DENVER – The University of Denver men's basketball program will wrap-up a three-game road trip to open up the 2025-26 season on Sunday when the Pioneers travel to Montana State. Opening tipoff is set for 1 p.m. MT, and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.

SERIES HISTORY:
Denver holds a 5-2 advantage in the Division I series history between the Pioneers and Bobcats, but DU is just 1-2 in Montana. The Pioneers won last November's meeting by a count of 79-78 in Hamilton Gymnasium. In the entire program history, Montana State holds an 11-6 advantage. SERIES HISTORY

LAST TIME OUT:
Logan Kinsey (23), Jeremiah Burke (15) and Julius Rollins (10) all finished in double figures as Denver hung around with [rv/rv] Washington in Seattle before falling 84-70. 

KINSEY REACHES 1,000 CAREER POINTS IN DENVER DEBUT

• Senior Logan Kinsey reached the 1,000 point club in the 98th game of his collegiate career on November 4, scoring 15 points in Denver's season-opening loss at Seattle.
• Kinsey scored 498 points (14.6) in his junior season at Minnesota State Moorhead a year ago.
• Kinsey is leading the Pioneers, averaging 19.0 points per game.
• Kinsey now has 1,025 points in 99 career games.

UNIVERSITY OF DENVER ACCEPTS WCC INVITE FOR 2026-27

• On October 31, the University of Denver announced it has accepted an invitation to join the West Coast Conference in nine sports, beginning in the 2026-27 season.
• "My immediate response was excited. I understand how big it is for university overall athletics. I understand that it's a power conference for sure, and I think it's just the absolute perfect fit for our program and university." Head Coach Tim Bergstraser
• Denver will join the West Coast Conference in men's and women's basketball, men's and women's golf, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's tennis and women's volleyball.
• The move provides Denver with a significant enhancement to the overall reputation of the university and brand association, allying DU with highly regarded, mostly private institutions with stronger academic ranking and profiles that will further strengthen the university's position in the western United States.

DENVER'S DI STATE HISTORY

• In Denver's DI history, the Pioneers have had student-athletes from 30 different states.
• The 2025-26 roster added one new state to Denver's list in Wisconsin (Burke, Dandridge).
• 42 DI student-athletes have stayed in their home state of Colorado.
• Including two student-athletes on the 2025-26 roster, 21 Pios have come from the state of Texas.

THE TIM BERGSTRASER ERA

• Tim Bergstraser was named the 34th head coach in the men's basketball program's history on April 14.
• At age 34 (as of Oct. 1), Bergstraser is the eighth youngest Division I men's basketball head coach in the country in 2025-26.
• Bergstraser retained three players from last year's Denver roster, kept one DU commit and signed 11 transfers late in the transfer portal.
• Bergstraser came to Denver after three seasons at Minnesota State Moorhead, where he went 75-22, leading the Dragons to three-consecutive 25-win seasons and three NCAA Tournament appearances.
• MSUM won two NSIC Tournament titles in his three seasons, and reached the NCAA Sweet 16 in his final season with the Dragons in 2024-25, the program's first regional final appearance since 2014-15.
• In 2023-24 MSUM opened the campaign 14-0 to earn the program's first No. 1 ranking in program history.
• Bergstraser's teams in his three years at MSUM all finished with a 3.4 or better, and earned the conference's Elite 18 Award winner for the student-athlete with the highest GPA at the NSIC Championship.
• Prior to taking over as the head coach, Bergstraser was an assistant for four seasons at MSUM, an assistant at Quincy for a year, a grad assistant for two at MSUM, an assistant at Wisconsin-River Falls and a student-assistant at St. Cloud State after his third ACL injury cut his playing career short.

DENVER'S ASSISTANTS

• Associate head coach Spenser Bland comes to the Mile High City from being in the same position on the MSUM staff under Bergstraser.
• Bergstraser said in his 2025-26 season preview radio show that he would not have taken the Denver job if Bland didn't agree to come with him.
• Bland will serve as the program's offensive coordinator.
• In the middle of seven seasons at Minnesota State Moorhead, of which he spent the final two as the associate head coach, Bland coached one season at the University of Sioux Falls (2021-22).
• A former assistant in the Summit League, Kyle Heikkinen joined Tim Bergstraser's staff after five seasons at Western Illinois, of which he spent the final two as the associate head coach.
• Heikkinen also had assistant jobs at Highland CC and Wisconsin-Whitewater, combining for a 237-124 record in his previous 12 seasons as an assistant.
• Abe Woldeslassie joined Bergstraser's staff after spending the last seven seasons as the head coach at Macalester (NCAA DIII).
• Prior to his time in Minnesota, Woldeslassie had positions on DI staffs at Siena, Davidson and Dartmouth.
• Scott Gauthier was named the program's Director of Operations, coming to Denver after a year as an assistant at IU Indy.
• Gauthier's previous coaching stops also include a year at Lindenwood and seven seasons at the University of Missouri - St. Louis.
• Nihilo Ibarra was the last addition to the staff, joining Denver after serving as the head manager for San Diego State's 2022-23 squad that made the national title game, and two seasons as a graduate assistant at Nebraska.

UP NEXT:
Denver closes the road trip on Sunday afternoon when the Pioneers travel to Montana State. Opening tip on ESPN+ is set for 1 p.m. MT.

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