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
Father's sacrifice generated GCU coach's success
6/21/2026 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro, Lopes Insider Blog
Single father raised Lottich, sleeping on floor to position him well
Dave Lottich had not even reached his first Father's Day when he made parenting paramount with the ultimate gift and sacrifice – taking sole custody of his son, Matt.
It was the first of Dave's series of sacrifices that spread through Grand Canyon assistant coach Matt Lottich's boyhood in the name of maximizing his son's academic and athletic potential. The Lottichs zigzagged across Chicagoland for basketball, football and baseball games, with Dave ("The Fenceman") staying self-employed in construction to be available for Matt's dropoffs, pickups, games, cooking and studying.
After several home moves, Dave targeted a one-bedroom, fixer-upper apartment in the affluent North Shore village of Winnetka, Illinois, so that Matt could attend New Trier High School for its curriculum and competitive prowess.
While many of Matt's classmates matriculated from mansions, he and his dad woke up each morning to move the twin mattress from the living room floor, where Dave slept, to under the bed, where Matt slept.
Each of Dave's dad decisions paid off. Matt became known as Illinois' best athlete in 2000 but carried the grades to continue basketball at Stanford, where his illustrious career led to playing 10 pro seasons and coaching 14 seasons with his second at GCU upcoming.
But nothing about the polished New Trier and Stanford labels and Matt's All-American image revealed how his arduous it was for his father to get him there.
"The driving purpose of almost every decision I made at the time for years was what was good for Matt," Dave said. "The high school was ranked No. 1 in the country and is almost always in the top 10. That was very much the purpose. As a young man individuates away from his dad, he's going to admire other people. It's important that there are other guys around who are worthy of emulation. If there are people around that are thriving, that's a good thing."
The most important person Dave put Matt around was himself. Time and again, Dave put his life on hold for the future of Matt's life.
"You don't realize until later that my dad sacrificed a lot of his life for mine," Matt said. "You look back and your perspective changes as you get older. My dad made a lot of career sacrifices, being self-employed and not taking job opportunities because he always had to be available.
"I've never questioned whether he would be there for me to this day."
Matt was born to a married couple in Tennessee, but Matt's mother, Cynthia, was not ready for family life or the rural work setting and vanished from the picture.
"It's a lot of responsibility, isn't it?" Dave said of parenting. "The party is over, don't you think? You've got to accept that, and I don't think his mom really did."
Dave became an early 1980s unicorn, a single father laboring through legal wranglings to earn sole custody of his only child when he was 7 months old.
As a park ranger on the outskirts of Nashville, Dave could make the baby balance work with a staff of teenagers helping keep his schedule flexible. He raised Matt there until he was 3 1/2 years old, when they returned to Dave's Chicago roots with better opportunities for Matt in mind. Matt's first vivid childhood memory is being handed to a grandmother he did not know upon moving into her Des Plaines home near O'Hare International Airport.
Matt started school early because Dave needed the day care to work. He got used to being the last kid picked up after school and giving Mother's Day school projects to his grandmother.
Dave, the son of a Chicago junior college system founding member, was a bright student who scored a perfect SAT score while at Pima Community College in Tucson. But he dropped out of studying economics at University of Chicago to pursue business in Tennessee.
Matt had no interest in following his father's ability to repair and build but did emulate his father's work ethic. When Matt applied that to books and ball, Dave saw where it was going and met him where his interests grew to play catch or drive him to games after long work days.
"I started realizing that he was highly talented," Dave said. "Oh boy, he was really bright and a go-getter guy."
Matt was the eight-grade football team's quarterback … as a sixth-grader. He played varsity basketball at 4,000-plus-student New Trier … as a freshman.
Basketball emerged as Matt's best sport, keeping Dave and Matt in the car for club tournaments across Chicagoland. Dave picked New Trier for Matt because he wanted "the best," which was hardly hyperbole with Sports Illustrated ranking it among the nation's 25 best prep athletic programs in the early 2000s.
"It was hard for me as a young kid because I literally had friends who had 8,000-, 9,000-square foot mansions," Matt said. "I'm just the apartment kid. I was really insecure about it. But as time went on, it almost became something that was celebrated. I was an athlete and a good student. Look what Dad's doing. By the end of high school, I had no shame in it at all, but it was really hard growing up like that."
Their scenario created empathy for the Lottichs when a crosstown club basketball friend, former Marquette player Todd Townsend, had been abandoned by his parents. The Lottichs traveled 25 miles to bring him meals and tutor him, ultimately adding him to the one-bedroom apartment mix and creating relationships that led to another New Trier family taking guardianship.
Other than Matt's mother last visiting at age 5, making a birthday call at age 9 and sending a letter to him at Stanford, it remained just Matt and Dave. Their dynamic made their apartment the gathering spot for Matt's friends to leave their mansions.
"Those were great years," Dave said. "The boys loved to eat at our house. The kids were happy. "
Matt threw 19 touchdown passes, averaged 23 points and hit .458 as a senior to become the Chicago Tribune Athlete of the Year in 2000. The football team won its league. The basketball team reached the state quarterfinals. The baseball team was the state runner-up.
But it took one more investment to get Matt to his dream school. Even though Matt would become New Trier's all-time scoring leader and be ranked among the nation's best prep basketball players, he still had not heard from his dream school – Stanford.
In April of Matt's junior baseball season, Dave dropped a quarter into a pay phone and called the Stanford basketball office to question why the staff was not recruiting his son.
Two weeks later, Cardinal assistant coach Blaine Taylor was watching Matt play a pickup game at New Trier. By July, Stanford offered and he accepted the next day.
"There was a strong ability to lead by example and raise the performance of the people around him," Dave said. "The business about him being intimidated by people that had more money was nonsensical. He, in fact, was setting the pace."
Matt played on four NCAA Tournament teams, including an Elite Eight run in 2001, and was a Wooden Award finalist as a Stanford senior. After his foreign playing career, Lottich entered coaching and assisted GCU head coach Bryce Drew at Valparaiso before following him as its head coach. They reunited last season when Drew added him to the GCU staff for a 20-win season.
Now, Matt is following his father's footsteps – times four. He and his wife Kylan are raising Grace, 17; Matthan (M.J.), 15; Christian, 13; and Landon, 11.
"I remember asking my dad when I was entering fatherhood about it and he said, 'Just make sure you tell them you love them every day,' " Matt said. "Honestly, I talk to my dad daily and he always says, 'Love you.' I make that a point with people in my life. I know I can call my dad and he's going to be 1,000% there for me, and I hope my kids feel the same way about me."
Dave also drove Matt to work hard, saying, "Life's short enough. Give it all you've got every minute." But he said Matt was already living that way as a boy.
He is proud of Matt's Christian walk, seeing it in how he talks, cares for others, prays and works with "missional intent." And he admires how he is a more tolerant father than he was while also seeing that same drive for inclusion that he showed as a boy with a cross-section of friends.
"Everybody gets a chop, as they say in Chicago," Dave said. "Every participant is rewarded. That's a good thing. He's good at that."
At 73, Dave is not retired but he always has taken work breaks for Matt. He turned down jobs so Matt could play games as a boy. He moved to the Bay Area for two years to watch Matt play at Stanford. And he will make his way to Phoenix this season to watch Matt coach and parent, roles in which he follows his father's life lesson that sacrifice is at the core of a family or a team.
"I'm extremely proud of how I was raised," Matt said. "I'm extremely proud of who my dad is. I'm extremely proud of the opportunities that were given. With the right type of parenting, a lot of people can make a lot better than what they were given. It just takes some sacrifice, some hard work and a little bit of luck. My dad did that for me, and I want to do the best things for my kids too."
It was the first of Dave's series of sacrifices that spread through Grand Canyon assistant coach Matt Lottich's boyhood in the name of maximizing his son's academic and athletic potential. The Lottichs zigzagged across Chicagoland for basketball, football and baseball games, with Dave ("The Fenceman") staying self-employed in construction to be available for Matt's dropoffs, pickups, games, cooking and studying.
After several home moves, Dave targeted a one-bedroom, fixer-upper apartment in the affluent North Shore village of Winnetka, Illinois, so that Matt could attend New Trier High School for its curriculum and competitive prowess.
While many of Matt's classmates matriculated from mansions, he and his dad woke up each morning to move the twin mattress from the living room floor, where Dave slept, to under the bed, where Matt slept.
Each of Dave's dad decisions paid off. Matt became known as Illinois' best athlete in 2000 but carried the grades to continue basketball at Stanford, where his illustrious career led to playing 10 pro seasons and coaching 14 seasons with his second at GCU upcoming.
But nothing about the polished New Trier and Stanford labels and Matt's All-American image revealed how his arduous it was for his father to get him there.
"The driving purpose of almost every decision I made at the time for years was what was good for Matt," Dave said. "The high school was ranked No. 1 in the country and is almost always in the top 10. That was very much the purpose. As a young man individuates away from his dad, he's going to admire other people. It's important that there are other guys around who are worthy of emulation. If there are people around that are thriving, that's a good thing."
The most important person Dave put Matt around was himself. Time and again, Dave put his life on hold for the future of Matt's life.
"You don't realize until later that my dad sacrificed a lot of his life for mine," Matt said. "You look back and your perspective changes as you get older. My dad made a lot of career sacrifices, being self-employed and not taking job opportunities because he always had to be available.
"I've never questioned whether he would be there for me to this day."
Matt was born to a married couple in Tennessee, but Matt's mother, Cynthia, was not ready for family life or the rural work setting and vanished from the picture.
"It's a lot of responsibility, isn't it?" Dave said of parenting. "The party is over, don't you think? You've got to accept that, and I don't think his mom really did."
Dave became an early 1980s unicorn, a single father laboring through legal wranglings to earn sole custody of his only child when he was 7 months old.
