United Athletic Conference

WAC TOURNAMENT RETURNS TO LAS VEGAS
The 2015 WAC Basketball Tournament returns to the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas for the fifth year in a row. The tournament will be held March 11-14, and will include all seven eligible men’s and women’s teams.

ESPNU TO TELEVISE WAC TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES
ESPN will once again broadcast the WAC men’s and women’s tournament championship games from the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on March 14. The women’s game will be broadcast on ESPNU at 1 p.m. (PT). The men’s championship game will also be broadcast by ESPNU at 8 p.m. (PT).

STAT LEADERS BACK
The following are the returning statistical leaders in the WAC from the 2013-14 season.

Four of the top 10 scorers from last year are back as Seattle U’s Isiah Umipig was second in the WAC (19.5). Also returning are Missouri-Kansas City’s Martez Harrison (4th, 17.2), Daniel Mullings of New Mexico State (6th, 16.8) and Grand Canyon’s Jerome Garrison (7th, 16.5).

Four top rebounders from last year return, led by New Mexico State’s Tshilidzi Nephawe, who brought down 7.8 rebounds per game last year as a junior, good for third in the WAC. The other top rebounders returning are Bakersfield’s Aly Ahmed (8th, 6.6), and Shaquille Hines of Texas-Pan American and Utah Valley’s Zach Nelson, who tied for ninth place with 6.3 rebounds a game last year.

Five of the top 10 shooters in the WAC return this season, led by Nephawe, who ranked fourth last season (54.0). Also returning are Utah Valley’s Mitch Bruneel (5th, 52.5) and Zach Nelson (6th, 52.0), Hines (9th, 48.8) and Ahmed (10th, 47.9).

Five of the top 10 assist leaders return, led by Harrison (3rd, 3.8). Also returning are Umipig (4th, 3.57), Mullings (5th, 3.51), Nelson (8th, 3.41) and UTPA’s Shaquille Boga (9th, 3.32).

Four of the top steals leaders return, including last year’s leader Boga (2.1). Also returning are Mullings (2nd, 1.86), Harrison (4th, 1.67) and Chicago State’s Clarke Rosenberg (7th, 1.44).

Four of the top 10 shot blockers in the conference return, led by Nephawe (2nd, 1.44). Also returning are Nelson (5th, 1.0), Ahmed (7th, 0.83) and Seattle U’s Shore Adenekan (9th, 0.77).

RETURNING ALL-CONFERENCE PLAYERS
Of the five first team All-WAC players in 2013-14, just one returns for the 2014-15 season in Preseason Player of the Year Daniel Mullings of New Mexico State. Three of the five second team honorees return, including Jerome Garrison of Grand Canyon, Tshilidzi Nephawe of New Mexico State and Seattle U’s Isiah Umipig.

Four of the five All-Defensive Team honorees from last year return, including Mullings, Garrison, Aly Ahmed of Bakersfield and Utah Valley’s Mitch Bruneel.

All five of the All-Newcomer Team honorees from a year ago return – Umipig, Daniel Alexander of Grand Canyon, Martez Harrison of UMKC, DK Eldridge of New Mexico State and Zach Nelson of Utah Valley.

LETTERWINNER/STARTER CAPSULE
Seattle U is the lone WAC school to return four starters this season, while Grand Canyon and New Mexico State return three apiece. Bakersfield, Missouri-Kansas City, Texas-Pan American and Utah Valley all return two starters, while Chicago State returns just one starter. UTPA has just two letterwinners back, while Chicago State and Seattle U have eight each.

KEY NON-CONFERENCE MATCHUPS
WAC teams have several key non-conference matchups this season, including 27 games against teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament or NIT last season. The complete list is below.

 Games vs. 2014 NCAA Tournament Teams
Nov. 14     Grand Canyon at Kentucky
Nov. 14     New Mexico State at Wichita State
Nov. 17     Missouri-Kansas City at Kansas State
Nov. 20     Bakersfield at San Diego State
Nov. 23     Delaware at Bakersfield
Dec. 3      New Mexico State at New Mexico
Dec. 3      Missouri-Kansas City at Milwaukee
Dec. 9      Missouri-Kansas City at Iowa State
Dec. 9      Utah Valley at Arizona
Dec. 17     Texas-Pan American at Saint Louis
Dec. 17     New Mexico State at Baylor
Dec. 20     New Mexico at New Mexico State
Dec. 20     Utah Valley at Weber State
Dec. 23     New Mexico at Grand Canyon
Dec. 30     Harvard at Grand Canyon

