Photo by: UT Martin University Relations
10/29/2026 11:22:00 AM | Men's Basketball
MARTIN, Tenn. – One year after the University of Tennessee at Martin men's basketball program fielded the most freshmen in school history en route to a program-record 22 victories, the Skyhawks boast an even younger roster in 2026-27 in hopes of a deep postseason run.
Third-year UT Martin head coach Jeremy Shulman presides over a 15-man roster that includes 14 underclassmen and 10 true freshmen – both the second-most in NCAA Division I men's hoops behind Navy (who does not have scholarship limits and has a junior varsity program). The Skyhawks combine for just 71 games of collegiate experience at any level as UT Martin will once again feature the most international student-athletes in NCAA Division I men's basketball (14, representing 11 different nations) for the third consecutive year under Shulman.
The international route has proven to be incredibly effective for Shulman, whose 382 victories trails only Iowa's Ben McCollum (449) for the most career wins of any active NCAA Division I head men's basketball coach who will be under the age of 50 on Opening Day.
The 2026-27 Skyhawk roster owns no shortage of high-level international experience, proven as recently as this summer. At the 2026 FIBA U20 EuroBasket event, returning sophomore Filip Petkovski – UT Martin's lone returning starter who became the first true freshman to lead the Skyhawks in assists (78) since 2010-11 – helped lead his native Slovenia to the gold medal after averaging 13.5 points in the tournament semifinal and championship victories over France and Serbia.
The freshman duo of Kaan Onat (13.7 points, 7.4 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 3.0 steals over seven games for Türkiye) and Armandas Bancevicius (three double-digit scoring games for Lithuania, including a 16-point outing against Belgium) also took part in the 2026 FIBA U20 EuroBasket tournament before reporting to campus for the team's first official organized workouts on Aug. 10.
Onat, who was named to the All-Star Five of the 2024 FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup alongside future NBA Draft lottery picks AJ Dybantsa and Cameron Boozer, joined Skyhawk teammate Davi Remagen on the Ohio Valley Conference Players to Watch list ahead of the season. Transferring to UT Martin after playing in 11 contests at Georgia Tech last season, Remagen tossed in 14.4 points per outing for the German National Team in the 2023 FIBA U16 EuroBasket event.
Two other backcourt representatives who have excelled in the preseason are Sasha Savkov and Nikas Stuknys. The tallest player on the team as a 6-11 shooting guard, Savkov averaged 12.2 points over 30 games in the Spain Liga Endesa in 2025-26 – shooting 36.7 percent from three-point range and 85.1 percent from the free throw line. A 6-7 point guard, Stuknys averaged 11.7 points, 7.3 assists and 4.3 rebounds in 20 games in the Lithuanian Basketball League in 2025-26.
Nikola Janicic (2024 FIBA U18 EuroBasket Division B Most Valuable Player with 22.6 points per game representing North Macedonia) gives the Skyhawks another three-point specialist while Reid Conley (all-state performer while leading Chattanooga Preparatory School to a TSSAA Division I AA state title last season) and Mai Hong (led Tsinghua University High School to a Chinese Basketball League runner-up finish in 2025) round out the scholarship guards on UT Martin's roster.
In the frontcourt, Vladimir Khryapa returns after playing 30 games (three starts) as a freshman. The 6-8, 205-pounder saw his role increase as the season progressed and was a defensive menace last season with eight multi-steal games and four multi-block performances.
Arminas Vilkas (9.7 points per game on 59 percent shooting) and Gabrielius Bubnys (11.7 points per outing while shooting 40 percent from three-point range) were teammates in the Lithuanian NKL last season and aim to boost the Skyhawks at the forward slot.
The only upperclassman on the UT Martin roster is junior Giorgi Sulaberidze, who was 2025 MVP of the Georgian Superleague after he was voted the Best Forward at the 2024 FIBA U20 EuroBasket Division B tournament with averages of 19.6 points and 10.9 rebounds per game. He and chiseled 6-10 freshman Ousseynou Sambe (9.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.7 blocks per game for Senegal at the 2024 FIBA U18 AfroBasket tournament) project to provide plenty of impact in the paint.
Walk-on Enrique Moya also returns to the fold with a year in the Skyhawk program under his belt after redshirting in 2025-26.
"I love our roster and I'm really excited about the direction we are heading," Shulman said. "We recruited guys who have a chip on their shoulders who really play hard and have this competitive toughness to just want to win in anything they do. I think personnel-wise, we have positional size and we're going to be deep. Most years we want to play about eight guys but this year we are going to play 11 or 12 guys – there's that much value in all of them."
UT Martin was voted third in the OVC preseason poll and will look to take the next step as a program in 2026-27. Last season, the Skyhawks held at least a share of the league lead for six consecutive weeks (Jan. 8 through Feb. 18) and advanced to the OVC Championship semifinals as the No. 4 seed in the league tournament behind a tenacious squad that ranked in the top-25 nationally in scoring defense (63.2 points per game, third), three-point percentage defense (.292, fourth), field goal percentage defense (.390, sixth), offensive rebounds per game (13.88, eighth), steals per game (8.8, 21st), rebounds per game (39.91, 22nd) and rebound margin (+6.5, 24th).
"We didn't finish as strong as we needed to last year," Shulman said. "One staple that's always been a part of my programs is to improve throughout the season and be the best version of ourselves in March. We're a young team but that's by design – we brought in a lot of 18- and 19-year olds that we can really help develop and be a step in their basketball journey. Because of that youth, it's been up and down this preseason but these players fit our system very well and I love our potential."
