When the West Coast Conference men’s basketball preseason poll came out in October, University of the Pacific was picked to finish 10th. This month, the Tigers surged past those expectations, finishing in a tie for fifth and landing two student-athletes on the all-conference teams for the first time in eight years.

Pacific earned a double bye in the West Coast Conference Tournament, beat Seattle in the third round and reached the quarterfinals for only the second time since rejoining the league in 2013-14.

“This was one of my favorite teams of 35 years of coaching,” said second-year Head Coach Dave Smart. “To have this type of special group is pretty incredible to me. The culture and the commitment to getting better and fighting every time we walked on the floor—we had to fight every game we played.”

With 18 wins on the season and eight in conference, Smart’s team posted more overall and conference victories than the last two years combined. The Tigers solidified their first winning season in six years and third since rejoining the league.

Pacific also posted one of the largest turnarounds in the country, ranking No. 116 out of 365 teams in the NCAA NET Rankings. The team had finished at No. 293 in the 2024-25 season and were No. 353 in 2023-24, the season prior to Smart’s arrival.

Elias Ralph ’26, a health and exercise science major, led the charge for Pacific, earning All-Conference First-Team honors. Ralph tallied 1,041 points in two seasons at Pacific, becoming the first two-year player in school history to score over 1,000 points.

“Elias is our best player, and off the court he’s just an unbelievably great person,” Smart said.

Ralph became the first All-Conference First-Team honoree at Pacific since 2019-20 and only the second-ever since the institution rejoined the league in 2013-14. He averaged team highs of 16.7 points and 6.8 rebounds per game and ranked top five in the conference in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage, free throw percentage and minutes played.

“I’m so thankful—thankful to God and everyone who’s been in my corner,” said Ralph, who scored a team high of 15 points in the conference tournament win over Seattle. “When I first came to Pacific, Coach Smart trusted me right away with the ball and let me make mistakes. I really wanted to build something here at Pacific.”

Joining Ralph on the All-Conference team was TJ Wainwright ’26, a business marketing major who earned Honorable Mention accolades. Wainwright was second on the team in scoring with 13.0 points per game and scored at least 20 points five times.

Jaden Clayton ’26, a sport management major, broke the school record for assists in a season with 210. He netted 261 points to surpass the 1,000 mark after four Division I seasons.

“A lot of credit goes to Elias because he’s such a great player and garners so much attention, and it just makes it easier for everyone else,” Clayton said. “We shared the ball at a high level this year and wanted to do something special at Pacific.”

After one of the biggest year-to-year jumps in school history, the Tigers now wait to find out if their season will continue in a postseason tournament. Keep up with the latest updates.