The 2025–26 UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's basketball team represented the University of California, Santa Barbara during the 2025–26 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Gauchos, led by ninth-year head coach Joe Pasternack, played their home games at The Thunderdome in Santa Barbara, California as members of the Big West Conference.
Previous season The Gauchos finished the 2024–25 season 21–13, 11–9 in Big West play, to finish in fifth place. They defeated Cal State Bakersfield and Cal State Northridge, before falling to top-seeded and eventual tournament champions UC San Diego in the semifinals of the Big West tournament.
Preseason On October 16, 2025, the Big West Conference released their preseason coaches poll. UC Santa Barbara was picked to finish second in the conference, while also receiving three first-place votes.
Preseason rankings +Big West Preseason Poll Place Team Points 1 98 (8) 2 UC Santa Barbara 93 (3) 3 76 4 69 5 63 6 58 7 54 8 31 9 26 10 20 11 17
Source:
Preseason All-Big West Team Preseason All-Big West TeamPlayerYearPositionJason Fontenet IIJuniorGuardAidan MahaneySenior Source:
Roster
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=""| Regular season
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Sources:
References