Third-year UT Martin head coach Jeremy Shulman presides over a 15-man roster that includes 14 underclassmen and 10 true freshmen – both the second-most in NCAA Division I men's hoops behind Navy (who does not have scholarship limits and has a junior varsity program). The Skyhawks combine for just 71 games of collegiate experience at any level as UT Martin will once again feature the most international student-athletes in NCAA Division I men's basketball (14, representing 11 different nations) for the third consecutive year under Shulman.
The international route has proven to be incredibly effective for Shulman, whose 382 victories trails only Iowa's Ben McCollum (449) for the most career wins of any active NCAA Division I head men's basketball coach who will be under the age of 50 on Opening Day.
The 2026-27 Skyhawk roster owns no shortage of high-level international experience, proven as recently as this summer. At the 2026 FIBA U20 EuroBasket event, returning sophomore Filip Petkovski – UT Martin's lone returning starter who became the first true freshman to lead the Skyhawks in assists (78) since 2010-11 – helped lead his native Slovenia to the gold medal after averaging 13.5 points in the tournament semifinal and championship victories over France and Serbia.
The freshman duo of Kaan Onat (13.7 points, 7.4 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 3.0 steals over seven games for Türkiye) and Armandas Bancevicius (three double-digit scoring games for Lithuania, including a 16-point outing against Belgium) also took part in the 2026 FIBA U20 EuroBasket tournament before reporting to campus for the team's first official organized workouts on Aug. 10.
Onat, who was named to the All-Star Five of the 2024 FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup alongside future NBA Draft lottery picks AJ Dybantsa and Cameron Boozer, joined Skyhawk teammate Davi Remagen on the Ohio Valley Conference Players to Watch list ahead of the season. Transferring to UT Martin after playing in 11 contests at Georgia Tech last season, Remagen tossed in 14.4 points per outing for the German National Team in the 2023 FIBA U16 EuroBasket event.
Two other backcourt representatives who have excelled in the preseason are Sasha Savkov and Nikas Stuknys. The tallest player on the team as a 6-11 shooting guard, Savkov averaged 12.2 points over 30 games in the Spain Liga Endesa in 2025-26 – shooting 36.7 percent from three-point range and 85.1 percent from the free throw line. A 6-7 point guard, Stuknys averaged 11.7 points, 7.3 assists and 4.3 rebounds in 20 games in the Lithuanian Basketball League in 2025-26.
Nikola Janicic (2024 FIBA U18 EuroBasket Division B Most Valuable Player with 22.6 points per game representing North Macedonia) gives the Skyhawks another three-point specialist while Reid Conley (all-state performer while leading Chattanooga Preparatory School to a TSSAA Division I AA state title last season) and Mai Hong (led Tsinghua University High School to a Chinese Basketball League runner-up finish in 2025) round out the scholarship guards on UT Martin's roster.
In the frontcourt, Vladimir Khryapa returns after playing 30 games (three starts) as a freshman. The 6-8, 205-pounder saw his role increase as the season progressed and was a defensive menace last season with eight multi-steal games and four multi-block performances.
Arminas Vilkas (9.7 points per game on 59 percent shooting) and Gabrielius Bubnys (11.7 points per outing while shooting 40 percent from three-point range) were teammates in the Lithuanian NKL last season and aim to boost the Skyhawks at the forward slot.
The only upperclassman on the UT Martin roster is junior Giorgi Sulaberidze, who was 2025 MVP of the Georgian Superleague after he was voted the Best Forward at the 2024 FIBA U20 EuroBasket Division B tournament with averages of 19.6 points and 10.9 rebounds per game. He and chiseled 6-10 freshman Ousseynou Sambe (9.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.7 blocks per game for Senegal at the 2024 FIBA U18 AfroBasket tournament) project to provide plenty of impact in the paint.
Walk-on Enrique Moya also returns to the fold with a year in the Skyhawk program under his belt after redshirting in 2025-26.
"I love our roster and I'm really excited about the direction we are heading," Shulman said. "We recruited guys who have a chip on their shoulders who really play hard and have this competitive toughness to just want to win in anything they do. I think personnel-wise, we have positional size and we're going to be deep. Most years we want to play about eight guys but this year we are going to play 11 or 12 guys – there's that much value in all of them."
UT Martin was voted third in the OVC preseason poll and will look to take the next step as a program in 2026-27. Last season, the Skyhawks held at least a share of the league lead for six consecutive weeks (Jan. 8 through Feb. 18) and advanced to the OVC Championship semifinals as the No. 4 seed in the league tournament behind a tenacious squad that ranked in the top-25 nationally in scoring defense (63.2 points per game, third), three-point percentage defense (.292, fourth), field goal percentage defense (.390, sixth), offensive rebounds per game (13.88, eighth), steals per game (8.8, 21st), rebounds per game (39.91, 22nd) and rebound margin (+6.5, 24th).
"We didn't finish as strong as we needed to last year," Shulman said. "One staple that's always been a part of my programs is to improve throughout the season and be the best version of ourselves in March. We're a young team but that's by design – we brought in a lot of 18- and 19-year olds that we can really help develop and be a step in their basketball journey. Because of that youth, it's been up and down this preseason but these players fit our system very well and I love our potential."
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