The Hercules Tires Western Athletic Conference Tournament Bracket seeding was announced on Saturday morning and the Utah Valley University men’s basketball team will play as the No. 2 seed in the tournament.
With being a top-four seed, the Wolverines will have a bye in the first round of the tournament on Tuesday, March 7. UVU will then face the winner of the matchup between the No. 7 Tarleton State Texans and No. 11 University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros on Thursday, March 9, at 6 p.m. MT. All games in the tournament will be streamed on ESPN+.
The Wolverines faced each team once during the regular season. UVU defeated UTRGV 75-61 on Jan. 7 in Edinburg, Texas, and lost to TSU 77-58 on Feb. 23 in Stephenville, Texas (the Wolverines’ last loss of the season).
UVU finished its regular season with a 24-7 record overall and a 15-3 record in the WAC. The Wolverines claimed the regular season WAC Title and ended their season on a three-game winning streak, outscoring their opponents 257-190 during the span.
UTRGV ended their regular season with a 15-16 record and a 6-12 record in conference play while TSU finished with a reverse overall record of 16-15 and went 9-9 in the WAC.
If the Wolverines win their quarterfinal game against the winner between the Vaqueros and Texans, they will advance to the semifinals to face the winner of the No. 3 Southern Utah University Thunderbirds versus No. 6 Stephen F. Austin University Lumberjacks or No. 11 Utah Tech (depending on who wins in round one) game on Friday, March 10, at 8 p.m. Then, if the Wolverines win the semifinals, they will advance to the championship game which will be played on Saturday, March 11, at 8:30 p.m. MT.
UVU will automatically qualify for the NCAA Tournament if they win the tournament. However, if they fall short of winning the tournament title, they have already automatically qualified for the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) by winning the WAC Title during the regular season.
The Sam Houston State Bearkats were chosen as the No. 1 seed in the tournament, despite the Wolverines claiming the WAC regular season title, after edging the Wolverines 6.977-6.964 in WAC points in the final WAC Resume Seeding System numbers.
All games in the WAC Tournament will be played at the Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada from March 7-11.
Be sure to tune into UVUReview.com for results and updates on how the Wolverines perform in the tournament.