Games vs. 2014 NIT Teams
Nov. 14     Bakersfield vs. High Point
Nov. 14     Missouri-Kansas City at Missouri
Nov. 18     New Mexico State at Saint Mary’s
Nov. 24     Chicago State vs. Georgia State
Nov. 26     Texas-Pan American at Utah
Dec. 6      Chicago State at Toledo
Dec. 19     Seattle U at Minnesota
Dec. 28     Missouri-Kansas City at Indiana State
Dec. 28     Bakersfield at California
Dec. 31     Chicago State at Green Bay
Jan. 3       UC Irvine at New Mexico State
Jan. 3       Utah Valley at Arkansas

WAC TEAMS HAVE FIVE GAMES VS. TEAMS IN USA TODAY COACHES TOP 25 POLL
Teams from the WAC are scheduled to play five games against teams that have been ranked in the preseason USA Today Coaches’ poll.

Games vs. USA Today Preseason Poll Teams
Nov. 14     Grand Canyon at No. 1 Kentucky
Nov. 14     New Mexico State at No. 11 Wichita State
Nov. 20     Bakersfield at No. 17 San Diego State
Dec. 9      Utah Valley at No. 2 Arizona
Dec. 9      Missouri-Kansas City at No. 14 Iowa State

TEAM-BY-TEAM NOTES
BAKERSFIELD ROADRUNNERS (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
Bakersfield must replace 64 percent of its scoring from last season from departing players ... The Roadrunners return two starters from last season in Javonte Maynor and Aly Ahmed. Ahmed was named to the WAC All-Defensive Team and is the top returning rebounder (6.6), while Maynor is the top returning scorer (8.8) ... Bakersfield has two players who redshirted last season playing for the first time in 2014-15 in redshirt freshman guard Brent Wrapp and redshirt sophomore guard Jaylin Airington ... Senior Tyrell Corbin and redshirt freshman Brent Wrapp are expected to replace Issiah Grayson at point guard this season ... Bakersfield will play all its home games this season on campus at the 3,800-seat Icardo Center after splitting last season’s home contests with downtown Rabobank Arena ... Key losses for the Roadrunners include Issiah Grayson, Brandon Barnes and Stefon Johnson (graduation) ... Bakersfield opens the season at the Rainbow Classic, where it will face High Point and host Hawai‘i.

CHICAGO STATE COUGARS (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
Chicago State returns seven letterwinners, including one starter, from last season’s team that placed fourth in its inaugural season in the WAC ... The fourth-place finish in serves as Chicago State’s highest conference finish in the program’s NCAA Division I history ... The Cougars’ eight wins in WAC play last season equals the second-most conference wins in its Division I history with the 2005-06 team that posted an 8-8 record in The Summit League ... Senior guard Clarke Rosenberg averaged 14.0 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.4 steals per game while shooting 45 percent from the field and 34 percent from three-point range last year as a junior ... The Green and White had four players capture Academic All-WAC honors in 2013-14 – Markus Starks, Matt Ross, Kurt Karis and Eddie Denard ... Chicago State opens the season at Arizona State in the CBE Hall of Fame Classic before playing at Creighton on Sunday.

GRAND CANYON ANTELOPES (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
Grand Canyon returns two starters from last season in Jerome Garrison, who was named second team All-WAC and to the WAC All-Defensive Team, and Daniel Alexander, a WAC All-Newcomer selection ... The Lopes went 15-15 in their first season in Division I, earning a third-place finish in the WAC and a postseason bid to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament ... GCU’s roster includes seven international players ... Royce Woolridge, a senior transfer from Washington State, will make his return to Phoenix as he played at Sunnyslope High School ... GCU ranked second in the WAC in free throw percentage (74.0) in 2013-14 ... Head coach Dan Majerle was named a finalist for the 2014 Joe B. Hall Award, given to the most outstanding first year Division I coach ...  The Lopes averaged 4,373 fans at GCU Arena last season. The Arena has been renovated and will now seat 7,000 fans for basketball ... Grand Canyon opens the season at No. 1 Kentucky on Friday.

