The Ohio Northern men's basketball program aims for its third straight winning season and fourth consecutive upper-division finish in the Ohio Athletic Conference during the 2018-19 regular season under third-year head coach Rich Bensman.

This season, the Polar Bear lineup will feature 10 previous letterwinners, including seven multiple-time lettermen, and an All-American and reigning OAC Player of the Year in senior center Ryan Bruns.

Bensman has reignited a winning culture at ONU following a stretch from 2010-2016 where the Orange and Black went just 92-93. In two seasons under the third-year head coach, Ohio Northern has posted a 35-19 record, which also includes an OAC Regular Season runner-up finish in the 2016-17 season.

The program will need to replace seven graduated seniors from the 2017-18 squad, but the team is prepared for the challenge heading into the new campaign.

Ohio Northern was selected to finish third in the OAC.

"Just like any year, you have a new team and a new identity," Bensman noted. "Last season, we took on a team that did not have many players with college varsity-level minutes. We are in the same position this year, but we have a lot of young, talented players on the roster ready to make an impact." 

 Schedule

The Polar Bears are slated to kick off the 2018-19 season Monday evening with a visit from area-rival Defiance. The contest is set to tip-off at 7 p.m. inside the ONU Sports Center.

Ohio Northern's nonconference competitions will be headlined by a trip to the D3hoops.com Classic in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 27-28. ONU will battle Linfield (Ore.) on day one followed with a clash against NCAA Division III perennial power North Central (Ill.).

The out-of-conference schedule also includes visits from in-state foes Denison and Wooster and trips to Hope (Mich.) and Thomas More (Ky.).

"We have a good non-conference schedule, and it will be tough," Bensman remarked. "You have proven programs like Hope and Wooster - who are regularly among the nationally-recognized teams. Then, we head out to the D3hoops.com Classic, which we look forward to competing in."

Northern will raise the curtain on the 2018-19 OAC regular season on Saturday, December 1 when they host Mount Union in a 2 p.m. afternoon affair.

Following the 18-game conference schedule, qualifying teams will compete in the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament to be held on February 19, 21, and 23.

"There are no nights off in the conference. If you take one, that game will go down as a loss," Bensman stated of the tough conference competition.