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23 March 2026  6 min read

EABL: 2025/26 Regular Season Award Winners Announced

With a number of awards available, including MVP, All-Conference First Team, Most Improved Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, U17 Player of the Year and Coach of the Year, the end-of-season awards are a fitting way to single out some of the great performances from across the last six months.

All six teams in each Conference were asked to vote on shortlisted players for each award, without being able to vote for their own players.

The following external voters were also involved in the process:

• Ian Cawthorne - Basketball England's PR & Communications Manager
• Kareem Lee - Basketball England's Academy Social Media Lead
• Dr Sam Messam - Basketball England's Talent Programme & Pathway Manager
• Alan Keane - 2025 GB U20 Men's Head Coach
• Troy Culley - Assistant Coach at Tigers Tubingen

Congratulations to all those chosen and don’t forget you can still attend this week's EABL playoff final between Manchester Magic and Myerscough College at Essex Sports Arena.

Tickets to attend the final are free, but need to be obtained for capacity reasons. To secure your ticket, please head to the Basketball England shop.

Grab a ticket here

MVP

After recording an EABL-best 26.6 efficiency per game (EPG), Manchester's Demi Babalola is the North Conference's MVP.

The young star recorded top five marks in all major stat categories, including points (16.1PPG), rebounds (10.0RPG), assists (5.3APG), blocks (1.6BPG) and leading the league in steals (4.6SPG), excelling at both ends of the court.

Babalola's efforts were key to his side capturing the North Conference title and the impact wasn't lost on this year's voters, with the Manchester man collecting eight of the possible eleven first place MVP votes.

Second in voting for this award a year ago, Babalola went one better this time to cap a season to remember.

South Conference MVP goes to Itchen's Ethan Round for another eye-catching regular season campaign.

After helping the South coast programme to lock up second spot in an increasingly-competitive conference, Round would close the regular with 20.9PPG, a mark that wouldn't be beaten by anyone in the South.

3.5APG added extra value to his MVP claims, and his 21.8EPG was also the highest of all players in the South Conference.

Stepping up for an All-Conference First Team selection with HHS Reading Rockets a year ago, a change of scenery has certainly pushed Round to new heights in 2025/26.

Coach of the Year

After helping his side to top spot and a North Conference title, it's no surprise to see Manchester's Tom Paraskeva collect Coach of the Year honours.

Voters highlighted Manchester's regular season success alongside the development of the likes of MVP Babalola, standout guard Jack Walton and wing Tom Richardson, with Paraskeva helping to sculpt Manchester into a top-tier programme.

Masterminding a defence that allowed the second fewest points in the North (67.6PPG allowed), the North West side were able to push on from last season's exit at the Elite Eight stage to a strong campaign in 2025/26.

In one of the more straightforward awards this year, South Conference Coach of the Year goes to CoLA's Jay Williams.

Picking up his third award after successes in 2022/23 and 2023/24, Williams marshalled CoLA to a perfect 10-0 regular-season record, with his side owning the South's second-best offence (75.4PPG) and stingiest defence (59.4PPG allowed).

Williams also helped develop the likes of Andrew Nwoloko, Daniel and David Banjoko and Toby Gass, who all featured across this season's awards nominations for their standout play.

All Conference First Team

MVP Babalola is an automatic selection to the All-Conference team, and he's joined by Manchester team mate Jack Walton (13.0PPG, 6.3RPG) who also made this team a year ago.

Olivier Esingle (14.1PPG, 5.2RPG, 4.7APG) is Myerscough's lone selection, leading the North runners up in points, assists, steals and efficiency.

Charnwood's Tristan Curran came second in this season's MVP voting, and whilst he received no first place votes, he did get more second and third place nods than any other player.

His 22.3PPG led all Northern scorers bar BMet's Larry Duru (26.9PPG, 12.7RPG), who also makes this year's team as he stood out despite the Rockets' 1-9 record.

Itchen's Ethan Round is locked into the All-Conference team, narrowly pipping CoLA's standout forward Toby Gass (17.1PPG, 7.9RPG, 1.6BPG) in this year's voting.

Gass' teammate Daniel Banjoko (12.6PPG, 7.3RPG, 3.5SPG) also earns recognition for his part in CoLA's unbeaten season, producing at both ends of the court for the South winners.

Barking's Joshua Mendes (16.4PPG, 10.0RPG, 1.1BPG) makes the cut after averaging a fine double-double across the campaign, and the five is rounded out by Oaklands' forward Gavin Mitchell (15.7PPG, 13.2RPG, 1.0BPG) who led all South players on the glass this season.

Defensive Player of the Year

There was no argument amongst the voters in the North as Manchester's Demi Babalola backed up his MVP credentials with 10 of the 11 first place votes for Defensive Player of the Year.

With 8.2 defensive rebounds per game along with 4.6SPG and 1.6BPG, Babalola was a key reason Manchester allowed just 67.6ppg this season, turning that into a 9-1 record and a Conference title.

The South award was similarly decided, with CoLA's Daniel Banjoko taking the Defensive Player of the Year title comfortably.

Nine first place votes showed just how impressive the CoLA man was this season, helping his side concede an EABL-best 59.4PPG by producing 4.4 defensive rebounds per game alongside 3.5SPG.

Most Improved Player

A key metric in a development league, the EABL North's Most Improved Player for 2025/26 is SGS College's Kevin Ramirez Mora.

A close run thing with Charnwood's Rudy Buckingham, Mora improved from just 0.6PPG a season ago to 9.7PPG this term, also improving his rebounding numbers from 1.4RPG to 8.3.

His whopping increase from 1.6EPG to 16.8 shows the strides the young forward has taken, also earning Player of the Week honours this year as well.

The South award was much more one-sided, with CoLA's Toby Gass taking the MIP award by some distance.

After featuring just three times in 2024/25, the talented young forward was a constant for CoLA this season, improving from 2.3PPG to 17.1PPG, 3.0RPG to 7.9RPG, and 2.3EPG to 18.6EPG.

That kind of leap earned Gass 10 of the 11 available first place votes, and with it, this year's award. 

U17 Player of the Year

Awarded to the best Year 12 players from across the league, this season's awards go to Charnwood's Zavier Gleadell-Smith and Oaklands' Liam McIntosh.

Gleadell-Smith (12.5PPG, 11.0RPG, 2.1BPG) averaged a double-double across the campaign despite his young age, adding a couple of blocks per outing to further highlight his clear potential.

McIntosh (15.0PPG, 5.6RPG, 1.9APG) led all U17 players in scoring this year, helping the Wolves into the post-season in the process.

Another with a bright future, Oaklands will no doubt be excited to see what he can produce heading into 2026/27.

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