RAIDER MEN'S BASKETBALL
7:30 p.m. Friday – at Oregon Tech | Stream | Live Stats

ASHLAND – The Southern Oregon men's basketball team is well acquainted with the maddeningly thin line between good and great. The Raiders toed it for the majority of last season before March changed everything.

As the 2025-26 campaign begins this week with 11 players back and some supplemental pieces on board, the expectation is that they can cross over a little sooner this time around. A louder buzz, an elevated profile and the No. 14 spot in the NAIA preseason poll are all byproducts of an appearance in the national quarterfinals. There is another of greater import to head coach Matt Zosel: "We feel like that success gave us some proof of concept."

Zosel, entering his fourth season, proved adept at managing highs and lows while building up a 2024-25 team that started 0-4 in the Cascade Conference and took nine of its 10 losses ahead of the NAIA Tournament by five or fewer points. The Raiders were nearly stopped short of the most remarkable month in program history, but broke through behind All-CCC performers Bryce Dyer and Elijah Jackson, who are back to lead the way starting Friday night.

"With more continuity than we've had before, we should get out of the gate faster and know there's a little more pressure to be good early," Zosel said. "But we still value getting better over the entire season and being built for the end of the year more than anything. If we can just stick to being really unselfish, we don't worry about a lot of the other stuff because that will solve a lot at the end of the day."

PRESEASON POLLS
For the first time since the NAIA's two divisions merged in 2020, the Raiders are in the Top 25 at No. 14 in the preseason coaches' poll. They were picked to finish second in the CCC behind defending national champion College of Idaho, which owns the NAIA's No. 1 ranking despite having lost four starters. Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) and Oregon Tech are also receiving Top 25 votes, sitting overall at Nos. 31 and 34, respectively. They were picked third and fourth in the CCC poll, and Eastern Oregon rounded out the top five.

LAST SEASON
The 2024-25 Raiders went 23-11 overall, hitting the 20-win mark for the ninth time in their last 12 full seasons. A 14-8, fourth-place finish in the CCC – along with the team's seventh consecutive advancement to the CCC Tournament semifinals – was good enough to warrant an at-large bid to the NAIA Tournament for the second time in three seasons under Zosel. It was there, as a No. 11 seed, that the Raiders stacked their signature moments with upsets of No. 6 seed Montana Tech, No. 3 seed The Master's (Calif.) and No. 7 seed Keiser (Fla.) – all champions of their respective conferences. After winning three consecutive national tournament games for the first time in program history, SOU was finally stopped by top-seeded Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) in the quarterfinal round.

FIRST UP
SOU and Oregon Tech will have a non-conference meeting for the first time in eight years to start the season, tipping off at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Klamath Falls. The Owls reloaded after losing five senior starters and have won five straight head-to-head matchups. Of the seven games on the Raiders' pre-CCC slate, five will be against teams either in the Top 25 or receiving votes, including rematches with No. 9 The Master's and No. 11 Montana Tech. They'll be home for the first time Dec. 5-6 to face Northwest (Wash.) and Evergreen (Wash.) on the opening weekend of conference play.

BACKCOURT
As Elijah Jackson turned a corner last season, averaging 19.5 points over the final five weeks, so did the Raiders. The senior point guard tripled his output from the year prior, finishing as the only CCC player to rank among the top-10 in both points (14.9) and assists (3.0) per game and doing so efficiently on 48% shooting from the field and 34% from 3-point range. He and junior Bryce Dyer – set to move from power to small forward in the starting lineup – make the Raiders the only team with a pair of returning All-CCC selections. Dyer, the 6-foot-5 Medford native, averaged 11.0 points, 9.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists with 11 double-doubles a year ago, landing at 53% from the field and 36% downtown. He'll give the Raiders added size on the perimeter along with Gio Evanson (5.7 points, 1.6 assists), a 6-6 sophomore and capable secondary playmaker who impressed before sitting out the second half of last season.

One major through-line for the Raiders under Zosel has been at the 3-point line, where last year in terms of makes they both accumulated more (9.8/game) and allowed fewer (5.6/game) than any team in the conference. They'll have a wealth of additional firepower in that regard off the bench from returners Emmett Fenz (49% 3FG), Jacob Axmaker (44% 3FG) and Brady Rice (54% FG).

They added shooting with two more North Medford products, Dyer's former high school teammates Trey Neff and Tyson Neff. Trey was a conference player of the year at College of the Redwoods (Calif.), where he averaged nearly 20 points over two seasons, and Tyson turned into a double-digit scorer and all-defensive team selection. Rex Denker is also new to the group, via De Anza C.C. (Calif.), while Liam Bunker and Jaivion McLaughlin are back after redshirting last season.

"We have some really versatile guys who can execute and guard their position against anyone in the country at our level," Zosel said. "There's a lot of length, IQ, and skill, which is what we hang our hat on."

FRONTCOURT
Joe Juhala's play down the stretch last year makes him a strong breakout candidate in his new role as a full-time starting center. The 6-foot-8 senior was a 43% shooter outside and hit at a 52% clip overall, averaging 8.8 points and 3.8 rebounds in just 16 minutes per game. He'll play alongside senior Jack Chlumak (4.5 points, 2.3 rebounds), a 6-5 senior leader who played a variety of roles on both ends of the floor in his first season with the Raiders.

Jace Anderson, a 6-7 freshman, will give SOU a physicality boost after retaining a redshirt last season with six promising games played. Western Colorado transfer Luke Wagstaff, a 6-8 sophomore, was considered a key addition with the range and size he brings to the mix. The Raiders are high on 6-6 true freshman Julian Vaucher, a league player of the year at Las Lomas High (Calif.), and they brought in former Ashland High standout Hawthorn LaPierre from Western Oregon.

"I'm really pleased with our frontcourt," Zosel said. "I think we have a solid four-man rotation and a freshman who is putting some pressure on people. They're team guys who buy into what we're trying to do and should be pretty efficient offensively and versatile defensively."