As a park ranger on the outskirts of Nashville, Dave could make the baby balance work with a staff of teenagers helping keep his schedule flexible. He raised Matt there until he was 3 1/2 years old, when they returned to Dave's Chicago roots with better opportunities for Matt in mind. Matt's first vivid childhood memory is being handed to a grandmother he did not know upon moving into her Des Plaines home near O'Hare International Airport.
Matt started school early because Dave needed the day care to work. He got used to being the last kid picked up after school and giving Mother's Day school projects to his grandmother.
Dave, the son of a Chicago junior college system founding member, was a bright student who scored a perfect SAT score while at Pima Community College in Tucson. But he dropped out of studying economics at University of Chicago to pursue business in Tennessee.
Matt had no interest in following his father's ability to repair and build but did emulate his father's work ethic. When Matt applied that to books and ball, Dave saw where it was going and met him where his interests grew to play catch or drive him to games after long work days.
"I started realizing that he was highly talented," Dave said. "Oh boy, he was really bright and a go-getter guy."
Matt was the eight-grade football team's quarterback … as a sixth-grader. He played varsity basketball at 4,000-plus-student New Trier … as a freshman.
Basketball emerged as Matt's best sport, keeping Dave and Matt in the car for club tournaments across Chicagoland. Dave picked New Trier for Matt because he wanted "the best," which was hardly hyperbole with Sports Illustrated ranking it among the nation's 25 best prep athletic programs in the early 2000s.
"It was hard for me as a young kid because I literally had friends who had 8,000-, 9,000-square foot mansions," Matt said. "I'm just the apartment kid. I was really insecure about it. But as time went on, it almost became something that was celebrated. I was an athlete and a good student. Look what Dad's doing. By the end of high school, I had no shame in it at all, but it was really hard growing up like that."
Their scenario created empathy for the Lottichs when a crosstown club basketball friend, former Marquette player Todd Townsend, had been abandoned by his parents. The Lottichs traveled 25 miles to bring him meals and tutor him, ultimately adding him to the one-bedroom apartment mix and creating relationships that led to another New Trier family taking guardianship.
Other than Matt's mother last visiting at age 5, making a birthday call at age 9 and sending a letter to him at Stanford, it remained just Matt and Dave. Their dynamic made their apartment the gathering spot for Matt's friends to leave their mansions.
"Those were great years," Dave said. "The boys loved to eat at our house. The kids were happy. "
Matt threw 19 touchdown passes, averaged 23 points and hit .458 as a senior to become the Chicago Tribune Athlete of the Year in 2000. The football team won its league. The basketball team reached the state quarterfinals. The baseball team was the state runner-up.
But it took one more investment to get Matt to his dream school. Even though Matt would become New Trier's all-time scoring leader and be ranked among the nation's best prep basketball players, he still had not heard from his dream school – Stanford.
In April of Matt's junior baseball season, Dave dropped a quarter into a pay phone and called the Stanford basketball office to question why the staff was not recruiting his son.
Two weeks later, Cardinal assistant coach Blaine Taylor was watching Matt play a pickup game at New Trier. By July, Stanford offered and he accepted the next day.
"There was a strong ability to lead by example and raise the performance of the people around him," Dave said. "The business about him being intimidated by people that had more money was nonsensical. He, in fact, was setting the pace."
Matt played on four NCAA Tournament teams, including an Elite Eight run in 2001, and was a Wooden Award finalist as a Stanford senior. After his foreign playing career, Lottich entered coaching and assisted GCU head coach Bryce Drew at Valparaiso before following him as its head coach. They reunited last season when Drew added him to the GCU staff for a 20-win season.
Now, Matt is following his father's footsteps – times four. He and his wife Kylan are raising Grace, 17; Matthan (M.J.), 15; Christian, 13; and Landon, 11.
"I remember asking my dad when I was entering fatherhood about it and he said, 'Just make sure you tell them you love them every day,' " Matt said. "Honestly, I talk to my dad daily and he always says, 'Love you.' I make that a point with people in my life. I know I can call my dad and he's going to be 1,000% there for me, and I hope my kids feel the same way about me."
Dave also drove Matt to work hard, saying, "Life's short enough. Give it all you've got every minute." But he said Matt was already living that way as a boy.
He is proud of Matt's Christian walk, seeing it in how he talks, cares for others, prays and works with "missional intent." And he admires how he is a more tolerant father than he was while also seeing that same drive for inclusion that he showed as a boy with a cross-section of friends.
"Everybody gets a chop, as they say in Chicago," Dave said. "Every participant is rewarded. That's a good thing. He's good at that."
At 73, Dave is not retired but he always has taken work breaks for Matt. He turned down jobs so Matt could play games as a boy. He moved to the Bay Area for two years to watch Matt play at Stanford. And he will make his way to Phoenix this season to watch Matt coach and parent, roles in which he follows his father's life lesson that sacrifice is at the core of a family or a team.
"I'm extremely proud of how I was raised," Matt said. "I'm extremely proud of who my dad is. I'm extremely proud of the opportunities that were given. With the right type of parenting, a lot of people can make a lot better than what they were given. It just takes some sacrifice, some hard work and a little bit of luck. My dad did that for me, and I want to do the best things for my kids too."
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