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Minnesota Duluth opens Monday night with a home men's basketball exhibition against nonconference Wisconsin–Superior.
The Bulldogs, who finished 20-9 and 15-7 in the NSIC last season, are led by Caleb Siwek, the 2025-26 NSIC North Division Preseason Player of the Year. The redshirt junior guard averaged nearly 13 points per game a year ago.
Minnesota Duluth was picked to win the NSIC North Division and tied for fifth overall in the league’s 2025-26 men’s basketball preseason coaches poll.
The Bulldogs received 47 points and five first-place votes in the North Division, edging out Northern State and Minnesota Crookston. Southwest Minnesota State was selected as the overall conference favorite and the South Division leader, earning 219 points and 11 first-place votes — 25 points ahead of second-place St. Cloud State, which had 194 points and two first-place votes.
Minnesota State was third overall with 189 points and one first-place vote, while Concordia-St. Paul placed fourth at 176 points, also earning one first-place vote. Augustana tied Minnesota Duluth for fifth at 174 points, with the Vikings claiming the final first-place vote.
In the South Division, Southwest Minnesota State totaled 48 points and six first-place votes.
Coaches rank each team in the overall poll and within their division, assigning 15 points for a first-place vote, 14 for second, and so on. Coaches do not rank or vote for their own teams.
The NSIC regular-season champion will be determined by a 22-game schedule — 14 divisional games and eight cross-division matchups. North and South Division titles will also be awarded based on the full conference slate.
The Bulldogs begin NSIC play Tuesday, Nov. 25. The 12-team NSIC men’s basketball tournament, with the top four seeds receiving first-round byes, will be held Feb. 28–March 3 at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
