Hawaii Pacific earns at-large bid to 2026 NCAA Division II Tournament

HONOLULU – They finally sent an invite back to the islands.

For the third time in program history, the Hawaii Pacific University men’s basketball team is going dancing as the Sharks received an at-large bid to the 2026 NCAA Division II men’s basketball tournament on Sunday evening.

Hawaii Pacific (18-11) secured the West Region’s No. 7 seed, setting up a first-round matchup against No. 2-seeded Saint Martin’s (25-5). The Saints won the GNAC regular season and tournament titles, going into postseason play ranked No. 21 in the nation.

HPU returned home on Saturday after falling in the PacWest semifinals to No. 22 Point Loma and reconvened on Sunday inside the ‘Shark Reef’ in Mānoa to watch the 2026 NCAA Division II men’s basketball tournament selection show.

The Sharks were ranked seventh in the West Region after collecting a pair of top 25 wins and 18 wins within the region this year, but there was plenty of anxiety amongst the coaching staff and team as they awaited the official bracket. HPU finished with the seventh-best KPI and RPI in the West Region, putting together a resume worthy of the program’s second-ever at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament and third-ever appearance.

“Elated and pretty relieved,” third-year head coach Jesse Nakanishi said of the emotions immediately following the selection. “It was a really good season, some highs and lows, but the highs far outweighed the lows. We were able to have some big victories with West Region teams and PacWest teams to really improve our resume and have a national caliber resume.”

Nakanishi was an assistant coach on the 2016-17 Hawaii Pacific squad, the most successful Sharks team since the school moved up from the NAIA to NCAA Division II in 1998. The only other team in Sharks history to receive an invite to the national tournament as a D2 program was the 1998-99 team that lost to Seattle Pacific in the opening round.

That 2017 run saw a PacWest regular season and tournament title go to the Sharks before they downed Sonoma State by 12 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. HPU fell by three points in the Round of 32 against Chico State, who beat the West Region’s top three seeds that year on the way to an Elite 8 appearance.

Nakanishi admits he’s made references about that 2016-17 team and run throughout this year’s campaign, both to the team and to his staff. In just his third year captaining the ship after longtime head coach Darren Vorderbruegge retired following the 2022-23 season, Nakanishi already has put together two PacWest tournament appearances and secured an NCAA Tournament invite.

“Coach V did such a great job of building the program and having it be a process and getting better and better each year, and then we had that culminating year in 2017,” Nakanishi said. “Years leading up to that, we had 20-win seasons and [kept] growing and growing and that’s what I’m trying to do with this program.”

Hawaii Pacific took on and took down Saint Martin’s back on November 18 in Mānoa, handing the Saints an 88-75 loss inside the Shark Tank for the team’s 2026 home opener. Four different Sharks finished in double figures, led by Joshua West’s 20-point, 8-rebound outburst.

HPU celebrates after taking down Saint Martin’s on November 18. | Photo Credit: Michael Lasquero, HSRN

Asked about what he remembered from that mid-November matchup with Saint Martin’s, the all-PacWest 1st-team guard West heaped praise on HPU’s first round opponent.

“Well coached team, talented team,” West said of the Saints. “Just because we beat them once, that doesn’t mean that it’ll come easy again so we’re not taking the game for granted. We respect them, they’re the number two seed for a reason.”

Nakanishi was similarly quick to point out the lack of impact that the previous result against Saint Martin’s would have in the upcoming matchup, pointing out the time between meetings and amount that each team had grown and evolved since. He also pointed out that getting the Saints on the schedule was purposeful for the Sharks’ postseason aspirations.

“Having that game on our schedule and being able to come away with that victory early on in the season, I knew it would come into play for West Region ranks and sure enough, it did,” Nakanishi stated. “My philosophy is schedule as hard as you can, and then you’ve got to go win some of those very difficult games.”

Saint Martin’s has won eight of the last nine and six games in a row heading into the first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament. The Saints won their first-ever GNAC championship last weekend after claiming the conference’s regular season crown with a 15-3 record in league play.

“It’s going to be an extremely daunting challenge, but we’re up for it,” Nakanishi said.

Hawaii Pacific will travel to Cal State East Bay, the top seed and host in the West Region, to take on Saint Martin’s on Friday, March 13 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The winner will advance to face the victor between No. 3 Point Loma and No. 6 Northwest Nazarene on Saturday.

Opening tipoff time is TBA.