The USAO men’s basketball season has started and this year’s team is unlike any of the past. The Drovers are looking to keep momentum from their strong season last year with a record of 17-3.

This year’s Drover team is built on size and athleticism, and with that, some new faces to the team. Freshman guards such as Jaden Harrell, Logan Dolan, Cade Allen, Dallen Forsythe, Rudy Pittman, and Jace Hollingshed are all in their first years here at USAO and have already added a lot of fresh talent to the team.

Another new face is the big man Rory Pantophlet who transferred from Troy University. Pantophlet is coming from a D1 basketball program and said that USAO’s team has the potential to go as far as possible,

“As a team, as a unit, we’re there,” he said. “Individually we have talent. We’re still trying to figure out certain things. We’re still inconsistent when it comes to practice and how we play together, that’s how every new situation is.”

The Drovers opened the preseason poll at #2 in the Sooner Athletic conference ranked only behind Southwestern Assembles of God University.

With everything that’s gone on in the past year with the pandemic, Coach Chris Francis is faced with a multitude of new challenges heading into this season.

“It was kind of weird,” he said. “Our scrimmage almost felt like my first year coaching here again, being able to huddle up, coaching with the fans, without a mask instead of sitting six feet apart. Now that things are getting back to normal, you kind of get those nerves and butterflies that I personally didn’t get at all last year.”

Francis also talked about a new sense of urgency that not only surrounds this team but the whole world with the pandemic being a little bit more relaxed when it comes to restrictions.

“I don’t know when they’ll feel it, or if they’ve felt it yet, but not only us but the whole world developed some bad habits last year with covid, including myself with no sense of urgency.” He said.

With a 3-0 start to the season and the most talent in recent memory, the Drovers have all the potential to go as far they choose.

Preston Palm is a freshman communication major from Boone, North Carolina.