WAC play starts early with trip to UTRGV

Wednesday, November 29

Edinburg, Texas

5:30 p.m. (MST)

Grand Canyon

UT Rio Grande Valley

Photo by: David Kadlubowski

11/28/2023 4:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

GCU Notes UTRGV Notes

Lopes play season's 1st road game in conference opener

By: Paul Coro

Wednesday, Nov. 29 \| 5:30 p.m. (Phoenix time) \| UTRGV Fieldhouse \| Edinburg, Texas

	GRAND CANYON LOPES (4-1, 0-0 WAC)	at	UT RIO GRANDE VALLEY VAQUEROS (2-5, 0-0 WAC)

WATCH: ESPN+ \| LISTEN: 1580 The Fanatic \| STATS: View

EDINBURG, Texas – In the same month that Grand Canyon returning players and staff received their WAC Tournament championship bling for last season, the Lopes will see if they still shine brightest in the conference this season.

The 75th season of Grand Canyon basketball rings in conference play earlier than any previous one with the Lopes leaving Phoenix for a Wednesday night WAC opener at UT Rio Grande Valley.

The two-game toe dip into WAC waters starts at 5:30 p.m. (Phoenix time) Wednesday and will continue at home Saturday night against UT Arlington. The early start was necessitated by the conference moving to a full round-robin schedule of 20 conference games, with the remaining 18 contests starting Jan. 4.

Gabe McGlothan practice

"We're in nonconference mode, but we've got to quickly jump to conference mode," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "These are big games. Every game is big, and the conference games are even magnified bigger.

"Teams are fired up for conference. It's a fresh start. Everybody has a 0-0 record when you go into conference. You build up rivalries. Teams that you really want to beat. Teams that you want to play that you circle before the year. We know they're going to come out really aggressive."

That is the new nature of a UTRGV team with 10 newcomers and a 2-5 start under third-year head coach Matt Figger. The Vaqueros have suffered five lopsided losses when playing Division I opponents, but they won their only meeting with the Lopes last season at GCU and are 14-6 at home since 2022-23.

UTRGV boasts its tallest team in program history, but it leans on pressure defense and is led by its smallest starter. Guard Elijah Elliott, a 6-foot-1 junior on his fourth college stop (Oklahoma Christian/Mount St. Mary's/Blinn), is averaging 16.6 points per game and is the only Vaquero to start all seven games this season.

Figger pledged to get back to the playing style he implemented when his teams went 76-51 at Austin Peay before moving to UTRGV in 2021.

"We made teams uncomfortable," Figger said on the WAC Preview Day show. "You put that back with playing fast, now you're making the game a really hard situation for an opponent."

GCU is starting its course to defend the WAC Tournament championship with only three returnees who played in the tourney – junior guard Josh Baker, junior guard Ray Harrison and graduate power forward Gabe McGlothan.

"As Coach Drew has been telling us this whole time, everybody's got a target on our backs," said Harrison, the WAC Preseason Player of the Year. "We accept it. We embrace it. We're excited."

The Lopes' WAC opener will also be their first road game of the season. GCU has gone 3-0 at home and split its Arizona Tip-Off Games in Glendale.

Regardless of finishing higher in the WAC standings annually, the Lopes have not swept UTRGV in a two-game series since the 2016-17 season.

But in the first three seasons under Drew, the Lopes have not lost a WAC opener or a conference road opener.

"It's definitely different coming off a championship season," said McGlothan, who was a Preseason All-WAC selection with Harrison. "The season that we had after our first championship, it puts it in perspective that there are definitely targets on our backs. There always has been, but we're more so locked in that we have the target."

Lope tracks

GCU and UTRGV have split their past eight meetings with neither team winning consecutively since 2017-18. The Lopes have won in their past three trips to Edinburg.
The Lopes rank seventh nationally with 20.8 made free throws per game.
GCU senior guard Tyon Grant-Foster ranks 14th nationally with 22.0 points per game.
UTRGV ranks 11th nationally with 11.3 steals per game, contributing to 17.6 opponent turnovers per game (13th nationally).
The Vaqueros average 16.7 fastbreak points per game, ranking 29th nationally.
UTRGV has allowed 43.3% 3-point shooting while making 24.3% of its 3-point tries.