GREAT FALLS, Mont. – The University of Providence men's basketball team will officially begin their season this weekend with a doubleheader against Yellowstone Christian. The Argos will host the Centurions on Friday at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday at 5:00 p.m. in the McLaughlin Center. 

The team will look a little different than last year's team, who under head coach Steve Keller went 17-3 en route to winning the program's first Frontier Conference Championship since the 1982-83 season.

"We're a different type of team this year," he said. "We're working on having five or six or seven guys score instead of a couple. It's a work in progress but we're getting better."

The team will be without two-time 1^st Team All-American Zaccheus Darko-Kelly, who signed professionally in Finland earlier this month. Honorable Mention All-American Jaxen Hashley also won't be returning to the team.

The squad however, does return a plethora of returners, led by Honorable Mention All-American Marcus Stephens, who averaged 15.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists last season. Along his side will be Dawson Fowler, Jake Olsen and Rashee Stocks, who together averaged 22 points a game last season. They are expected to have much larger contributions to the team this season.

"I expect a lot of returners to average double-figures," Keller said. "They're capable of it. They've all had big games at different times. Marcus was pretty consistent last year at 15 a game so we're hoping that he does that. Jake is much improved. He's bigger, stronger and has played well this preseason."

The team will also rely on some of their newcomers, especially Emmett Linton III and Elijah Oliver, to pick up some of the load as well. Linton III transferred from Tacoma Community College, where he averaged 22 points a game while Oliver joins the program from Colorado Christian, where he averaged 13 points a game.

"Emmett is a very similar player to Marcus," Keller said. "Elijah will be a factor for us as well. Our new guys are still trying to fit in and figure out the offense and stuff. They'll do a good job. We just have to figure out rotations and who plays with who and things like that."

Since Keller took over in 2018, the program has had high expectations, which was fully realized last season with the conference championship. Even with several new faces joining the team this season, that expectation hasn't changed, even as the Argos were picked to finish third in the conference. 

"I think the guys know what to expect," Keller said. "We don't need to bring up what happened last year, they have stuff that shows that; they all have a ring. They know they have to work to try and get another ring. That's what we're doing."

The squad has had two chances to play somebody other than themselves this preseason. The team hosted Miles City Community College in a scrimmage two weeks ago, and played a road exhibition game against Montana State on Monday.

"We played really well against Miles City," Keller said. "Montana State is very good and is probably going to win the Big Sky. We didn't play very well there. We learned from both scrimmages. We know what we need to work on."

The team will hope to put it all together against Yellowstone Christian, who has already had five games under their belt on the season. The coaching staff however, is more focused on what happens on their side of the floor.

"We're just going to go out and work on the things that we've been working on," Keller said. "We usually always worry more about what we do than what the other team does. We're going to go out and play and see how it goes."