OKLAHOMA CITY (Nov. 11, 2019) – When Oklahoma Christian went about changing its men's basketball staff for the 2019-20 season and its debut in the Lone Star Conference, it went young, with a pair of 20-something coaches. That staff, in turn, will lead a veteran squad that includes seven seniors.

How the young coaches and older players blend, and how quickly the newcomers pick up the OC system, will go a long way to determining the success of the Eagles this season, which will start Tuesday night with a home game against local rival Central Oklahoma.

"We have a lot of talent," new OC head coach Kendre Talley said. "They've just got to figure each other out. The quicker they do that, the better we'll be."

Talley, a former All-America guard who just turned 28, spent the last two seasons as an OC assistant. He was a leader on the last OC squad to post a winning record (in 2012-13) and now certainly is one of the youngest head coaches in NCAA Division II. His top assistant is another former OC player, Luis Lopez, who is 25 and spent the last two seasons as a graduate assistant coach at Division I North Texas.

Returning for his fourth season on the OC staff is 36-year-old Gary Jones, another former player for the Eagles under legendary coach Dan Hays. Hays, who stepped down in 2016 after 33 seasons guiding the Eagles, is back in an advisory role for 2019-20, providing advice, wisdom and perspective for the young staff. Talley wouldn't have it any other way.

"Once you dedicate so much of your life to this place, it starts to mean more to you," Talley said. "If you can show these guys what's important to you, it becomes important to them as well and that's what we're trying to do. Coach Hays doesn't do a ton; he just relaxes and chills and gives his opinions and outlooks on the game and minor adjustments that we can be making. It's good to have him here. He is an offensive genius."

Six seniors returned from last season's OC squad – center Will Lienhard, forward Marcus Blackwell and guards Conner Johnson, Travis Glover, James Bagwell and Aubrey Johnson. The Eagles added another senior in forward Dedrian Parmer Jr., a graduate transfer from USAO. With seven seniors on a 15-man roster, Talley has a luxury most first-year head coaches don't get to enjoy, as he tries to take advantage of his youth in relating to his players.

"The fact I was able to move up (to head coach), the guys were excited about it," Talley said. "It just created a whole new energy. That's been my main focus – creating an environment that these guys can thrive in, making everything competitive but still fun and intense, something they will want to come back to every day."

On paper, OC's frontline figures to be a strength and Talley hopes the Eagles' talent and depth inside will prove to be a matchup nightmare for opponents.

The 6-foot-8 Lienhard opted to return for a final season after earning Heartland Conference co-defensive player of the year honors last season. He led Division II in rebounding (12.7 per game) and was ninth in blocked shots (2.48 per game). Talley has encouraged Lienhard, who averaged 8.3 points per game, to become more of an offensive threat this season.

The 6-foot-6 Parmer already is a 1,000-point career scorer, reaching that mark in three seasons at USAO. He finished second in NAIA Division I last season in field-goal percentage (69.4) and earned NAIA All-America third-team honors, averaging 15.6 points and 7.9 rebounds per game while leading the Drovers to the NAIA quarterfinals.

York Benjamin, a skilled 6-foot-8 junior, appears poised for a breakout season after averaging 3.9 points per game last season, and 6-foot-9 freshman Hunter Staten is an intriguing prospect who impressed during OC's two exhibition games. Another junior, 6-foot-6 Harrison Martin, is entering his third season in the OC system and provides quality depth inside.

On the wing, OC has a pair of known quantities in Blackwell, a 6-foot-5 senior who averaged 9.1 points per game last season, and long, lanky 6-foot-5 sophomore D.J. Walter, a natural leader who can take over a game both offensively and defensively.

Junior Johnatan Reyes-Valdez, a transfer from Division I Northern Colorado, has earned the nod as the starting point guard and will be the team's primary ballhandler. When Reyes-Valdez isn't on the court, Talley said he's comfortable with the Eagles' other guards stepping in and running the team for a few minutes.

Elsewhere in the backcourt, senior Aubrey Johnson scored 28 or more points three times in a game last season and is always a threat from behind the 3-point line. Junior-college transfer Anthony Johnson is adjusting to the Eagles' style of play – after competing in more of an up-tempo system the past two seasons – but likely will be in the rotation, too.

A third Johnson (none of them are related) is Conner Johnson, who has developed a reputation as an energetic player and defensive ace for the Eagles during his career. Bagwell can be a dead-eye long-range shooter and he, Glover and sophomores Kamren Evans and Robert Gregg all provide good depth in the backcourt.

With the demise of the Heartland, OC's schedule takes on a new look this season. The Lone Star's 18 teams are divided into three divisions, with the Eagles grouped with Arkansas-Fort Smith, Cameron, Midwestern State (Texas), Texas-Tyler and Texas A&M-Commerce. OC will play each of those teams twice and the other 12 teams once.

There are some familiar nonconference opponents – UCO, Southern Nazarene and Southwestern Oklahoma State among them – along with Northeastern State, a Division II opponent the Eagles haven't played in more than two decades.

The goal for the Eagles will be consistency. The Eagles have been good enough to win five games against ranked foes the past two seasons and reach the Heartland tournament title game in 2018 and semifinals in 2019, but went a combined 23-36 over that time.

"You've got to have consistent days," Talley said. "If you have good, consistent practices with the same intensity, the same energy, sooner or later you set the standard that way and they'll see what the standard is and they'll follow it as best they can. If consistency was easy, everyone would do it. All you can do is practice it and hopefully it can roll over."