2023-24 WAC Women's Basketball Release - Week One
WHO’S READY FOR SOME BASKETBALL?
The 2023-24 NCAA women’s basketball season officially kicks off this week, with eight 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 CONTINUES WITH INNOVATIVE RESUME SEEDING SYSTEM
The WAC will continue to use the resume seeding system that debuted during the 2022-23 season. The seeding system will determine how teams are seeded at the Hercules Tires WAC Basketball Tournament. 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 CHOSEN AS WAC PRESEASON FAVORITE
Grand Canyon earned the top spot in the preseason 2023-24 Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Women’s Basketball Coaches Poll that was released on Sunday. All 11 WAC head coaches voted on the predicted order of finish and all-conference awards.
Grand Canyon claimed six first-place votes and 93 voting points to finish ahead of defending WAC tournament champion Southern Utah (five first-place votes, 87 voting points). California Baptist (83 points), Utah Tech (71 points) and Stephen F. Austin (61 points) rounded out the top five teams in the coaches poll.
WAC HEAD COACHES SELECTED GILLEN AS PRESEASON PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Utah Tech’s fifth year guard Breaunna Gillen was named the 2023-24 WAC Preseason Player of the Year. Gillen led the conference in assists with 200 and assists per game (6.5) during the 2022-23 season. She averaged 17.8 points and 5.1 rebounds per game in 31 starts for the Trailblazers.
Gillen was joined on the preseason all-conference team by California Baptist sophomore forward Grace Schmidt, Grand Canyon’s junior guard Trinity San Antonio and senior guard/forward Tiarra Brown and Southern Utah graduate student guard Tomekia Whitman.
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.
WAC 2022-23 SEASON IN REVIEW
In its first campaign as a member of the Western Athletic Conference, Southern Utah emerged with the league championship double and a NCAA automatic bid. The second-seeded and regular-season champion Thunderbirds downed No. 4 seed California Baptist 82-73. The Thunderbirds were one of three WAC women’s basketball teams to reach the postseason, with California Baptist winning the Women’s Basketball Invitational after defeating New Mexico State 63-61.