Nevada visit starts schedule step-up

Friday, Dec. 11 \| 7 p.m. (Phoenix time) \| GCU Arena

	NEVADA WOLF PACK (4-1)	at	GRAND CANYON LOPES (3-0)

WATCH: FOX 10 Xtra (Ch. 45 / Cable 9), GCULopes.com \| LISTEN: 1580 The Fanatic \| STATS: View

The three wins that opened Grand Canyon's season showed how the Lopes' new parts can fit, but this weekend's set of home games against Nevada and Arizona State will show them how fine-tuned their machinery is running.

The built-in excitement for ASU's first non-exhibition game at GCU Arena is palpable for Sunday, but the Lopes have more pressing matters on Friday night when they come off a 10-day hiatus with a major step up in competition against 4-1 Nevada.

"We definitely wish we could've had these home games when our crowd was here," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said of 250-student crowds this season. "All the excitement and the energy that goes into that game would've been electrifying in the area. I think our players still understand how successful these two programs have been and what a great opportunity it is to get them on our home floor."

The Wolf Pack is well-tested with a 25-point loss to San Francisco and wins against North Dakota State by 14, Nebraska by three, Pacific by 12 and William Jessup by 22 on Monday. Nevada and GCU have shared similar strengths on a national scale, ranking 16th and fourth, respectively, for field goal percentage and ranking 19th and sixth, respectively, for defensive rebounds.

GCU last played Dec. 1 in an 88-49 win against Mississippi Valley State because a Saturday home game with Prairie View A&M was canceled in light of the Panthers' COVID-19 issues. The Lopes spent the practice days cleaning up some areas, adding defensive wrinkles and shooting plenty of free throws to fix that 56.4% clip.

"It's going to be a good challenge for us, but we need it," GCU senior guard Mikey Dixon said. "I feel like we're going to rise to it. We haven't played in over a week so we should be excited to get back out there and compete.

"This is where we're really going to see where we stand. It's going to make us come together even closer as a team."

The Lopes have several familiarities with Nevada, where they will visit next season. Each team's head coach won "Mr. Basketball" in Indiana, starred as a guard at in-state college and was drafted by and played in the NBA. Steve Alford is in his second year at the helm of Nevada, where the 30-year coach has moved his career record to 610-311.

Drew, who is 11 years younger, grew up on Alford's well-known basketball instruction tape, "The 50-Minute All-American Workout," and two of his staffers, assistant coach Ed Schilling and sports performance coach Jordan Jackson, worked for Alford at UCLA (2015-17).

The Wolf Pack returned four players from a 19-win team but Alford bolstered the roster with transfers, including sophomore guard Grant Sherfield, who played with GCU center Asbjørn Midtgaard at Wichita State last season. Sherfield, who also played at Sunrise Christian Academy for GCU director of recruiting Achoki Moikubu, is averaging 16.4 points, 4.8 assists and 1.8 steals per game this season.

"He's just doing what he did last year on a greater scale," Midtgaard said. "I'm not surprised. He has embraced his role at Nevada and it looks like they go through him."

Midtgaard has fueled GCU's improvement in two offseason target areas – rebounding and defense. The Lopes have tougher games ahead, but their 3-0 start has moved them from No. 283 in rebounding margin last season (minus-2.4 per game) to No. 2 (plus-22.0) this season and No. 245 in opponent field goal percentage (44.1%) last season to No. 4 (32.2%) this season.

"Adding Asbjørn, Dima (Zdor) and Gabe (McGlothan) is a huge difference to have that size on the frontline," Drew said. "But when you have that size, you have to take advantage of it. Rebounding is something that is going to have to be consistent all year for us because if we're going to be bigger and not as fast as the teams we're playing, we have to be able to dominate the paint and rebound the basketball. We told our guys that we're definitely off to a good start, but we're going to know a lot more in the next two weeks. We're going to be challenged in areas we haven't been challenged before."

Lope tracks

GCU senior power forward Alessandro Lever needs 14 points to pass Doug Baker for fifth place among the Lopes' all-time scoring leaders.
GCU senior small forward Oscar Frayer needs one blocked shot to break Joshua Braun's Division I-era program record.
With a win, the Lopes would move to 4-0 for the first time since 2017.
Drew and Alford met as coaches on Dec. 8, 2012, when Alford's New Mexico team beat Drew's Valparaiso team 65-52.
Nevada's Alem Huseinovic (PHH Prep), Deandre Henry (PHH Prep), Kwame Hymes Jr. (Hillcrest Prep) and Zachary Williams (South Mountain Community College) played in Phoenix before joining the Wolf Pack.

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.

Friday, Dec. 11 | 7 p.m. (Phoenix time) | GCU Arena

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Players Mentioned

Joshua Braun

Mikey Dixon

Oscar Frayer

Alessandro Lever

Grand Canyon University Athletics