GVSU Basketball: Defending National Champion Women favored to win GLIAC, Men picked fourth

The 2025-26 college basketball season gets underway this weekend, and that means it’s time to talk about preseason expectations for the Grand Valley State Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams.

The defending National Champion GVSU Women’s Basketball squad, coming off a 38-2 campaign in 2024-25, was picked by the GLIAC coaches as the conference preseason favorite following their fourth straight Regular Season GLIAC Championship, third straight Postseason GLIAC Championship, and second Midwest Regional Championship in the last four years last season.

In addition, the GLIAC came out with its preseason individual awards based on a vote by the league coaches with a few notable players receiving honors.

Lastly, the Laker Women will begin the upcoming season as the #1 team in all of Division II.

You can read the full release on the Laker Women being named the GLIAC preseason favorite here.

The Laker Men, after compiling a 16-13 overall mark and 5th place regular season finish during the 2024-25 season, are predicted to finish fourth in the GLIAC Preseason Coaches Poll.

A pair of senior leaders also garnered GLIAC preseason honors from the conference coaches.

You can read the full release on the Laker Men’s preseason conference ranking here.

The Laker Women begin their 2025-26 season in St. Joseph, Missouri for the Midwest Classic on October 31st and November 1st against Missouri Western and West Texas A&M, respectively, while the Laker Men get their regular season going a few weekends later with a neutral site contest in Toledo on November 14th against Ashland followed by a road contest on November 16th against Indianapolis.