Men's hoops prepares to tip-off 2025-26 season

A new era begins for the Linfield Wildcats and a brand-new coaching staff in the 2025-26 men's basketball season. A new regime, culture, and foundation built on success led by first-year head coach Elijah Gurash, who embraces a “one day at a time” mentality. 

The program has seen consecutive eighth-place finishes in the Northwest Conference the past two seasons, and were picked to finish there yet again in the 2025-26 NWC Preseason Coaches Poll. Gurash and fellow first-year assistant coaches Jesse Bender and Matt Gehrke aim to rise to the top of the conference standings where the team earned the top-two seeds in back-to-back seasons in 2019-20 and 2021-22. Along with a new staff, the Wildcat's roster features five returning seniors and a group of eight freshman student-athletes. 

Departing the team from a season ago, most notably, Cade Collins who led the team in scoring and minutes played. Collins was one of the top free throw shooters in the conference, which helped him earn All-NWC Honorable Mention, the lone Wildcat to earn all-conference honors last season. Seniors Josh Ryan and Cayden Lowenbach's careers came to an end in 2024-25, leaving behind a team-high in total assists (Ryan) and rebounds per game (Lowenbach). Last season began with a 1-6 record through the first seven games, later turning the ship around to begin NWC play. But an eight-game skid to end the season saw four single-digit losses, cutting the season short. Linfield shoots to make the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time in a quarter-century. 

Eight freshmen are set to make their collegiate debuts this season: Nalu Vargas, Peyton Reyes, Rico George, Lane Garrison, Kohsule Fujiwara. Kris Jakstas, Jackson Bluhm, and Cameron Cox. Half of which are natives of Oregon, while Fujiwara and Jakstas come to McMinnville internationally from Japan and Lithuania. 

The new season tips off on the road for the Wildcats, heading south the Eugene, Oregon, this Saturday for a non-conference showdown with the Bushnell Beacons of the Cascade Collegiate Conference at 7:30 p.m. Later, Linfield hosts the La Verne Leopards an a single-season home and home, with La Verne coming to Ted Wilson Gymnasium on Monday, November 10, for the first home game of the season. The 'Cats close out non-conference play in mid-december, hosting the Alma Scots, before wrapping up the non-conference slate in Monmouth, Oregon, against Western Oregon on December 13.

Northwest Conference play begins at the turn of the calendar, with Linfield seeing a three-game homestead against Whitman, Whitworth, and Willamette for three games in five days. Four of the final five regular-season contests are also inside Ted Wilson Gymnasium, hosting Pacific Lutheran, Puget Sound, and Lewis & Clark before heading just outside of town to close out the season at George Fox. Linfield sets its sights on returning to the NWC Tournament for the first time in four seasons, starting on February 27th where the host will be the regular season conference champion institution.