Replacing four players who averaged over 10 points per game a year ago is an audacious task for any team — and it will be the one that the Eastern Michigan University men’s basketball team embarks on during the course of the upcoming 2025-26 season.
With Jalin Billingsley, Christian Henry, Da’Sean Nelson and Jalen Terry all having departed Ypsilanti, Eagles Head Coach Stan Heath welcomes a new squad heading into the new year featuring nine new players from the previous campaign.
“This environment now is so different that you have brand new teams, and you’re trying to get things done with new pieces almost every year — it's hard to sustain the same guys. But I think my staff and I are doing a really, really good job of building these rosters from year to year,” Heath said.
The 60-year-old head coach leads an Eastern Michigan program that has shown consistent improvement throughout his tenure at his alma mater thus far. After posting a combined 18 wins over the course of his first two seasons at the helm, Heath’s squads have racked up 13 and 16 wins respectively each of the last two campaigns.
This year, the veteran coach believes his Eagles are capable of even greater heights.
“I expect us to surpass what we did last year — I do think this team has the personnel to be better than what we were last year,” he said.
Players to watch
One of the key additions to Eastern Michigan’s 2025-26 roster is redshirt freshman Mohammad Habhab, an incoming transfer from Central Michigan University who played sparingly for the Chippewas a year ago.
Habhab, a 6-foot-9-inch 220-pound center hailing from Dearborn, Michigan, has already broken into the starting lineup according to Coach Heath, making an instant impact in his debut for the green and white in the team’s exhibition match against Tuskegee University on Oct. 30, 2025.
“We wanted to get some size — adding Mo Habhab, I think, was a great addition for us. Even though he’s a young player, I think he’s gonna be a very impactful guy,” Heath said.
In that game, the former Fordson High School graduate posted 14 points, five rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks, serving as an integral component of the Eagles’ 73-65 win in the preseason contest and proving his coach’s comments right before the regular season even kicks off.
Another name to be on the lookout for in green and white this season will be Addison Patterson, the redshirt senior from Northwestern State University.
Patterson’s path to Ypsilanti has been anything but easy. The native Ontarian has suited up for four different schools throughout his college career, with Eastern Michigan set to be his fifth after graduating high school in the class of 2019 and having a waiver approved to compete by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
“His background is simply, he’s only played three years of college basketball. He had an ACL injury one year, he had a JUCO year one year, he had a COVID year one year. So when you start adding those factors in — these are all legitimate things in the past,” Heath said, elaborating further on Patterson’s winding road to Eastern Michigan.
“He’s a very good player; he’s fitting really well with what we’re doing,” Heath said.
Standing at 6 feet and 7 inches tall, Patterson’s presence on the floor for the Eagles has already been felt. He dropped 14 points and six rebounds during the team’s exhibition contest against Tuskegee.
Eastern Michigan fans should also be on the lookout for the new No. 2 hitting the hardwood this season, Valdosta State University transfer Carlos Hart.
Averaging 19.2 points per game and 6.8 rebounds per game last year for the Blazers, the 6-foot-6-inch redshirt senior guard from Miami, Florida, could emerge as a top scorer for Eastern Michigan in 2025-26.
“He’s a dude. He’s aggressive, he gets fouled a lot, he’s an attacking guy. As I said before, he can play any position you want, one through four. His game’s not pretty; it’s a little more old school, but he gets a lot done,” Heath said.
Hart’s impact was also felt against Tuskegee. He added nine points, three rebounds and two assists to the stat sheet in nearly 28 minutes of action.
Offensive & defensive scheming
With wholesale changes to the roster in 2025-26, Eastern Michigan fans can also expect the green and white to play a different type of basketball throughout the campaign at the George Gervin GameAbove Center.
“The level of what we’re doing [will be] much higher, especially on the defensive end,” Heath said.
“On the offensive end, we have tweaked some things. I felt like because we have more guys that can handle the ball and make plays, we’re in more of a 'random offense' than we are [running] a lot of set plays,” he added.
Heath elaborated further on his 'random offense' philosophy, emphasizing his team’s ability to be versatile and unpredictable through key components such as playing in space and spreading the ball around in the paint.
“Last year, it was always Da’Sean [Nelson]; now there’s about four, five guys that may go down low and post up for us,” he said.
The end result, Heath hopes, is a philosophy on both ends of the floor that fits his personnel.
“That’s really my coaching style — you tell me what’s on the table to eat, and I can figure out the menu. What ingredients we have in the refrigerator, I can figure out the menu to eat,” he said, emphasizing his ability to tailor his game plan to his talent.
Catch the Eastern Michigan Eagles back in action at the George Gervin GameAbove Center to kick off the 2025-26 season against Georgia State University on Nov. 3, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. Viewers can stream all of the action live on ESPN+.
