FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (November 1, 2025) – Northern Arizona men's basketball opens the 2025-26 season against Drake as part of The Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon on Monday. The season tips off at 2 p.m. MST at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.
The game will be broadcast on
The Field of 68's YouTube Channel and
X feed, and the network's popular After Dark show will be broadcast live with a set at the Sanford Pentagon.
Mitch Strohman will also have the radio call on the Northern Arizona Healthcare NAU Lumberjack Radio Network with the pregame show starting at 1:30 p.m. MST.
The Lumberjacks head into the new season with momentum after taking a big step in 2024-25. Last season was the program's best since 2014-15 with NAU finishing 18-16 and receiving an invitation to the College Basketball Invitational. NAU recorded its highest-win total (18) and first postseason appearance in a decade.
Head coach Shane Burcar leads a new-look roster into the new season with 11 newcomers, including seven transfers and four true freshmen. However, at the core is the NAU's veteran trio of Diego Campisano, Oakland Fort and Ryan Abelman, each of whom are in their fourth or fifth seasons as a Lumberjack. Campisano, a redshirt senior, is the team's longest-tenured player in his fifth season and returns following a career-best scoring season at 7.1 points per game. He is a career 39.3% shooter from behind the arc in 81 career games.
Fort and Abelman are both in their fourth seasons. Fort, a true senior, is NAU's most experienced player in terms of career games (97) and starts (45) and is aiming to bounce back from an injury-hampered 2024-25. Fort was fourth on the team with 53 assists a season ago and averaged 4.3 points per game. Meanwhile, Abelman saw the first extensive action of his career last year, starting 17 games and appearing in 33. The redshirt junior averaged 4.9 points per game and shot a team-best 39.3% from 3-point range.
Campisano, Fort and Abelman are part of a rare group in the Big Sky as three of eight total current players who have spent at least four years at their respective school. NAU has the most four-plus year players in the league and is only one of four schools to even have a four-year player on its roster.
Six of NAU's seven transfers are from Division I schools, including Isaiah Shaw, who is the only Lumberjack on the roster who has played against Drake. Last December, Shaw scored a career-high 15 points against the Bulldogs while at Valparaiso. Shaw came off the bench and played 28 minutes, shooting 5-of-7 from the field and 3-of-4 from 3-point range in a narrow 66-60 loss. The five field goals and three 3-pointers also tied a career-high.
NAU takes its revamped roster into The Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon as one of 12 teams across two sites (Rock Hill, S.C. and Sioux Falls, S.D.) taking part in the innovative event on the opening day of the college basketball season. Of the 12 teams, the Lumberjacks are one of eight who competed in a postseason tournament last season.
In their season opener, the Lumberjacks will face Drake, coming off a 31-4 season and its third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. The Bulldogs, who advanced to the round of 32 with an upset of No. 6 seed Missouri in the Big Dance, have won each of the last three Missouri Valley Conference tournament titles and posted the third-best winning percentage (.886) in the country last season behind Florida and Duke.
However, like NAU, Drake brings with an unfamiliar roster to the season's opening day. The Bulldogs have only two returners from last year's 31-win team under new head coach Eric Henderson. Henderson also welcomes 11 newcomers (seven transfers and four freshmen) and the team returns less than one percent in stat categories of points, rebounds, assists and steals.
A trio of newcomers in Isaiah Carr, Jalen Quinn and Jaehshon Thomas were named to the Missouri Valley Conference Players to Watch List heading into this season.
Monday's game will be the second all-time meeting between NAU and Drake. The Bulldogs previously defeated the 'Jacks, 76-56, on a neutral court in Fresno, Calif. on Nov. 30, 2013.
Following the Lumberjacks' trip to Sioux Falls, they open their home schedule next Friday, Nov. 7 versus Justice College in the Rolle Activity Center. Season and single-game tickets, along with mini plans, are available for purchase at this link.
Stay up to date with Northern Arizona men's basketball by following the Lumberjacks on X and Instagram.
