The 2025–26 Tennessee State Tigers basketball team represented Tennessee State University in the 2025–26 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Tigers are led by first-year head coach Nolan Smith and played their home games at Gentry Center in Nashville, Tennessee as members of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC). They finished the regular season 23–9, 15–5 in OVC play to earn a share of the regular season championship. As the No. 1 seed in the OVC tournament, they defeated UT Martin and Morehead State to win the tournament championship. As a result, they received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Previous season The Tigers finished the 2024–25 season 17–16, 12–8 in OVC play, to finish in a tie for third place. In the OVC tournament, they were defeated by SIU Edwardsville in the semifinal round.
Preseason On October 14, 2025, the OVC released their preseason polls. Tennessee State was picked to finish fourth in the conference, while receiving a first-place vote.
Preseason rankings +ASUN Preseason Coaches Poll Place Team Votes 1 188 (12) 2 177 (6) 3 163 (1) 4 Tennessee State 135 (1) T-5 100 7 80 8 79 9 67 (2) 10 63 11 57
Source:
Players to Watch Each OVC team selected two "Players to Watch" for their team. Players to WatchPlayerPositionYearKhalil LondonGuardRedshirt SophomoreCarlous WilliamsForwardGraduate Senior Source:
Roster
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=""| Regular season
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References