KANSAS CITY KANGAROOS (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
Missouri-Kansas City is entering its second season under head coach Kareem Richardson ... In his first year with the ‘Roos in 2013-14, Richardson led the team to a fifth-place finish in the WAC, and the fourth seed in the conference tournament, both of which were the highest since 2006 at UMKC ... Last year, the program’s attendance increased 36 percent from the previous year ... UMKC’s overall winning percentage in 2013-14 was an improvement from the previous two years ... Martez Harrison was named WAC Freshman of the Year last season. The Kansas City, Mo. product averaged 17.2 points per game ... The roster currently has eight players from the Kansas City area, the most ever at UMKC (previous record set last season with seven) ... UMKC will return four redshirts, two of which sat out last season due to Division I transfer rules in Reese Holliday (Toledo) and Shayok Shayok (Bradley) ... The ‘Roos play games in 17 different states this season ... UMKC opens the season at Missouri on Friday.

NEW MEXICO STATE AGGIES (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
NM State looks to complete the rare four-peat in 2014-15, as the Aggies have won the WAC Tournament title and participated in the NCAA Tournament three years in a row ... There are four returning seniors and a group of seven newcomers that will compete for playing time ... NM State returns WAC Player of the Year Daniel Mullings, who averaged a team-high 16.8 points per game and led the Aggies with 65 steals, which ranked second in the conference ... The Aggies also welcome back Tshilidzi Nephawe and DK Eldridge. Last season, Nephawe averaged 11.1 points per contest and tied for a team-high 7.8 rebounds a game. Eldridge averaged 11.2 points per game to go along with 4.5 assists per contest ... The Aggies lost 7-5 Sim Bhullar to the NBA, but welcome Sim’s younger brother, 7-3 redshirt freshman Tanveer Bhullar into the fold ... The Aggies open the season at Wichita State, a team that finished 35-1 and earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament last year.

SEATTLE U REDHAWKS (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
Seattle U returns eight players who saw action during the 2013-14 campaign, including second team All-WAC honoree Isiah Umipig, as part of the top three players in scoring average, as well as three of the top four rebounders from last season ... The Redhawks finished seventh in the WAC last season ... Two key players returning from injury are senior wing player Emerson Murray, who battled foot issues all year long, and junior forward Deshaun Sunderhaus, recovering from a left knee injury after averaging 15.8 points and 10.3 rebounds per game in the four previous contests before getting hurt at Grand Canyon Jan. 25 ... Also coming back to the Redhawks are Theo Turner, a 6-11 center from England who redshirted last season, and Manroop Clair, a 6-2 guard from Canada who sat out last season after transferring from Hawai‘i ... The team adds four newcomers to the squad, three of whom are freshmen ... Seattle U hosts Texas State on Friday to open the season.

TEXAS-PAN AMERICAN BRONCS (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
The Broncs won five road games last season, their highest total since 2007-08 ... Last season, UTPA swept Chicago State and Missouri-Kansas City, the No. 3 and 4 seeds in the 2014 WAC Tournament ... The Broncs ranked 40th nationally in turnover margin (+40), 75th in steals per game (7.0), 81st in three-point field goal percentage defense (32.6) and 93rd in total steals (224) ... Shaq Boga ranked 30th in the nation in steals per game (2.10), 40th in total steals (65) and 137th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.84) ... After playing 12 games against teams that participated in postseason play last season, the Broncs have 13 games on the slate against 2014 postseason teams this year ... Shaun Noriega, a transfer from South Florida, returns for a sixth season after missing the last two seasons due to injury. Noriega ranked ninth in the Big East in three-point shooting in 2010-11 ... UTPA hosts Wayland Baptist to open the season on Friday.

UTAH VALLEY WOLVERINES (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
Utah Valley won the 2013-14 WAC regular-season title in its first-ever year in the league, finishing the season with a 20-12 overall record and a 13-3 conference mark ... The Wolverines made their first-ever trip to the NIT, dropping a 77-64 decision to Cal in the first round ... In its first-ever WAC Tournament, Utah Valley set a new tournament record by shooting 70.5 percent from the field in an 83-63 win over Texas-Pan American in the quarterfinals ... Utah Valley returns two of its starters from last year’s team in Mitch Bruneel, a WAC All-Defensive team honoree from last season, and Zach Nelson, a WAC All-Newcomer team honoree ... The Wolverines also return letterwinners Hayes Garrity, Brenden Evans, Chad Ross and Eli Robison, and welcome seven newcomers ... Utah Valley’s non-conference schedule features a game against nationally-ranked Arizona and games against in-state rivals Utah State, Weber State and Southern Utah ... The Wolverines host South Dakota on Friday to open the season.