The Case Western Reserve University men's basketball team combined a group of experienced players with one of the most talented classes of first-year players in program history to produce 12 wins during the 2025-26 campaign.
The Spartans finished the season with a 12-13 overall record and placed sixth in the University Athletic Association standings with a 4-10 league record. The Spartans' victories came despite facing one of the toughest schedules in Division III, with 11 games against teams that would go on to make the NCAA Tournament and seven contests against opponents who were nationally ranked at the time of the game. CWRU finished the year with an 11-3 mark against teams that did not qualify for the NCAA Tournament in 2025-26.
CWRU finished the season third among UAA teams and 63rd among all NCAA Division III teams with 81.8 points per game, while also ranking third in the league and 40th in Division III with 9.8 made three-point shots per contest. The Spartans asserted themselves in the post throughout the year, leading the league with 14.52 offensive rebounds per game (22nd in DIII), and ranking second among UAA teams with 41.32 rebounds per game (34th in DIII) and 4.2 blocks per contest (43rd in DIII).
The Spartans were led during the season by graduate student guard Ethan Edwards, who was an honorable mention to the All-UAA team following the season. After missing the first four games of the season, Edwards emerged as a force for CWRU, averaging a team-high 20.1 points in his first season with the squad, third among UAA players and 69th in all of Division III. His 422 total points were the 20th-most in a season in team history, while his 67 three-pointers made were the fifth-most ever by a Spartan, and his 3.19 three-pointers made per game led the UAA and were the 12th-most in Division III.
Edwards scored in double figures in each of the team's final 17 games of the year, including nine efforts of 20 or more points and four of 30 or more. In a 110-98 win over Rochester on February 22, he dropped 54 points to set the UAA and school single-game record for points scored, while also setting league and school records in the game with 18 field goals made and 12 made three-pointers. The 54 points were the most scored in an NCAA game (any Division) during the 2025-26 season. Edwards also matched a program record with seven steals twice during the year.
Senior guard Anand Dharmarajan added 10.4 points per game, including a 30-point showing against Kalamazoo on December 30 and a career-high 35 points at WashU in the final game of his collegiate career in his hometown of St. Louis. Senior forward Andrew Fox averaged 8.9 points and 6.2 rebounds per game, while sophomore Matthew Ellis scored 11.7 points per contest during the year.
The Spartans' roster was strengthened by the play of a pair of junior transfers in forward Logan Brown (5.1 ppg, 7.0 rpg) and guard Julian Scott (5.4 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 2.6 apg). In addition, several first-year players had an immediate impact on the team, including forward Alex Vincent, who led the team with 7.4 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game with 10.4 points and 1.7 assists. Guards Shyam Patel (7.8 ppg, 4.2 rpg) and Anestis Hadjistamoulou (4.3 ppg, 0.8 apg) also saw action in 24 games each during the first year of collegiate basketball.
CWRU opened its season with three consecutive wins, beating Houghton by 20 points in the opening game of the campaign, followed by a 71-68 win over Penn State Behrend on the road, and an 89-61 triumph over Waynesburg at the Omni Ink Waynesburg Tip-Off Tournament. However, the Spartans went on to lose their next three (all against teams that would go on to make the NCAA Tournament), suffering a setback to Mount Union in the tournament's championship game, and losing to Washington & Jefferson and Trinity (Texas) at the Great Lakes Invitational.
The Spartans responded with wins in five-straight games, besting Saint Vincent, Hiram, Allegheny, Kalamazoo, and La Roche to wrap up their non-conference schedule with an 8-3 record. Edwards concluded the stretch by scoring 38 points and making nine three-pointers, a program single-game record at that point.
CWRU started conference play slowly, losing five-straight games before claiming its first league victory of the season at 22nd-ranked NYU with an 87-83 win. The Spartans added a home win against Brandeis on February 8 and then finished their campaign with home wins against Rochester and Carnegie Mellon to end the year with four conference victories.
Three Spartan players – Brown, Dharmarajan, and Andrew Fox – received College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honors following the season, while five Spartans – Dharmarajan, Ellis, Andrew Fox, junior Drey Fox, and senior Aaron Rucker – received UAA Winter All-Academic honors.
Spartan players earned the following honors during the 2025-26 season:
The following were the CWRU team leaders during the 2025-26 season:
