Utah trip puts focus on taking WAC success to next level

Thursday, Jan. 4 \| 6:30 p.m. (Phoenix time) \| America First Even Center \| Cedar City, Utah

	GRAND CANYON LOPES (12-1, 2-0 WAC)	at	SOUTHERN UTAH THUNDERBIRDS (5-8, 0-2 WAC)

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CEDAR CITY, Utah – In the four-season Bryce Drew era at Grand Canyon, the Lopes have claimed two of the WAC's three NCAA tournament bids and earned the best winning percentage in conference games at .688.

But the Lopes have not won an outright WAC regular-season championship. GCU shared the 2021 regular-season crown with Utah Valley and turned into the WAC's best team late last season.

The turnaround happened on the same trip GCU takes this week to resume WAC play and pursue an outright title, a quest that began briefly in November with only GCU, Tarleton State and Utah Tech going 2-0 to start the 20-game conference slate.

The Lopes (12-1) enters Thursday night's game at Southern Utah way ahead of the conference in overall record and WAC Resume Seeding System (see below), which decides WAC Tournament seeds. But they also are entering a different element, particularly with their first two-game, third-day road trip of the season.

"It is a totally different season now," Drew said. "Teams will catch a different rhythm. Sometimes, different styles come when you get into league play, and our guys are going to have to be ready."

The Lopes are motivated to do more than the program has ever done. That includes the pursuit of an outright conference title, a goal that is just seen as part of what GCU wants with bigger postseason aspirations.

"Knowing what this team is capable of, let's keep pushing and growing and raise that standard," GCU graduate power forward Gabe McGlothan said. "These guys are super talented, so it's what these guys deserve for the work they put in. It's going to be tough. There are going to be some battles and fights. Every game is a WAC championship for us."

It was a WAC championship night the last time GCU and Southern Utah met. The Lopes defeated the Thunderbirds 84-66 in the WAC Tournament title game in Las Vegas to secure an NCAA tournament berth. They had won 83-78 at Southern Utah 10 days earlier in March to start a season-defining six-game winning streak.

Much has happened for Southern Utah since that 24-13 WAC debut season. Head coach Todd Simon left for Bowling Green and Rob Jeter replaced him after relinquishing his head coaching job at Western Illinois, where he had turned around the program.

Harrison and Fallah

Only three Thunderbirds players returned, but Iranian 6-foot-9 sophomore center Parsa Fallah has delivered with 14.1 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. Southern Utah is 5-8 but had a tragic December, when it lost on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to Montana State and a buzzer-beating tip-in to Northern Arizona after dropping a two-point game at Utah.

The Thunderbirds are back on track with two wins in a row and have five double-digit scorers in their starting lineup, headed by 6-foot-5 junior guard Dominique Ford, an Idaho transfer who is averaging 15.6 points per game. That leaves their reserves as the sixth-lowest scoring bench in the nation (12 points per game).

Jeter put an emphasis on point guards in rebuilding the roster, and it has led to Southern Utah's best trait being ball protection with only 10.5 turnovers per game.

"There will be different challenges and we'll have to overcome different obstacles for how different teams play with their styles," McGlothan said. "How can we grow through it, and how can we be present for every second of every game?"

GCU enters the set at Southern Utah and at Utah Tech (on Saturday) in a tie for the nation's eighth-best record at 12-1 and the nation's sixth-longest winning streak at nine games. The Lopes were No. 41 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) on Wednesday and received five voting points for the AP top 25 and nine for the USA Today coaches poll.

"You're only as good as your last game," Drew said. "It's really, really hard to climb, and it's really easy to fall. We want to lock in one game at a time."

Lope tracks

GCU's 12-1 record is its best start to a season since 1995-96, when it went 19-1 in Division II play. Its winning percentage (.923) is tied for eighth best in the nation.
Lopes junior guard Ray Harrison ranks sixth nationally for career scoring average (17.1) among active Division I players.
GCU graduate power forward Gabe McGlothan is tied for 13th among active Division I players for career rebounds (896).
The Lopes' nine consecutive wins mark their longest in-season winning streak since taking nine in a row from Jan. 8-Feb. 19, 2021.
GCU centers Duke Brennan and Sydney Curry are combining to shoot 65.4% from the field this season. Brennan (62.9%) and Curry (69.0%) would both rank among the national top 20 if they met the qualifying minimum (five made field goals per game).
The Lopes have recorded eight double-doubles, the most in a season since 2020-21, and they have come from a program-record five players.
GCU ranks in the national top 25 for blocks per game (16th, 5.5), free throws made per game (18th, 18.8), rebound margin (21st, plus-8.9 per game) and offensive rebounding percentage (11th, 37.9%).
While at Valparaiso, Drew went 9-2 against Jeter's Milwaukee teams.

WAC Resume Seeding System (updated Jan. 2)
Rank	Team	Record (WAC only)	WAC points
1.	GCU	12-1 (2-0)	4.29
2.	Tarleton State	9-4 (2-0)	0.43
3.	Seattle U	8-5 (1-1)	0.19
4.	Stephen F. Austin	8-5 (1-1)	-0.50
5.	UT Arlington	6-7 (1-1)	-0.53
6.	Utah Valley	6-7 (1-1)	-0.62
7.	California Baptist	8-5 (1-1)	-1.07
8.	Utah Tech	6-7 (2-0)	-1.20
9.	Abilene Christian	5-8 (0-2)	-2.24
10.	Southern Utah	5-8 (0-2)	-2.54
11.	UT Rio Grande Valley	4-9 (0-2)	-3.88

The WAC Resume Seeding System will determine seeding for the eight-team WAC Tournament. The top two seeds will receive first- and second-round byes. The third and fourth seeds will receive first-round byes.