Ever since I left Erie, Pa. and moved to Ashland, I have realized something different in the way Ohio natives view basketball.

It doesn’t matter if it is Division IV high school basketball or the Cleveland Cavaliers, I hear conversations about basketball around this campus much more than I ever did at home.

This is coming from a guy who grew up playing basketball his entire life. I have been around the game and I know a thing or two about it, but I have never seen a love for it like I have in basketball fans and athletes in Ohio.

How spoiled are we, then, to have such a great women’s basketball team on this campus?

It was amazing to see the support for this team as they made their magical run all the way to the national championship in San Antonio last season. Great support from great basketball fans—it was a perfect match.

Now, I obviously expect that same support from you great Ashland fans for those ladies from the start of this season to the finish.

But there is another team on my mind that, if you would give it a chance, I think you basketball fans would enjoy as well. That team is the AU men’s basketball team.

I have heard multiple people on this campus—even some important and recognizable figures—state that they support the women’s team more than the men because of the greater success on the women’s side.

There should be a different feel about the men’s team this year, though. It’s the start of a new season for AU men’s basketball, and this team has shown some signs of greatness.

A 2011-12 overall record of 15-12, a brief Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament appearance and a very similar-looking roster may have led many to expect the same team this season.

Last season’s team featured a starting lineup with two juniors, two sophomores and a freshman. The growing pains of a young team should go away this season because all of those starters are returning.

Returners include lightning-in-a-bottle senior point guard Ronnie Steward, who was a second team all-GLIAC selection a year ago; 6-foot, 7-inch multi-talented big man Will Evans, who developed into one of the best inside-out players in the GLIAC; and oh yeah, can’t forget about ALL-AMERICAN forward Evan Yates, can I?

Yates, now a senior, was one of the most consistent and dominant players in the nation the past two seasons with averages of 20 points and 11 rebounds per game and a field goal percentage over 61 percent (yes, those are Evan Yates’s numbers, not those of former Kentucky star Anthony Davis copied and pasted).

He and Steward, both in their senior seasons, know that this is their last chance for a GLIAC title.

Talent? Check. Experience and leadership? Check. A sense of urgency? Yep. An All-American? The list goes on and on. This team has the potential to be great.

Potential may be just a word and expectations may or may not be met, but what better way to find out then go and watch for yourself? Who knows, maybe the last piece missing to this team’s success is the support of passionate AU basketball fans.