2026 has arrived, and while a new year is always something to celebrate, college basketball fans can feel a little gloomier than most knowing that the first half of the regular season is already behind us. 

The bright spot with a new calendar is that – after a Christmas week where few programs played meaningful games – the opening week of the year starts a two-month stretch of uninterrupted good hoops. Multiple mid-major squads in the Northeast began 2026 on a high note: let’s take a look at a couple of them. 

Team of The Week: Saint Peter’s Peacocks

Over the entire landscape of college basketball, few programs have had a better month-long stretch with less recognition than Saint Peter’s. 

Here’s a stat for you: removing both preseason ratings and game results from November, the Peacocks rank 136th in Torvik. 

Peacocks look impressive (at time of writing).

That’s better than the following schools: 

Yale (139th)

St. Bonaventure (140th)

Richmond (151st)

George Mason (173rd)

Rutgers (182nd)

After Seton Hall, there’s been no New Jersey school better since the month of December than Bashir Mason’s MAAC squad, who’ve gone 5-1 with an overtime loss to Georgetown. The Peacocks have climbed up 74 spots in KenPom over that time span, including 39 spots this past week alone after notching two major conference wins. 

The off-kilter scheduling of the MAAC meant that Saint Peter’s opened the week with a Monday night game, facing a Fairfield squad that’s been up and down throughout the year. Heading into this one, it seemed like the Stags were rounding into form, riding a three-game win streak. 

The Peacocks fell into an 11-point deficit early on the road, but battled back before closing the door for good with an 11-1 run in the game’s dying moments. The final score was 70-66, an away win that was every bit earned.

A tougher test awaited Mason’s squad on Friday as it came back home to tussle with Marist, one of the top contenders in the MAAC. The Red Foxes entered at 8-4, suffering losses exclusively to top 200 rosters. Any team below that number was likely getting beat badly (including their first opponent post-Saint Peter’s, Iona, who lost 83-38). 

It was a back-and-forth affair for around 30 minutes, but Saint Peter’s again picked up its offense late to secure the 69-59 victory. The 10-point margin was the second-worst loss of Marist’s season, worse than its opening night contest against Xavier (4-point loss) and just behind its game against Georgia Tech (11-point loss). 

The Peacocks now stand at 7-5 (4-0) on the season courtesy of the hard-nosed defense that Mason’s carried throughout his tenure. No team has a higher steal percentage than Saint Peter’s (15.3%), and few players in Division I get more steals than senior guard Brent Bland, who averages 3.1 a night. 

If the Peacocks go on a run in Atlantic City this March, Bland is your top story. The 6-foot-3 guard is the rare four-year player at a mid-major program, gradually getting a bigger role each of his first three seasons before going down with a serious injury early in 2024-25. He came back to Jersey City and is having his best year yet, averaging 14.9 points and 4.4 rebounds.

Saint Peter’s will look to continue its stretch of good play this Friday against defending MAAC champs Mount St. Mary’s. Get past the Mountaineers, and a tasty mid-major matchup awaits in Merrimack on Sunday afternoon.  

Player of The Week: Austin Benigni, Navy

Although not technically in the Northeast, we’re going to give Navy a nod in this series because:

a.) they play in a Northeast-based conference (Patriot)

b.) we respect the troops here at Basket Under Review

c.) they have a heck of a guard in Austin Benigni

Benigni is another four-year player at a mid-major program, although he obviously operates under a different set of circumstances (service academy players can’t transfer after their sophomore season). He served as a reserve guard for Ed DeChellis in 2022-23, but since then has scored over 1,400 points, leading a Navy team that’s shown steady improvement. 

His two performances this past week served as 20-point games no. 5 and 6 of the season, keeping up with his high 27.9 usage rate. Against Boston University on Wednesday, Benigni had one of his most efficient performances of the season, putting up a season-high 27 points on 8-13 shooting to hold off a feisty Terriers squad. 

As part of this game, Benigni showed off a three-point shot that’s not often utilized in his bag, as he prefers to work from 15 feet and within. Something about the Alumni Hall rims on this day worked for the senior, as he hit a career-high four triples. 

Against Holy Cross later in the week, it was back to the usual for the Texas native, who wound up scoring 23 points exclusively inside the arc. Here, Benigni showed off his ability to get to the line, something that he does better than anyone in the Patriot League (6.6 fouls drawn per 40). 11 made free throws and six two-point shots later, the guard had led his team to a 65-58 road win. 

In both games, Benigni also showed off his vision, an asset that’s not always guaranteed in a player with a usage rate in the high 20s. The senior tied his career high with eight assists against Boston University before putting up five against the Crusaders, raising his assist percentage on the season to an impressive 29%.

The list of players nationally with a PRPG! above 3.0, a usage rate >27.5 and an assist percentage >29 is a small one that includes some of the best guards in the country. Benigni’s recent play has welcomed him into the club of players who boast both pure talent and selfless instincts. 

A list of D1 players who have: PRPG! >3.0, Usage >27.5, AST% >29

Storyline of The Week: George Washington’s Offense

Although George Washington is even farther south than Navy, we’re including them here for reason a.) mentioned above. The Revolutionaries entered this season with considerable hype after returning some key contributors, and they had a non-conference slate that pretty much went exactly to plan. 

GW's KenPom rank from the beginning of the season to the beginning of conference play: +1

Chris Caputo’s team last season did better work on the defensive end, but this George Washington roster has an absurd 120.8 AdjO rating that only three mid-major teams (Akron, Yale, Colorado State) can beat. From all over the court, the Revolutionaries are killing teams, and it showed in their first two Atlantic 10 affairs this week. 

On New Year’s Eve, the Revolutionaries faced off against a Richmond squad that had a solid non-conference campaign of its own. Caputo’s squad ran the Spiders out of their own gym, making 17 (!) threes and putting up 1.51 points per possession en route to a 99-85 victory. 

The talent of this offense also shows in its versatility. When it came back home to face La Salle on Saturday, threes were falling at a 35% clip, good for most teams but below average for George Washington. Here, the Revolutionaries pivoted back to their inside game, out-working the Explorers for 14 offensive boards and scoring 40 points in the paint.

A-10 POY candidate Rafael Castro was a specific benefactor to this approach, as he finished with 26 points and 14 rebounds in George Washington’s 77-55 win. Castro is the straw that stirs the drink for Caputo, as his efficiency and rebounding have helped take the team in Foggy Bottom to a new level. 

That's a lot of green.

If you want to see this Revolutionaries offense get dealt one of its strictest tests yet, tune in to CBS Sports Network at 8:00 ET Tuesday night. There, they’ll take on a top 50 defense in Dayton, who’ll deal Castro a unique assignment in 7-foot-1 sophomore Amael L’Etang.