SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth University men's basketball team hosts Northwest University (Wash.) on Friday in the 2026-27 home opener. Friday's contest, scheduled for 11:00 am in the Whitworth Fieldhouse, is the third Spokane Public Schools game. Nearly 1,500 public school children from Spokane are expected to attend.
Check the Whitworth men's basketball schedule for live links to this week's game.
Tickets: Digital tickets are required for entrance to the Whitworth Fieldhouse for all fans. Tickets can be purchased in advance using the Hometown Ticketing App. Tickets are $14 for adults and $8 for senior adults, non-Whitworth students and children. Whitworth students, as well as faculty and staff, get free admission by using an ID number.
Watch on FloCollege: Like the rest of the Northwest Conference, Whitworth's home athletic events will be steamed through FloCollege in 2025-26. Fans can sign up to watch Pirate sports on the FloCollege portal. Registration is $116 for an annual subscription or $20 per month. Those who register with a .edu email address get a significant discount.
Inland Northwest Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Bud Nameck, familiar in Spokane as the KXLY channel 4 sports director for over 20 years and the longtime host of the KXLY 920am Morning News, is in his 12th season as the voice of the Pirates in 2026-27. He was the voice of Washington State University men's basketball for 22 years and spent that same amount of time on the Cougar football broadcasts – the final three on play by play. He is a longtime resident of the Inland Northwest who began his career as the Sports Information Director and radio voice of Gonzaga University basketball and baseball in the 1980s.
The Pirates: Whitworth (0-2) opened its season with a pair of tough losses in Texas.
The Pirates fell 84-76 at Mary Hardin-Baylor in the season opener for both schools last Friday night in Belton, Texas. Whitworth had a first half lead and was within 38-35 at halftime. The Cru' did not pull away until late when the Bucs missed some free throws. Kobe Parlin and Nate Krohn had 16 points apiece, while Ben Fried had 14 points, three assists and three steals.
On Saturday against a high-pressure attack from Concordia University in Austin, Whitworth fell behind early, rallied to within three points, then fell behind again in the second half of a 109-87 loss to the Tornados. The Bucs committed 34 turnovers against Concordia's press. Parlin torched the nets for 38 points and added seven rebounds. Krohn was the only other Pirate in double figures with ten points.
New Faces, Same Program: The mantra of Whitworth men's basketball has been "Tradition Never Graduates" for the better part of the last two decades. That sentiment will be tested in 2026-27. The Pirates graduated all five starters from the 2025-26 team and several key backups. Only six players returned this season. Of the 17 players on the roster, four are junior college transfers and seven are first-year players.
The Opponents: Northwest University is a mirror-image of Whitworth in many ways. The NAIA-member Eagles are currently 0-2 with a pair of close losses in their opening games at the Taco Bell Shootout hosted by College of Idaho last weekend. NU lost to Carroll (Mont.) 95-92 and Univ. of Providence 106-103. Adam Lynch is in his first season as the Eagles' head coach after serving three years as an assistant at Northwest. The Eagles only return four players from last season and have 12 newcomers on the roster. Senior G Christian Watkins earned All-Cascade Collegiate Conference last season after leading the league in steals. He is averaging 23.5 points per game this year. Junior F Hudson Yarbrough contributes 14.0 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. Whitworth won the last game between the two schools 95-83 at home in November of 2023.
Pirates picked tied at the top: Whitworth is tied at the top of the 2026-27 Northwest Conference coaches poll with Willamette University. Both schools had 58 points in the poll. The Bearcats had four first place votes while the Pirates had three. Puget Sound picked up the other two first place votes and is third in the poll with 53 points. Whitworth is coming off a 22-6 record in 2025-26 and a Northwest Conference title with a 14-2 mark. The Pirates defeated Willamette 97-87 in the championship of the NWC tournament, but graduated all five starters.
Over Two Decades of Dominance: Since the beginning of the 2005-06 season the Pirates are 470-109 (.812), an amazing run of success matched by few other college teams at any level. Within the Northwest Conference, Whitworth has won 249 of its last 283 (.879).
Home-Sweet-Home: Whitworth has been stellar in the Whitworth Fieldhouse since the 1990's. During the decade of the 1990s and 2000's Whitworth won more than 84% of its home games. However, since the beginning of the 2005-06 season, the Bucs are 239-30 (.888) at home.
The Pirates have had two home-court winning streaks of more than 40 games since 1990. A 41-game home court winning streak from early 2009 until December of 2011 was the second-longest in Pirate history. The school record for consecutive home victories is 43, beginning during the 1994-95 season and ending during the 1997-98 season..
Road Warriors: As good as Whitworth is at home, the Pirates have been almost as good away from the Whitworth Fieldhouse over the last 14+ seasons. Since the start of the 11-12 season, Whitworth is 140-47 (.749) away from home, 111-33 (.770) in true road games..
The Coach: Damion Jablonski is in his 16th season on the Pirate coaching staff in 2026-27, and his eighth as head coach of the Pirates. He is 139-45 as Whitworth's head coach. Jablonski has led Whitworth to the NCAA Division III tournament five times as the head coach, the only non-tournament years was due to Covid-19 and 2024-25 when the Bucs were upset in the conference semifinals. He was named NWC Coach of the Year in 2025-26 after leading the Pirates to a 22-6 record, an NWC regular season title (14-2) and a conference tournament championship.
Jablonski spent eight years as the top assistant at Whitworth, including six seasons with the title of Associate Head Coach. Over the course of his tenure as an assistant, the Bucs won 215 games, seven Northwest Conference titles and seven NWC tournament crowns. As the head recruiting coordinator, Jablonski was instrumental in continuing the Bucs' tradition of success by helping to recruit high quality student-athletes to Whitworth. Jablonski is joined by assistant coaches Nick Sullivan, a former graduate assistant at Gonzaga, and Seth Hall, a former NWC Player of the Year at Pacific Lutheran.
Coming Up Next: Whitworth will host Pomona-Pitzer in a pair of back-to-back non-conference games on Nov. 20-21.
