RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Great American Conference released its annual preseason coaches poll for men's basketball on Thursday, and in that release, the Arkansas Tech men's basketball team was picked to finish the 2025-26 season eighth among the 12-team league.
 
Ouachita Baptist edged out last year's regular season and tournament champions Oklahoma Baptist for the top spot on this year's preseason poll. The Tigers received seven first-place votes and totaled 115 points while the Bison had the remaining five first-place votes and totaled 110 points. Also totaling over 100 points in the poll and tabbed third is Harding.
 
Southern Nazarene, Henderson State and East Central represent the next three spots with SNU being picked fourth with 86 points, HSU fifth with 78 and ECU sixth with 73.
 
Southeastern Oklahoma is slotted on spot ahead of Tech with 59 points. The Wonder Boys totaled 46 points and were one point ahead of both Southwestern Oklahoma and Southern Arkansas, who tied for ninth place with 45 points.
 
Northwestern Oklahoma (19) and Arkansas-Monticello (13) rounded out the 12-team poll.
 
Last season, the Wonder Boys were 8-20 overall and 6-16 in the GAC.
 
This year, the Wonder Boys must replace their top-three scorers from year ago, but do return Aiden Underdown, who averaged 9.4 points per game on 61% shooting and hauled in 5.4 rebounds per game last season. Underdown is one of five returners from last year.
 
In terms of newcomers, the Wonder Boys will incorporate 12 new players. Four of those are coming to Tech from the prep ranks from inside the Natural State and include Clay Blair (Little Rock Central HS), Carson Simpson (Farmington HS), Ryder Scribner (The New School) and JC Jones (Pottsville HS).
 
The eight transfers include JaColby Williams (Oklahoma City, Okla./Southwestern Christian Univ.), Igor Jokovic (Podgorica,Montenegro Parkland College), Eric Ballo (Paris, France Southern University-Shreveport), Khasen Robinson (Little Rock, Ark./Little Rock), Mathiang Maker (Melbourne, Australia Western Nebraska), Jason Parent (Prescott, Ariz./Yavapai College), Christian Reid (Miami, Fla./Northwest Florida State College) and Kodhi McStraw (Sydney, Australia/Parkland College).
 
The Wonder Boys will begin their season on the road as part of the GAC/MIAA Crossover Challenge. This year's challenge will be played Friday, November 13 and Saturday, November 14 in Wichita, Kan with Newman hosting. Tech is set to play Missouri Southern at 4 p.m. on Friday and then host Newman at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.