As the 2025-26 college basketball regular season winds down and fans start turning their attention to March Madness, the UCA Men’s basketball team is currently in the midst of a historic stretch, to the likes of which the program has never seen in the Division I era.
The Bears found their fair share of success during their long tenure in the NAIA, winning 16 Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference titles and finishing as the NAIA runner up twice from 1927 to 1992.
However, the jump to the Division 1 level in 2006 has left the Bears struggling to find their footing.
In 20 seasons of D1 competition, the Bears have a singular winning season to their name, when the team went 18-17 in the 2017-18 season.
Enter Head Coach John Shulman.
Before arriving at Central Arkansas in 2024, Shulman was the Head Coach at The University of Alabama In Huntsville, where he coached the team to a 112-39 record over five years, securing a berth in the NCAA Division 2 tournament each season.
Prior to his time at UAH, Shulman was the Head Coach at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he led his team to 2 NCAA tournament appearances.
In Shulman’s second campaign, the Bears currently find themselves in possession of a 10 game winning streak that has pushed their record to 17-10, marking the most regular season games Central Arkansas has won at the Division 1 level.
The Bears’ 12-2 Atlantic Sun record is also good for the most conference wins in 33 seasons at both the Division 1 and 2 levels.
UCA’s associate head coach Brock Widders, who has been with the Bears under three different head coaches since joining the staff in 2017, took some time to share some insight into the team’s historic run.
Widders said Shulman had one thing on his mind when he first arrived at UCA.
“The culture, Shulman is hardworking, he’s blue-collar, he’s an everyday clock in, clock out guy. So you combine culture, and also bring in kids to fit his culture,” Widders said.
Maybe the most impressive aspect of this season for the Bears is that they have gone on this run with three freshmen in the starting lineup.
In an era where former pro players in their mid-twenties have been allowed to come back and play college basketball, Widders spoke about what it’s been like to win in an unconventional way.
Widders said, “Everybody says that you have to be older. You just can’t do it, you can’t win with freshmen. It’s been fun to go against the grain a little bit and win with these freshmen. There’s a combination of some of them don’t act like freshmen. Ty Robinson acts like he’s probably 63 years old. All he does is books and basketball and takes naps.”
Given that most of the players on the team are so young and played for winning high school programs, it can be challenging at times for them to realize just how historic what they are currently accomplishing is in the grand scheme of things.
Widders said the message to the team regarding their success has been to “enjoy this ride, enjoy the people you’re around, because who knows how often this comes around? And so hopefully when they look back and they can see what they established here at the University of Central Arkansas, and then also the relationships, like our team loves each other. Ty Robinson loves Cam Hunter, Cam Hunter loves Cole McCormick. They all love each other.”
When asked what has personally been his biggest takeaways during his time under Coach Shulman, Widders said, “Just watching [Shulman] and the way he builds the culture and the way he builds relationships with the kids is probably one of the biggest takeaways that I’ve learned from him.”
With four games remaining in the regular season, the Bears have clinched a bye to the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Sun tournament in Jacksonville, Fla. next month. With three straight wins in the tournament, UCA would secure its first bid to March Madness in school history.
It remains to be seen what the rest of the season has in store for Central Arkansas, but regardless of the outcome, the Bears have already cemented their legacy as one of the greatest teams in the history of UCA Men’s basketball.