USATSI

The WAC Tournament begins on Tuesday, March 11, and Utah Valley enters the tourney as the No. 1 seed in the conference. Grand Canyon is No. 2, while California Baptist is No. 3, Abilene Christian is No. 4, Seattle U is No. 5, Tarleton State is No. 6 and UT Arlington is No. 7. Those seven teams all enjoy a first-round bye into the tournament’s second round, the quarterfinals, while No. 8 Southern Utah and No. 9 Utah Tech face off on Tuesday, with the winner taking on Utah Valley in the quarterfinals. Currently, Utah Valley is the only WAC team projected to make the NCAA Tournament, according to Jerry Palm’s latest bracketology update on CBS Sports. 

WAC Tournament Schedule

First Round

No. 8 Southern Utah vs. No. 9 Utah Tech

Quarterfinals 

QF1 – No. 1 Utah Valley vs. Southern Utah/Utah Tech 

QF2 – No. 2 Grand Canyon vs. UT Arlington

QF3 – No. 4 Abilene Christian vs. No. 5 Seattle U

QF4 – No. 3 California Baptist vs. No. 6 Tarleton State

Semifinals 

SF1 – QF1 winner vs. QF3 winner

SF2 – QF2 winner vs. QF4 winner  

Final

SF1 winner vs. SF2 winner

Despite entering the tournament as the No. 1 seed, Utah Valley is not the betting favorite, according to FanDuel. That would be No. 2 Grand Canyon, who is priced at +145 and has won three of the last four WAC Tournaments. Utah Valley has the next-shortest odds to win the WAC at +230, followed by Seattle U and California Baptist (+500). Next up are Abilene Christian and UT Arlington (+2700).

Tyon Grant-Foster, who was WAC Tournament MVP last year, leads Grand Canyon in scoring this year but hasn’t played since Feb. 15. Jakobe Coles, Ray Harrison and Duke Brennan are all key players for the Lopes, with Brennan leading the team in rebounds and shooting percentage. Dominick Nelson is the top scorer for Utah Valley at 15.5 points per game, and Carter Welling and Tanner Toolson also average double-digit points per game for the Wolverines. Dominique Daniels Jr. leads California Baptist and the WAC as a whole with 19.9 points per game, and Kendal Coleman is the only other Lancers player scoring at least 10 points per game. Abilene Christian has three players averaging double-digit points per game in Leonardo Bettiol, Quion Williams and Bradyn Hubbard — and all three are very efficient, making at least 46.4% of their shots. Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe leads Seattle U in scoring at 15.1 points per game and rebounds with 9.6 per game, with John Christofilis and Paris Dawson each averaging 10.4 points per contest. Lance Ware is one of three UT Arlington players averaging double digits this year along with Jaden Wells and Raysean Seamster, and Ware also leads the Mavericks with 9.8 rebounds per contest.

Utah Valley leads the WAC in points per game with 80.2 and are second in scoring defense with 67.8. Grand Canyon is second in scoring at 78.9 points per game and is third in scoring defense at 70.0 points per game allowed. Seattle U has the top scoring defense in the conference with 59.8 points allowed per game.

SportsLine expert Thomas Casale is picking Utah Valley to win the WAC Tournament and punch a ticket to the NCAA Tournament. You can find out which teams Casale and other SportsLine experts are backing for each conference tournament only at SportsLine.