RAIDER MEN'S BASKETBALL
7 p.m. Thursday – at Simpson (Calif.) | Stream | Live Stats

ASHLAND – Continuity will give the Southern Oregon men's basketball team a chance to be competitive again in 2026-27. Entering his fifth season as the Raiders' head coach, Matt Zosel has yet to lose a player via transfer to another program.

Keeping the core in place was especially beneficial given the talent back this time around. Beginning this week, the Raiders will aim for their third NAIA National Tournament appearance in Zosel's tenure behind foundational senior forward Bryce Dyer, the reigning Cascade Conference Defensive Player of the Year, and 6-foot-6 primary ballhandler Gio Evanson, a junior following up on his breakout All-CCC campaign.

Including those two, the Raiders return five of their top-seven in minutes played (along with five more) from last year's 17-12 team that tied for third in the CCC standings. By welcoming Sacramento State transfer Isaiah Bronson and freshman Tariq Lofton among others, they added some much-needed quickness and playmaking to the backcourt.

"We like where we're at and I think we have the right pieces to be successful, but the conference is really tough right now and there are a lot of other teams feeling good about their chances, too," Zosel said. "It's going to come down to how much we can improve over the course of the season again, because there isn't much separation in terms of talent."

PRESEASON POLLS
Despite finishing outside of the top-five just once in the last 15 years, and never lower than fourth under Zosel, the Raiders were picked sixth out of 11 teams in last week's CCC preseason poll. That's due in large part to the fact that the top half of the circuit should be as strong as in any season in recent history: The CCC produced five national tournament qualifiers last season, and each of the top-six teams in the 2025-26 standings brings back at least three starters. College of Idaho – which, with one of the conference's youngest rosters, missed out on the title last year for the first full season since 2018-19 – was tabbed the favorite. Last year's co-champions, Eastern Oregon and Lewis-Clark State (Idaho), were picked second and third. The NAIA Top 25 preseason poll will be released later this week.

LAST SEASON
Coming off a Cinderella run to the NAIA quarterfinals as a No. 11 seed, the Raiders entered 2025-26 with high expectations and a No. 14 ranking and ended it just off the tournament bubble. Their 14-6 CCC record, which put them in a three-way tie for third place, was actually the team's best under Zosel, but it wasn't enough to command an at-large bid with an overall record weighed down by their 2-5 non-conference start on the road. SOU's hopes were officially dashed by a 71-70 loss to Bushnell in the CCC Tournament quarterfinals.

FIRST UP
The Raiders will play seven of their eight non-conference games against 2026 NAIA Tournament teams and will be on the road for seven of them. The slate starts at 7 p.m. Thursday at defending California Pacific Conference champion Simpson (Calif.), which SOU defeated 81-80 last December in Ashland. The Raiders are home for the first time Nov. 20 to play rival Oregon Tech in a non-conference affair, and they start CCC play Dec. 4-5 in Washington.


BACKCOURT
Gio Evanson graduated from secondary playmaker and sixth man to SOU's go-to guy by the middle of last season, leaving no question about his role as a junior. Now in his fourth year at SOU, Evanson led the Raiders in scoring during CCC play at 16.3 points on 50/43/83 shooting splits, was responsible for the majority of SOU's best clutch moments of the season, and had 27 assists compared to nine turnovers over the final 10 games when the ball was in his hands most. He'll return to the starting lineup along with junior Brady Rice, a career 49% shooter from the field and 34% shooter from 3-point range who contributed 6.1 points last year and is also the team's top backcourt rebounder.

The headliner of the latest recruiting class was redshirt-freshman Isaiah Bronson, a 6-foot-2 left-hander who appeared in six games at Sacramento State and will slot in as a combo guard. He'll be depended on to provide pressure on one end of the floor and handle it on the other, which are skillsets also brought to the table by speedy 5-10 freshman Tariq Lofton. Lofton averaged upwards of 17 points, five assists and four steals at Casa Roble High (Calif.) and profiles as the only pure point guard on the roster.

Liam Bunker is another combo type and will be in uniform for the first time after sitting two years with a traditional redshirt and an injury. Rex Denker and Jaivion McLaughlin are back as juniors after getting spot minutes last season. Sharpshooting 6-4 freshman Jack Shull joined the team following a standout prep career at Folsom High (Calif.), and 6-3 junior Jalen Zeno transferred in with a few years of collegiate experience.

"We have a lot of unselfish, high-IQ guys in that rotation and a little more ballhandling," Zosel said. "Our progress is just going to depend on how fast we can integrate Isaiah and Tariq because their ability to get into defenses is going to be important for us."

FRONTCOURT
As in years prior, 6-5 senior Bryce Dyer is likely to play inside and out for the Raiders. The All-CCC product of North Medford has produced in both roles, finishing as a top-two rebounder in the conference each of the last two seasons and leading all players in CCC 3-point accuracy (41%) in 2025-26. He'll bring 18 career double-doubles into the year and a frontcourt physicality rivaled by Jace Anderson (7.1 points, 4.2 rebounds), who became a regular starter by the end of his redshirt-freshman season. The third returner to SOU's big-man rotation is Luke Wagstaff, a 6-8 floor spacer who supplied 5.7 points per game in his first season with the team.

Like Dyer, 6-6 redshirt-freshman Julian Vaucher will play multiple positions after impressing in a handful of appearances during his first season. Silas Wright, a 6-10 forward from Ashland, was a late addition who redshirted at NCAA Division II Dominican University (Calif.) last year. As a sophomore at Lane, Wright averaged 14.4 points and 7.2 rebounds while leading the NWAC in 3-point accuracy (48%). Juremi Ejuwa is the true freshman of the group, signing on with the Raiders out of California High in San Ramon (Calif.).

"There's some great leadership in that group, guys who care about making the right play," Zosel said. "It's a nice mix of skills that should give us some lineup flexibility."