College basketball’s last remaining undefeated men’s team is one you’ve never heard of. Can it win it all?

AMHERST, N.Y. — Even if you hit both red lights, the perimeter of Daemen University’s campus can be driven in under three minutes.

About 2,500 students attend the suburban Buffalo school, known for its nursing program. Athletics have mostly been an afterthought. They don’t drive enrollment or revenues. Lumsden Gymnasium, with bleachers along only one side of the court, seats 400 people, yet it sold out twice the entire regular season.

Those who have witnessed Daemen this season — mostly friends and family, but also some basketball luminaries — recognize the phenomenon. There are roughly 1,400 NCAA and NAIA men’s programs across the country. Daemen is alone without a loss. Daemen enters the Division II NCAA Tournament at 27-0 and will host the East Regional, creating a path to the Elite Eight that might be as snappy as the campus map.

“It’s crazy,” Daemen center Justin Hemphill said. “We’re trying not to get big-headed or let the moment overwhelm us. We understand we’re 27-0, but there are other teams we haven’t played that feel like they’re the best team in the region. We still have a point to prove and a target on our back.”

Guided by local coaching institution Mike MacDonald, the Wildcats are ranked No. 1, the first Western New York team to earn a top-five ranking since St. Bonaventure reached the Final Four in 1970.

“I saw them practice for 30 minutes in the fall and knew this team was really, really good,” said John Beilein, who coached Michigan to a couple of Final Fours and has won more games than John Wooden, Jerry Tarkanian and Phog Allen. “I talk about people being committed to winning versus compelled to winning. These guys are compelled to win. This is a special group.”

As Drake University demonstrated this season, the line between Division I and II might be thinner than the extra Roman numeral. Ben McCollum took the Drake job after perennial success at Division II Northwest Missouri State and brought a bunch of his players along to populate a program decimated by the transfer portal. Drake went 30-3 anyway. Last week, with four starters and seven regulars who weren’t Division I players a year ago, the Bulldogs won their third consecutive Missouri Valley Conference tournament title.

Beilein, a former Division II coach at Le Moyne for nine years, leaned into the Drake comparison.

“They’re as good as a hundred Division I teams,” Beilein said, before referencing the conference that includes Western New York universities Canisius and Niagara. “Daemen right now would be at the top of the Metro Atlantic, and I don’t mean that to deride the Metro Atlantic. That’s just how good Daemen is.”

It doesn’t count in the standings, but Daemen went into Division I Buffalo’s arena for a preseason exhibition and won 67-61. Daemen also beat a pair of other Division I programs in so-called secret scrimmages, but MacDonald refuses to leak the opposing schools because he wants to maintain healthy relationships. Those in the know confirm Daemen handled both schools, which finished with winning conference records.

Peculiar statistics underscore the Wildcats’ uncommon success.

Their leading scorer and the East Coast Conference’s Player of the Year, center Benjamin Bill, started a single game. The Wildcats rank fourth nationally with 19.6 assists per game, but their busiest distributor is the other center: Hemphill ranks 98th with 4.0 assists. They also rank fourth in rebound margin, grabbing 9.4 more per game than their opponents, although top rebounder Hemphill is tied for 83rd with 7.6 rebounds.

The NCAA’s official stats database lists the first 150 players in average minutes. Point guard Justin Glover, who leads Daemen at 27.0 minutes, would need to play nine straight games without leaving the court to crack that chart.

The Wildcats roll players off their bench like hockey coaches send forward lines over the boards. Subs average a whopping 38.2 points a game.

And they love to play defense. At a recent practice, smiling players spontaneously broke into a raucous “De-fense! De-fense!” chant before a series of drills that would have been tedious to most. It’s probably why they hold opponents to 37.3 percent from the floor, the lowest in the country, and have won by an average of 22.4 points a game, the second-highest margin. The Wildcats rank fourth in scoring defense, allowing 62.8 points a game.

“They’re a machine,” said former ESPN newsbreaker Adrian Wojnarowski, now St. Bonaventure’s general manager. Wojnarowski and MacDonald attended St. Bonaventure together in the late 1980s; neither played for the school.

“It’s a thing of beauty to watch them play. They come at you in waves, and the ball just keeps moving, just keeps flying around until it gets in the hands of somebody who’s wide open.”

MacDonald broke into college coaching in 1988 as a graduate assistant under Canisius head coach Marty Marbach, joined the staff full-time two seasons later and was retained when the school hired Beilein away from Le Moyne in 1992. Beilein proved transformative, winning 22 games in his second season, 21 in his third and qualifying for the NCAA Tournament in his fourth — Canisius’ first Big Dance in four decades. An upset loss to Fairfield in the 1997 MAAC tourney prevented consecutive trips, but Beilein’s star was too bright. He departed for Richmond, and Canisius quickly elevated MacDonald, his top assistant.

Canisius didn’t work out for MacDonald. He won 20 games there once and posted two winning seasons among his nine. He was fired in 2006 but refused to flame out. He stayed in Buffalo to take over Division III Medaille College and, despite an 11-14 debut, was voted conference coach of the year. MacDonald hasn’t had a losing record since, a stretch of 18 years. He joined Daemen in 2014 to help their switch from NAIA to NCAA Division II and won at least 19 games each year except for a 10-6 record during the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign.

