The regular season is coming to an end for both Men’s and Women’s Hoops at Utah Valley. Both teams had expectations coming into the season to make the WAC Tournament, but who has accomplished them and who has not?
Men’s hoops:
The men have had a roller coaster year, to say the least. Starting the season 6-3 with wins over Seattle U, Weber St, and Sam Houston State, Utah Valley looked like they were continuing where they left off.
Then the schedule got harder.
Utah Valley traveled to Corvallis, Oregon, to take on Oregon State and headed up north to Salt Lake to face the Utes, hosted Liberty, and then traveled to Boise State to face the Broncos who are tied for first in the Mountain West.
The Wolverines lost every game.
An argument could be made that UVU would have defeated Oregon State if it were not for a no-call goaltend that allowed the Beavers to run out the clock or a second-half malfunction against the Utes.
UVU started the WAC schedule 2-0 with wins over Cal Baptist and SUU before losing seven of their next eight games. Things were not looking good for UVU, but a switch was flipped.
The Wolverines would go on a five-game winning streak from Feb. 10 to March 1, crushing Abilene Christan, who defeated top-ranked GCU. UVU continued their winning streak by beating SUU, UTRGV, and Stephen F. Austin, also dominating Cal Baptist by 23 on the road.
Suddenly, the Wolverines are fighting for fourth place in the WAC standings where just one month ago, they were fighting to even make the conference tournament or “WAC Vegas” dubbed by fans.
Utah Valley Hoops looks hot. Really hot. The emergence of Ethan Potter has been revolutionary for the Wolverines. Potter has hit his career-high in points three times this season and it has allowed UVU to bring the leading scorer Caleb Stone-Carrawell off the bench to spark the Wolverines’ second unit.
UVU honored their seniors on Senior Night against, at the time of this publishing, fourth-place UT Arlington despite falling to the Mavericks.
The Wolverines take on Tarleton St. on March 7 and Abilene Christan on March 9, before heading to WAC Vegas to seek revenge for their semi-final exit last year to SUU.
Women’s hoops:
Much like the Men’s team, the Women’s team has had a roller coaster year themselves, beating great teams but losing games they probably should not have.
UVU went 5-4 in non-conference play with key wins over Weber State and Utah State.
But WAC play was a different beast for the Wolverines.
UVU lost their first five games of conference play before winning three of their next four to push them into the top-six seeds with wins over UTRGV, Utah Tech and Seattle U.
Utah Valley would go on a four-game losing streak, which consisted of three road games, before ending the losing streak to then-WAC leader Cal Baptist by scoring 92 points in a regulation game.
Things were looking up for the Women’s Wolverine team, who outperformed their record.
But UVU would lose to Southern Utah 67-66, then fall to UTRGV 63-62, before the gates were broken open and lost by 49 to SFA.
The Wolverines currently sit in 10th place in the WAC standings at 4-13. If those two one-point losses went the other way, UVU would be in seventh place and two games above the eighth-place team.
Instead, they are 1.5 games behind the eighth-placed Vaqueros, who are 5-11 as of March 1.
With only eight teams making the WAC tournament, UVU faces the fifth, sixth, and ninth-placed teams in the conference to finish the season. They need to win at least two to make the conference tourney.
Utah Valley will also need multiple losses from Southern Utah, UTRGV, and Tarleton State for UVU to get a chance to finish in eighth place or make a tiebreaker.
