterfinal round of last year's tournament, garnered 73 points and a pair of first-place votes to place second in the voting. Colgate received the remaining first-place vote on its way to accruing 64 points and finish in third place.
Navy returns all five starters and nearly 90 percent of its points (87%), rebounds (88%) and assists (89%) from last year's team that tied for third place in the Patriot League regular season with a 10-8 record. The Mids then won a pair of road games as the No. 5 seed in the postseason to advance to the championship game of the league tournament for the second time in four seasons.
Headlining those returning players is Benigni, who earned first-team all-league accolades last season when he led the league in scoring (18.8 ppg) and free throw percentage (86.3%) and ranked second in assists (4.3 apg). He scored in double figures in 31 of Navy's 34 games last season and posted at least 20 points in 15 games.
The Patriot League currently has records of preseason major award winners dating back to the 2000-01 season. The only other Mid during this span to be named the preseason player of the year was Chris Williams in 2000-01.
Completing the list of returning starters are
Donovan Draper (8.4 ppg, 8.2 rpg),
Aidan Kehoe (9.0 ppg, 8.9 rpg),
Jinwoo Kim (6.8 ppg) and
Jordan Pennick (62 three-point field goals made, 10.7 ppg). Kehoe led the league in rebounding just ahead of the second-place Draper, Kim ranked eighth in three-point field goal percentage (40.2%) and Pennick ranked 10th in three-point field goals made a game (1.8).
2025-26 Preseason Patriot League Men's Basketball Poll
1. Navy, 79 points (7 first-place votes)
2. Boston University, 73 (2)
3. Colgate, 64 (1)
4. American, 47
5. Bucknell, 44
6. Loyola Maryland, 39
7. Lafayette, 36
8. Lehigh, 30
9. Holy Cross, 23
10. Army West Point, 15
2025-26 Preseason Patriot League Men's Basketball Major Awards
Preseason Player of the Year – Austin Benigni, Navy, Sr., G
Preseason Defensive Player of the Year – Greg Jones, American, Jr., G
2025-26 Preseason Men's Basketball All-Patriot League Team
Greg Jones, American, Jr., G
Kyrone Alexander, Boston University, Jr., G
Jalen Cox, Colgate, Jr., G
Jacob Theodosiou, Loyola Maryland, Jr., G
Austin Benigni, Navy, Sr., G