MacDonald is even more respected as a community presence. Kids who attended his MacDonald Basketball Academy camps eagerly send their children now. He’s a fixture at his players’ weddings. His relationship with Brian Dux, the star Canisius guard who became the best player in England until a horrific car crash nearly killed him, is an inspiration.

“He’s doing so much more than coaching basketball,” Beilein said. “People identify with him over generations.”

Said Wojnarowski: “He embodies what this thing is supposed to be. If it took him to be undefeated and No. 1 in the country for people to recognize what an incredible coach he is, then I’m glad it’s forcing people to pay attention.”

Nobody foresaw such extraordinary success this season.

Daemen lost three starters who averaged double figures. Top scorer Dylan Fasoyiro transferred to South Alabama and started every game for the Sun Belt Conference’s regular-season champion. East Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year Joey Atkins and sharpshooter Nick MacDonald, the coach’s son, graduated.

Going undefeated was not fathomable as a goal, not even after the Wildcats’ sizzling start.

Daemen followed its exhibition victory against Buffalo by dominating No. 11 Charleston and No. 10 California (Pa.) before the Thanksgiving break. That’s when uncontrollable turbulence created a daunting challenge.

“It was the week before exams, which I always believe is a difficult week in college,” MacDonald said. “Papers are due, guys are coming in and out of practice early because of finals. It’s hard to focus.”

Then a wicked snowstorm struck the Lake Erie coast and closed the New York State Thruway, postponing the Dec. 1 game at Clarion and throwing practice out of kilter. Next up was a two-game swing to Staten Island and District of Columbia.

“Last year, Staten Island beat us twice, including our worst loss. They killed us,” MacDonald said. “I was walking into the gym, and I heard somebody say, ‘This is the biggest crowd we’ve had ever.’ I was thinking, ‘We’re going to get…’

“That was the night to get beat, on the road, big crowd, good team, crazy week of practice, not playing for 10 days, everybody telling you how good you are. We were set up to lose.”

A trio of Wildcats starters scored three points apiece, while a fourth also made a single field goal. Grad transfer Matt Becker led all starters with eight whole points. They committed more turnovers. They shot 18 percent from 3-point range.

Daemen beat Staten Island by 20.

“That’s a moment when it clicked: We must be pretty good,” said senior guard Ryan Salzberg.

MacDonald said that’s when he grew convinced. Two days later, Daemen beat District of Columbia by 28 points, and a week after that, it beat five-time defending East Coast Conference champion St. Thomas Aquinas by 29 points.

MacDonald struggles to explain how such greatness comes together for some groups. He calls these players “old souls” because they remind him — as teens and early 20-year-olds — of how his former players from back in the day interact today in group texts and when they cross paths after so many years.

“During the years when they’re playing,” MacDonald said, “they think, ‘I should be playing a little more. I should get more shots.’ Maybe they’re not as close in the moment, but time makes you closer as you reflect on life’s ups and downs. This team is that close now. They’re so connected.”

In addition to MacDonald’s sapient influence, Hemphill traces the team’s selflessness back to their early season dominance. Daemen destroyed quality opponents straight away, allowing MacDonald to unload the bench and get everyone involved. No need for greed.

“We have fun playing out there,” Salzberg said. “I’ve never honestly been on a team where winning is all anybody cares about. A lot of people have different agendas: playing time, scoring, where they want to transfer to. Nobody cares about any of that.”

The wins kept coming. The chief objective remained clinching the East Coast Conference regular-season title and hosting the conference tournament, a bracket Daemen never had survived. Each of the past four seasons and five times since MacDonald took over, Daemen finished second to St. Thomas Aquinas.

Last weekend in Lumsden Gym, Daemen plastered Staten Island 90-57 and beat St. Thomas Aquinas in a game that felt more lopsided than 88-80.

Seated courtside was longtime Western New York resident Ron Bertovich, the former Atlantic 10 commissioner and Colonial Athletic Association deputy commissioner for basketball when George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth reached the Final Four.

He made a point to watch the Wildcats, and especially MacDonald, cut down the net.

“I’ve been around college basketball for 40 years. I just see the stars have aligned this year,” Bertovich said. “If Mike was a chemistry professor, he’d have a lot of dean’s list students right now. The kids love each other. Nobody gets down. They hang together. They don’t get rattled; I think they get stronger in those tense moments. That doesn’t happen very often.”

Daemen’s new quest — to become the seventh undefeated champion in Division II history — begins Saturday with Bridgeport and could require another confirmation victory over St. Thomas Aquinas in the second round.

The biggest potential challenge is a showdown with Nova Southeastern, winner of the 2023 title and last year’s runner-up, although that wouldn’t happen until the Elite Eight is reseeded in Evansville, Ind. The Sharks average an ungodly 105.2 points and are ranked No. 1 in the Division II media poll.

“There are 1,100 teams playing NCAA college basketball, and the only one without a loss is us. Crazy, right? Surreal, mind-boggling,” said MacDonald. “But there’s a new goal now. Everybody in the tournament is undefeated, and the first loss sends you home.”

(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Photos courtesy of Daemen University)

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