The UNC Wilmington basketball program moved to Division I in 1976-77. In 1984, the Seahawks joined the ECAC-South Conference (also known as the Colonial Athletic Association). In their first conference home game at Trask Coliseum the Seahawks defeated George Mason. The first appearance in a Colonial Athletic Association championship game came in 1987, just their third season of league play that saw them finish the regular season in 2nd place. UNCW appeared in three more Colonial Athletic Association title games (1989, 1996, 1998) before capturing their first championship in 2000 with a 57-47 win over Richmond. UNCW won the title again in 2006 by beating Hofstra, 78-67.
The first appearance in post-season play came in 1998 when they were selected for the NIT. They played again in the NIT in 2001.
UNCW has made six appearances in the NCAA Tournament (2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2016, 2017), two in the NIT (1998, 2001), one in the CIT (2015) and one in the CBI (2022) in which the Seahawks won the CBI Championship. In their second appearance in 2002, the 13th seeded Seahawks shocked the 4th seeded University of Southern California Trojans. In 2006 the Seahawks earned a ninth seed in the Atlanta Regional as CAA conference champions. The Seahawks lost to #4 seed Duke (93-85) in 2016 as a 13 seed in the West Regional. In 2017, Virginia beat #12 seed UNCW (76-71) in the first round of the East Regional.