2023-24 WAC Men's Basketball Release - Week One

IT IS TIME FOR SOME BASKETBALL!
The 2023-24 NCAA men’s basketball season officially kicks off this upcoming week, with nine WAC members in action on opening day Nov. 6. The top eight teams in the WAC standings at season’s end will earn the right to compete in the Hercules Tires WAC Basketball Tournament at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas in March.

WAC SEEDING SYSTEM ENJOYS SUCCESSFUL DEBUT
The 2022-23 campaign marked the debut of the revolutionary WAC Résumé Seeding System that is used to seed the WAC Basketball Tournaments. Developed by WAC Commissioner Brian Thornton, Associate Commissioner of Basketball Drew Speraw and Ken Pomeroy of www.Kenpom.com, the seeding system employs an algorithm that is based on performance throughout an entire regular season and rewards WAC members who face stronger schedules. The system is responsible for seeding the top eight teams for the conference tournament after those teams qualify for the field based on the final regular-season WAC standings.

The WAC finished last season 11th in the Kenpom rankings of all 32 NCAA Division I basketball conferences and Independents, its best finish since the 2006-07 season. A pair of WAC teams finished in the top 75 of the NCAA NET rankings, the key metric that helps select at-large entries and seed the NCAA Tournament.
 
DEFENDING CHAMPION GRAND CANYON REPEATS PRESEASON WAC FAVORITE AHEAD OF NEW SEASON
Grand Canyon returned to the top spot of the preseason WAC Men’s Basketball Coaches Poll for the second straight season. All 11 WAC head coaches cast votes for the preseason predicted order of finish and all-conference awards.
 
Grand Canyon, the defending WAC Men’s Basketball Tournament champion, claimed nine first-place votes and 99 voting points to finish ahead of Stephen F. Austin, who secured the final two first-place votes and 87 voting points in the preseason coaches poll. Seattle U (86 voting points), Utah Valley (61 voting points) and Abilene Christian (60 voting points) rounded out the top five teams in the preseason rankings.

HARRISON NAMED WAC PRESEASON PLAYER OF THE YEAR BY THE CONFERENCE HEAD COACHES
Grand Canyon junior guard Ray Harrison was named the 2023-24 WAC Preseason Player of the Year by the coaches after landing on the all-conference first team as a sophomore transfer last season. Harrison averaged 21.1 points and 3.6 assists per game in 17 conference starts for the Lopes in 2022-23, guiding GCU to a WAC Tournament title as the championship’s Most Outstanding Player (20.0 PPG, 5.5 APG in four tournament starts).
 
Harrison was joined on the 2023-24 preseason all-conference team by GCU redshirt senior forward Gabe McGlothan (12.8 PPG, 7.5 RPG in conference play in 2022-23), Seattle U redshirt senior guard Cameron Tyson (17.0 PPG, .851 FT% in conference play in 2022-23), Stephen F. Austin junior forward Sadaidriene Hall (12.8 PPG 7.0 RPG in conference play in 2022-23) and Utah Valley junior guard Drake Allen (12.3 PPG, 4.2 APG in conference play with Southern Utah in 2022-23).

WAC 2022-23 SEASON IN REVIEW
Picked as the preseason favorite entering the 2022-23 campaign, No. 5 seed Grand Canyon won four games at the 2023 Hercules Tires WAC Basketball Tournament on its way to a conference championship and NCAA Tournament automatic bid. The Lopes were one of four WAC men’s basketball teams to reach the postseason, with Utah Valley reaching the semifinal round of the postseason men’s NIT at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

ABILENE CHRISTIAN, SFA NATIONALLY ELITE AT TURNING OPPONENTS OVER ON DEFENSE
Stephen F. Austin ranked third in NCAA Division I with 18.06 turnovers forced per game in 2022-23. WAC foe Abilene Christian was just behind the Lumberjacks ranked fifth with 17.67 turnovers forced per contest. ACU was also fifth in turnover margin at an even 5.0 last season.

COMMISSIONER THORNTON NAMED CHAIR OF NCAA MBB COMPETITION COMMITTEE
WAC Commissioner Brian Thornton was appointed the chair of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Competition Committee in October of 2023. The 12-member committee reports directly to the NCAA DI Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee in an advisory role, with a focus on student-athlete health and safety, sportsmanship and integrity, game operations and presentation, technology and statistical trends.

HERCULES TIRES, WAC AGREE TO BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT NAMING RIGHTS EXTENSION
The WAC and Hercules Tires have agreed to a multi-year renewal for the title sponsorship rights of the annual WAC Basketball Tournament. The 2024 edition of the Hercules Tires WAC Basketball Tournament is slated for March 13-16 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

Hercules Tires has served as the title sponsor of the WAC Basketball Tournament for the past three seasons, a partnership that has featured 51 tournament games contested between both the men’s and women’s championships during that span. The top eight finishers in the conference standings will be seeded based on the WAC Résumé Seeding System in each gender at the end of the 2023-24 regular season and will compete for the conference tournament hardware and automatic bids into the 2024 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament during the four-day basketball showcase at the Orleans Arena.

WATCH THE WAC ON LINEAR TV
A pair of WAC men’s basketball conference matchups will air on ESPN linear networks during the 2023-24 regular season. Utah Valley will travel to Seattle U on Jan. 26 for a showdown on ESPNU, while Grand Canyon will welcome Stephen F. Austin to Phoenix on March 2 on ESPNU. GCU will additionally compete on the ESPN networks at home against San Diego State on Dec. 5 (ESPNU) and at Liberty on Dec. 9 (ESPNU) in nonconference play.
 
WAC teams will also appear on the CBS Sports Network (Grand Canyon vs. San Francisco and DePaul/South Carolina, Nov. 17 and 19 at the Arizona Tip-Off in Glendale, Ariz.), the Longhorn Network (UT Arlington at Texas, Jan. 1), the Pac-12 Networks (UT Arlington at Arizona, Nov. 19 on Pac-12 Arizona; Utah Tech at Washington State, Nov. 24 on Pac-12 Washington; Southern Utah at Utah, Dec. 5 on Pac-12 Mountain; Utah Valley at Oregon State, Dec. 9 on Pac-12 Oregon; California Baptist at Oregon, Dec. 12 on Pac-12 Oregon; Utah Valley at Utah, Dec. 16 on Pac-12 Mountain; Utah Tech at Colorado, Dec. 21 on Pac-12 Mountain), and the SEC Network (Abilene Christian at Arkansas, Dec. 21).