LAS VEGAS – UT Arlington men's basketball enters the 2025 Hercules Tires WAC Championship as the seven seed for the conference tournament this week in Las Vegas at the Orleans Arena. The Mavs will face second-seeded Grand Canyon (23-7, 13-3 WAC) in the quarterfinal round of the tournament in Las Vegas on Wednesday, March 12, at 10:30 p.m. CT. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+, and on the radio on the Varsity Network App with the Voice of the Mavs, Josh Sours.
 
"They're really well-coached," head coach KT Turner said of GCU during his weekly press conference on Monday. "They have elite talent, they have really good players, great size and they've won championships together. They've been there, they've done that and they play well together. They've got big guys that can make shots, we've got to do a good job not letting those guys get good looks from the three. They do a really good job of crashing the glass, so we've got to keep them off the glass."
 
UTA heads to #WACVegas on the heels of a narrow 70-68 loss at CBU this past Saturday, while GCU lost its final regular season game in overtime at Abilene Christian, 82-81, also on Saturday.
 
The pair have met twice thus far this season, with Grand Canyon coming out on top on both occasions – 82-75 on Feb. 15, in Arlington and 85-71 in Phoenix on Feb. 27. The two teams also met in the WAC Championship Game last season, an 89-74 win for the Lopes.
 
The Lopes are led by fifth-year head coach Bryce Drew, who has led GCU to three NCAA Tournament appearances in his first four seasons. That included the program's first March Madness win in 2023-24, as a No. 12 seed over No.5 Saint Mary's. Drew has taken all three teams he's been the head coach for (Valparaiso, Vanderbilt and GCU) to the NCAA Tournament. Drew was the head coach at his alma mater Valparaiso from 2011-12 until 2015-16, when he took the head coaching job at Vanderbilt, where he led the Commodores until 2018-19. He then took over the GCU program ahead of the 2020-21 season.
 
Grand Canyon is led by guard Tyon Grant-Foster, who is averaging a team-high 14.6 ppg and 6.2 rpg. He has however missed the past few games due to injury. G Ray Harrison led the way in both meetings this year with 19 points apiece. Forward JaKobe Coles chipped in with 13 points and eight boards in each of the wins.
 
The winner of Wednesday night's game moves on to a semifinal date with the winner of (3) CBU and Tarleton State (6) on Friday night from the Orleans Arena at 10:30 p.m. CT.
   
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