United Athletic Conference

 

The 2022-23 NCAA men’s basketball season officially kicks off this week, with all 13 WAC members in action on Nov. 7. The road to WACVegas begins for all teams in the conference right from the start of the regular season thanks to the WAC’s innovative new resume seeding system.

 

A resume seeding system will be used by the WAC to determine how teams are seeded at this year’s WAC Basketball Tournaments. An algorithm will rate performance against all teams faced in the regular season, not just conference play, that will rank teams for the conference postseason tournament. Using this resume seeding system, teams will receive more credit by playing stronger opponents than if they play weaker opponents. WAC Commissioner Brian Thornton and WAC Associate Commissioner of Basketball Drew Speraw worked with Ken Pomeroy of kenpom.com to put together this formula.

 

Grand Canyon earned the top spot in the preseason 2022-23 Western Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Coaches’ Poll and the 2022-23 WAC Men’s Basketball Media Poll that were released on Oct. 17. All 13 WAC head coaches cast votes for the preseason predicted order of finish and all-conference awards, with select media members taking part in the media poll.

 

Grand Canyon claimed eight first-place votes and 135 voting points to finish ahead of defending WAC tournament champion NM State (three first-place votes, 127 voting points) in the coaches’ poll. Stephen F. Austin (111 points), Abilene Christian (one first-place vote, 101 voting points) and California Baptist (one first-place vote, 96 voting points) rounded out the top five teams in the preseason coaches’ rankings. Grand Canyon led those same five teams in order at the top of the media poll.

 

Blacksher Named WAC Preseason Player of the Year By Coaches, Media

Grand Canyon junior guard Jovan Blacksher Jr. was named the 2022-23 WAC Preseason Player of the Year by the league’s head coaches and media after landing on the all-conference first team as a sophomore last season. Blacksher averaged 15.6 points and 4.0 assists per game in 17 conference starts for the Lopes in 2021-22.

 

Blacksher was joined on both preseason all-conference teams by Abilene Christian senior forward Airion Simmons, California Baptist sophomore guard Taran Armstrong, NM State senior guard Xavier Pinson, Seattle U junior guard Cameron Tyson, Stephen F. Austin sophomore guard Jaylin Jackson-Posey and Utah Valley senior guard Trey Woodbury.

 

Three different teams, Seattle U (14-4), Stephen F. Austin (14-4) and NM State (13-4) shared the regular-season championship in the WAC last year. Seven different conference squads won 10 or more games in conference play in 2021-22. No. 1 seed NM State ultimately captured the WAC tournament title with a 66-52 win over No. 6 seed Abilene Christian on March 12 in Las Vegas. The 12th-seeded Aggies beat No. 5 UConn 70-63 in the opening round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York before falling 53-48 to No. 4 seed Arkansas in the second round.

 

Only two players who finished last season among the top-10 scoring leaders in the WAC have returned to the conference for this year. UTRGV’s Justin Johnson is the leading returning scorer for the league after averaging 17.7 points (fourth in the WAC) in 31 games played in 2021-22. Preseason WAC Player of the Year Jovan Blacksher Jr. notched 15.8 points per contest over 31 games for Grand Canyon to rank seventh in scoring one season ago.

 

Abilene Christian was the top ranked team in DI men’s basketball in 2022-23 in both turnover margin (8.4) and turnovers forced per game (20.97), ranking second nationally with 10.9 steals per contest. Airion Simmons (12th, 70) and Damien Daniels (19th, 68) were each among the top-20 national steals leaders a season ago. The Wildcats were also one of the most prolific teams in the country at the free-throw line, checking in second in NCAA DI with 622 makes on 825 attempts at the line in 2021-22.

 

California Baptist head coach Rick Croy reached the 200-win milestone for his coaching career thanks to an 81-80 victory over UTRGV in the opening round of the 2022 WAC Tournament. Croy (200) joined three other current WAC head coaches that have won 200 or more games in their career, with the list including Utah Tech’s Jon Judkins (286), Sam Houston’s Jason Wooten (235) and Grand Canyon’s Bryce Drew (204).

 

Southern Utah and UT Arlington are set to begin their first basketball seasons as WAC members after both athletic programs officially joined the conference in the summer of 2022. Southern Utah most recently competed in the Big Sky Conference, posting a 23-12 overall record and a 14-6 conference mark in 2021-22 as the regular-season conference champion before reaching the semifinal round of The Basketball Classic. The Thunderbirds were previously the champions of the Summit League in the 2000-01 campaign. UTA returns to the WAC after competing in the conference during the 2012-13 season when it reached the title game of the WAC Men’s Basketball Tournament as the No. 4 seed. The Mavericks have finished as a conference tournament finalist on seven different occasions, capturing the 2008 Southland Conference tournament to mark the first NCAA Tournament appearance in program history. 

 

A pair of WAC men’s basketball regular season games are scheduled to air on national television during the 2022-23 season. Abilene Christian travels to Grand Canyon for a 9 p.m. (MT) tip on Feb. 17 before California Baptist visits Stephen F. Austin at 6 p.m. (CT) on Feb. 26, with both games airing on ESPNU.