Insider: Season rewind hits highs

The NCAA tournament ended Monday night. Grand Canyon's quest to get there ended three weeks earlier with profound disappointment and renewed resolve to get there.

But it was only a temporary conclusion.

GCU has made an astounding introduction to Division I basketball, becoming one of 29 teams to win at least 20 games in each of the past four seasons and reaching the WAC Tournament championship game in each of its first two years of postseason eligibility. The work to take the program to the conference championship and NCAA tournament levels only continues.

"I'm proud of everybody – our student body, our fan support, our campus, my players, everybody," Lopes head coach Dan Majerle said amid the woe of coming within one win of a NCAA bid for a second consecutive year. "I can't tell enough about the atmosphere. I'm lucky to be involved in such a great university."

As the program turns the page to 2019-20, here is one last look at the highlights of 2018-19:

GCU is one of 36 DI programs to win 91 or more games over the past four seasons, putting the Lopes in the top 10.2 percent of all DI programs for victories.
The Lopes ranked first in the nation for attendance by percentage of arena capacity this season. GCU averaged 102.4 percent capacity for home games with an average attendance of 7,170 in a 7,000-seat arena. Nebraska and VCU also exceeded 100 percent while Duke, Gonzaga and Michigan State were at 100 percent.
GCU has finished in the top three of the WAC regular-season standings each season since joining the conference in 2013. Only New Mexico State also has done that.
The Lopes recorded their highest scoring average (75.3 points per game) since 2015-16 and recorded their fifth consecutive season of holding opponents to fewer than 70 points per game. Among 353 programs, they ranked 65th in the nation for average scoring margin (plus-6.0 points per game).
GCU will return its top two scorers (junior guard Carlos Johnson and sophomore center Alessandro Lever) and four of its top six scorers for next season.
Johnson posted seven 20-point games after not having any in his two previous seasons at Washington and improved his free throw shooting from 59.2 at Washington to 78.1 at GCU. He shot better on the road (51.6 percent overall, 36.7 percent on 3-pointers) this season than he did at home (47.4, 20.5).
Lever's sophomore statistics were largely in line with his All-WAC freshman season. This season, he averaged 12.5 points, 4.3 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.7 turnovers and 0.4 steals with 44.7 percent shooting from the field. Last season, he averaged 12.2 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.7 turnovers and 0.4 steals with 45.3 percent shooting from the field.
Senior power forward Michael Finke is the only DI player of the past two seasons to record two games of at least 36 points on 70 percent shooting. He did it in a two-week span this season. Finke concluded his collegiate career by averaging career highs in points per game (12.1), rebounds per game (5.1), assists per game (1.4), field goal percentage (53.9) and free throw percentage (81.0 after being at 61.0 for his three seasons at Illinois).
Sophomore point guard Damari Milstead went from averaging 4.5 points and 1.1 assists in 9.4 minutes per game as a freshman to 10.3 points and 3.6 assists in 28.2 minutes per game as a sophomore. This season, he went from 65 assists and 45 turnovers in the first 20 games to 57 assists and 20 turnovers in the last 15 games.
Senior guard Trey Drechsel tied for 29th in the nation for defensive rebounds by a guard. He averaged nearly as many minutes as a reserve (24.8 in the last nine games) as he did as a starter (26.2 in the first 25 games).
Junior small forward Oscar Frayer, now with 83 career starts, ranked third in the WAC for defensive box plus/minus, a stat that estimates defense vs. an average player. He also had his lowest turnover average (1.0 per game) and percentage (12.7 percent of possessions).
Senior power forward Matt Jackson shot a career-high 45.6 percent from the field and played 116 career games despite five hip and back surgeries.
Senior small forward Gerard Martin shot career-best percentages from the field (49.1), 3-point line (40.0) and free throw line (83.3) and had his best steal rate (2.8 per 100 possessions).

GCU was 7-1 in the WAC before Martin's season-ending knee injury and went 3-5 during the conference's second half without him. An ankle injury also sidelined him for the final minutes of the Lopes' only loss in the first half of WAC play.

"It was a blow to our team because he's such a positive force to us and he was playing the best he's ever played for us this year," Majerle said. "He was shooting the ball well. He made All-Defensive Team playing half a year. That just tells you how much the coaches of the WAC respect him as a player so I was happy for him. Of course, we missed him and it took us a while to bounce back, but I am proud of our guys for finding the resolve to come back and turn it the right way."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.

Grand Canyon University Athletics

Related News

Players Mentioned

Trey Drechsel

Michael Finke

Oscar Frayer

Matt Jackson

Carlos Johnson

Alessandro Lever

Gerard Martin

Damari Milstead

Related Videos