Bennett O’Connor is a third-year point guard who joined the UFV Cascades men’s basketball team for the 2025-26 season. With the Cascades losing their starting point guard Takeshi Croke to graduation after the 2024-25 season, the team needed to fill the position and decided to dip into the international pool for premier talent.
The start of every basketball season is always an experiment. With the integration of new team members into the lineup, there was sure to be growing pains before the team found its footing. Furthermore, having key veterans Dario Lopez, Matthias Klim, and Clay Kurtz sidelined with injury was not the lineup coach Joe Enevoldson imagined he would be deploying against UBC and UVic on opening weekend. The team was in need of some scoring to step up in place of their three sidelined stars.
O’Connor, a native of Fall City, Washington, played for the NCAA Division II Central Washington University Wildcats in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference before transferring to the Skagit Valley College Cardinals. Now in his third year of college hoops (but his first of eligibility in U SPORTS), O’Connor has found a new home up north in the Fraser Valley. O’Connor comes to UFV with an established pedigree. Despite seeing limited minutes in his freshman season at Central Washington, O’Connor and the Wildcats went on to win the school’s second GNAC championship. In his sophomore campaign, O’Connor transferred to Skagit Valley College, where he saw a major increase in playing time, averaging 26.9 minutes per game for the Cardinals. The point guard cooked with his extra minutes in his second season, averaging a solid 15 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game.
O’Connor’s breakout season with the Cards certainly caught the eye of Enevoldson, who was impressed with both what he saw out of the point guard on the court, and the positive words from Skagit Valley head coach, Carl Howell.
“[Howell] spoke really highly of him,” Enevoldson told The Cascade. “We went down and watched him play three or four times over the course of last year and brought him up for a visit. It was the right fit at the right time.”
The Cascades had a difficult schedule to start the season taking on a solid UBC team and ultimately dropped the game by a score of 85-67. Things did not get any easier in the team’s home opener as they took on the defending U SPORTS national champion, Victoria Vikes, and once again fell short in a close contest with a final score of 84-76. Despite not getting a winning result, O’Connor helped keep the Cascades afloat. O’Connor averaged 13.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists over opening weekend, featuring a 23-point performance against UBC.
“We came out with a lot of effort, I’m proud of the guys,” explained O’Connor after the second game. “We shot a lot better tonight, [and] played a lot better than last night; we’re taking small steps every day.”
With one weekend of U SPORTS experience under his belt, O’Connor has left Fraser Valley fans with plenty to be happy about. Filling the shoes of former team captain Takashi Croke is going to be a difficult challenge for UFV, but with O’Connor’s experience across NCAA and JUCO basketball, maybe he can live up to the task. And as for why he reps #0 on the court, there’s a specific explanation.
“It’s how many people can guard me.”
