Completed Event: Men's Basketball at UNLV on February 7, 2026 , Loss , 78, to, 80
M Basketball
at UNLV
L 78-80
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Predictions favor GCU to win WAC
10/14/2022 5:07:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro, Lopes Insider Blog
Media outlets put Lopes in 1st ahead of conference polls' release
The basketball mileposts start coming quickly in the next few weeks, including next week's release of the coaches' and media's WAC preseason polls.
But the outside college basketball world is already giving a peek into the coming season, and the perspective on the WAC usually starts with Grand Canyon.
Two of three polled ESPN.com writers, The Almanac, Lindy's College Basketball, KenPom.com and collegesportsmadness.com all put GCU at the top of their predictions for the 13-team conference this season.
"GCU seeks more potent offense to complement what was an aggressive defense a season ago," Lindy's wrote, making junior point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr. its WAC Preseason Player of the Year and putting sophomore guard Ray Harrison on its all-conference second team.
Lindy's also named Blacksher the conference's best shooter after he connected on a career-best 39.4% of his 3-pointers last season. Lopes junior power forward Yvan Ouedraogo was selected as the WAC's best rebounder after ranking 17th nationally last season for offensive rebounding percentage (14.7%).
In ESPN.com's "Mid-Majors 2023 Roundtable," staff writers Myron Medcalf and John Gasaway tabbed GCU as the WAC favorite while Jeff Borzello selected Stephen F. Austin.
Some outlier predictions have included BartTorvik.com putting Utah Valley ahead of No. 2 GCU and Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook dropping GCU to No. 7 with New Mexico State as the favorite. Blue Ribbon placed Blacksher on its all-conference team as the only returning All-WAC first-team player.
Here is a sample of full-conference predictions:
But the outside college basketball world is already giving a peek into the coming season, and the perspective on the WAC usually starts with Grand Canyon.
Two of three polled ESPN.com writers, The Almanac, Lindy's College Basketball, KenPom.com and collegesportsmadness.com all put GCU at the top of their predictions for the 13-team conference this season. "GCU seeks more potent offense to complement what was an aggressive defense a season ago," Lindy's wrote, making junior point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr. its WAC Preseason Player of the Year and putting sophomore guard Ray Harrison on its all-conference second team.
Lindy's also named Blacksher the conference's best shooter after he connected on a career-best 39.4% of his 3-pointers last season. Lopes junior power forward Yvan Ouedraogo was selected as the WAC's best rebounder after ranking 17th nationally last season for offensive rebounding percentage (14.7%).
In ESPN.com's "Mid-Majors 2023 Roundtable," staff writers Myron Medcalf and John Gasaway tabbed GCU as the WAC favorite while Jeff Borzello selected Stephen F. Austin.
Some outlier predictions have included BartTorvik.com putting Utah Valley ahead of No. 2 GCU and Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook dropping GCU to No. 7 with New Mexico State as the favorite. Blue Ribbon placed Blacksher on its all-conference team as the only returning All-WAC first-team player.
Here is a sample of full-conference predictions:
Lindy's College Basketball
- GCU
- New Mexico State
- Abilene Christian
- Seattle U
- Southern Utah
- Stephen F. Austin
- Sam Houston
- California Baptist
- Utah Valley
- Tarleton
- Utah Tech
- UT Arlington
- UT Rio Grande Valley
The Almanac
- GCU
- New Mexico State
- Stephen F. Austin
- Abilene Christian
- Southern Utah
- Seattle U
- Utah Valley
- Sam Houston
- California Baptist
- Tarleton
- Utah Tech
- UT Arlington
- UT Rio Grande Valley
KenPom.com
- GCU
- Abilene Christian
- Utah Valley
- New Mexico State
- California Baptist
- Stephen F. Austin
- Sam Houston State
- Seattle U
- Southern Utah
- Tarleton
- Utah Tech
- UT Arlington
- UT Rio Grande Valley
BartTorvik.com
- Utah Valley
- GCU
- Sam Houston
- New Mexico State
- Abilene Christian
- Seattle U
- Stephen F. Austin
- Southern Utah
- California Baptist
- Tarleton
- Utah Tech
- UT Arlington
- UT Rio Grande Valley
Blue Ribbon Yearbook
- New Mexico State
- Stephen F. Austin
- Seattle U
- California Baptist
- Abilene Christian
- Sam Houston
- GCU
- Southern Utah
- Utah Valley
- Tarleton
- Utah Tech
- UT Rio Grande Valley
- did not include new member UT Arlington
Players Mentioned
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