Another season is right around the corner with really high expectations for the Omaha Mavericks Men’s Basketball Team. Last season, Omaha made it to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the DI era after winning the Summit League Postseason losing to St Johns in the First Round. This season Omaha returns several key players from last seasons team including Summit League Player of the Year Watchlist Tony Osburn, Isaac Ondekane, Kam Thomas, Ja’Sean Glover, Lance Waddles, and Grant Stubblefield. Other returning players include Valentino Simon, Aidan Skradis and Khamani Cooper. Some new players to the roster for Omaha includes Freshman Brock Scholl (Omaha Skutt Grad), transfer portal pickups Christian Richardson (Long Beach State), Julian Margrave (South Alabama), Benji Nelson (Northern Oklahoma), Rob Matos (Molloy), and Paul Djobet (Miami). Unfortunately tragedy stuck during the summer when North Dakota transfer Deng Mayar died suddenly in Utah in a drowning incident.
Omaha’s first game is on Monday November 3rd at 1230pm in Sioux Falls at the Sanford Pentagon when they take on Murray State in the Field of 68 opening day marathon. The game will be aired in Omaha on AM Radio 1290 KOIL with Gary Sharp on the call. Some notable nonconference games include at Colorado State Sunday November 9th, Southern Utah at home Saturday November 15th which will include three banners getting raised before the game starts (2025 Summit League Regular Season Champs, 2025 Summit League Postseason Champs, 2025 NCAA Tournament Appearance First Round Providence), at LSU November 21st (facing former Mav Marquel Sutton), FIU Invitational Thanksgiving Week, home against Northern Colorado December 3rd and at Portland State December 6th (Summit/Big Sky Challenge), and at Oregon December 28th. This is a huge opportunity for Omaha to get ready for conference play and potentially winning a buy game or two. Hopefully Jon Rothstein tweets a ton about the Omaha Mavericks this season on Twitter.
This season my Summit League predictions are in this following order Omaha, St Thomas, South Dakota State, South Dakota, North Dakota State, North Dakota, Kansas City, Denver, and Oral Roberts. Expect lots of cannons to be fired in the Reach the Summit Podcast Group Chat, trash can celebration videos, Howling Podcast mad about Omaha and anything with it, as well as ref ball. Based on my work schedule and availability I will try to make it to a few Omaha Basketball games if I can based on what days I am off each month. There is a high potential I might also run into Summit League Basketball teams where I work too. The Eye Chart of the Week will be fun based on games throughout the College Basketball landscape.