BELTON — For the second time in the last five years, UMHB men’s basketball’s regular season slate will include a trip to Las Vegas, as The Cru is set to play at the widely-respected D3hoops.com Classic in December.
Announced on Thursday morning as part of the eight-team men’s field for the 15th edition of the event, UMHB makes its return after going 2-0 in the 2021 edition. The Cru won 19 of its next 20 games following their wins out west that winter, and made an NCAA Tournament run to the Elite Eight.
This time around, Ohio Northern University and the University of Redlands are on tap to face the Crusaders on Dec. 29 and Dec. 30 at South Point Arena, in two matchups that will no doubt test UMHB prior to the start of American Southwest Conference play. Both Redlands and ONU finished 2024-25 with overall records above .500, and each returns at least three starters to the roster. While UMHB played Redlands during its 2022-23 season—the only prior meeting between the two in program history—the Crusaders have never faced ONU.
Like UMHB, Ohio Northern is under the direction of a new head coach this coming season, making the contest in Vegas a duel between two first-year coaches. But Jon Tropf is no stranger to the ONU program. He spent three years on staff as the assistant before earning promotion to head coach in April, following Neal Young’s decision to step away from coaching. Tropf inherits a team that was 14-12 overall, and posted an 8-10 record in Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) action last season, a mark that includes a December win over then-No. 24 John Carroll, and three straight victories at the end of the regular season.
The good news for Tropf is that ONU’s roster in 2024-25 was young, thus putting the Polar Bears in a favorable spot looking towards 2025-26. ONU’s top four scorers were all underclassmen, led by junior guard Will Miller at 14.0 PPG, and leading rebounder Jadi Cunningham Jr. (6.0 RPG) enters only his junior year this season. In total, five of the six players who averaged at least 17.0 min/game in 2024-25 could return, making ONU a dark horse in the OAC title race.
This is the second straight year in which The Cru is facing an OAC program as part of its non-conference slate. Last November, UMHB beat Heidelberg, 79-75, for its first win of the season at a four-team classic in Angola, Indiana.
UMHB is set to play ONU at 4 p.m. PT (6 p.m. CT) on Monday, December 29, on the third day of the classic.
>> UMHB all-time record vs the OAC (records available from 2001-present): 1-0
Redlands, a private university of about 3,000 students in Southern California, comes into its 2025-26 campaign with momentum following an Elite Eight appearance and a 25-5 record in 2024-25. Under the direction of accomplished head coach Eric Bridgeland, the Bulldogs put together one of the best seasons in the program’s D3 history, winning 14 of their 16 contests in SCIAC play, and tying Cal Lutheran for the league’s regular season title. Redlands clinched an at-large bid to the national tournament, and following a first-round win over St. Joseph’s (Maine) at the Medford (MA) Regional, the Bulldogs pulled off one of the season’s biggest upsets, taking down No. 8 overall seed Tufts on its home floor. The 95-93 overtime win put Redlands into its first Sweet 16 in history, and they advanced one step further six days later. Bridgeland’s squad took down Hampden-Sydney College, the tournament’s No. 11 overall seed, in an 83-72 victory in New York City.
The 2024-25 Redlands team closed the year with the second-most wins in a single season in the program’s lengthy history, finishing only second to the 1960-61 team, and became the first SCIAC team in over two decades to reach a D3 sectional final. Through his first four full years at Redlands, Bridgeland is 71-34, the fastest coach in program history to reach the 70-win mark. Leading scorer Omari Ferguson (13.5 PPG) is anticipated to return for his senior year, giving the Bulldogs a major threat on both ends of the floor. The Chicago native also led the team in steals last season, with 69, and shot 52.9% on the offensive end. Rising senior Jake Hlywiak and rising junior Jhace Boston should also return after being mainstays in the starting lineup last winter.
UMHB is 1-0 all-time against Redlands, having won 92-82 in a true road game at the beginning of 2022-23. Josiah Johnson put up 25 points and Luke Feely added 20 more as The Cru overcame a four-point halftime deficit with a 54-point second half.
The Crusaders are scheduled against Redlands in the second-to-last game of the classic on Tuesday, December 30, with a 4 p.m. PT (6 p.m. CT) tip-off time.
>> UMHB all-time record vs the SCIAC (records available from 2001-present): 3-2
With UMHB’s participation in the 2025 D3hoops.com Classic, a Texas men’s program has been included in the field for the fourth time since 2021: UMHB (2021), Trinity (2023), Hardin-Simmons (2024), UMHB (2025). The Cru joins Redlands, Whittier, and Occidental as Region 10 representatives in this year’s edition of the eight-team classic. Read the full release from D3hoops.com here. .
