2023–24 Western Athletic Conference men's basketball season

The 2023–24 WAC men's basketball season began with practices in October followed by the start of the 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in early November 2023. The conference began play in late November 2023. This is the WAC's 62nd season of basketball. The WAC competed with 11 teams due to two teams having left the conference since the prior season.^[1] Both New Mexico State and Sam Houston State joined Conference USA effective July 1, 2023.^[2] The WAC tournament will be held March 13–16, 2024 with the top eight teams competing for the automatic bid to the 2024 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.^[3]

2023–24 WAC men's basketball season

League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Number of teams	11
TV partner(s)	ESPN, ESPN+
Regular season
WAC tournament
WAC men's basketball seasons
← 2022–23 2024–25 →

2023–24 WAC men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
Grand Canyon	2	–	0	1.000	8	–	1	.889
Tarleton*	2	–	0	1.000	8	–	2	.800
Utah Tech*	2	–	0	1.000	5	–	5	.500
Utah Valley	1	–	1	.500	6	–	4	.600
California Baptist	1	–	1	.500	6	–	3	.667
Seattle	1	–	1	.500	6	–	4	.600
Stephen F. Austin	1	–	1	.500	5	–	5	.500
UT Arlington	1	–	1	.500	5	–	4	.556
Abilene Christian	0	–	2	.000	4	–	6	.400
Southern Utah	0	–	2	.000	3	–	6	.333
UT Rio Grande Valley	0	–	2	.000	3	–	7	.300
* Ineligible for the NCAA tournament due to transition from Division II

† 2024 WAC tournament winner As of December 14, 2023

Pre-season edit

WAC Media days edit

The WAC's 2023 men's basketball media day was held on October 16.^[4]

Men's Basketball Coaches Preseason Poll
Place	Team	Points	First place votes
1.	Grand Canyon	99	9
2.	Stephen F. Austin	87	2
3	Seattle U	86	--
4.	Utah Valley	61	--
5.	Abilene Christian	60	--
6.	Tarleton	49	--
7.	California Baptist	47	--
8.	UT Arlington	43	--
9. (T)	Southern Utah	26	--
9. (T)	UTRGV	26	--
11.	Utah Tech	21	--

WAC Preseason All-Conference edit

First Team

Name	School	Yr.	Pos.
Ray Harrison†	Grand Canyon	Junior	G
Gabe McGlothan	Grand Canyon	Senior	F
Cameron Tyson	Seattle U	Senior	G
Sadaidriene Hall	Stephen F. Austin	Junior	F
Drake Hall	Utah Valley	Junior	G

† Denotes Preseason Player of the Year

Regular season edit

Early season tournaments edit

Team	Tournament	Finish
Abilene Christian	Paradise Jam	2nd
California Baptist	The Joust	1st
Grand Canyon	Arizona Tip-Off	2nd
Seattle U	Seattle MTE	1st
Southern Utah	Louisiana Tech MTE	3rd
Stephen F. Austin	Cayman Islands Classic	2nd
Tarleton	SoCal Challenge	1st
UT Arlington	Acrisure Classic	3rd
UTRGV	Acrisure Invitational	4th
Utah Tech	Lake Erie Classic	2nd
Utah Valley	Jacksonville Classic (Bay Bracket)	2nd

Records against other conferences edit

2023–24 records against non-conference foes:

Regular season

Power Conferences & Gonzaga	Record
ACC	0–2
Big East	0–0
Big Ten	0–0
Big 12	2–1
Pac-12	0–1
SEC	0–1
Gonzaga	0–0
Power Conference Total	2-5

Other NCAA Division I Conferences	Record
America East	0–0
American	0–1
A-10	1-1
ASUN	1-0
Big Sky	2-2
Big South	0–0
Big West	1-1
CAA	0–0
C-USA	3–1
Horizon	0–0
Ivy League	0-1
MAAC	0–0
MAC	0–0
MEAC	0–0
MVC	1-2
Mountain West	1-2
NEC	0–0
OVC	1–0
Patriot League	0–0
SoCon	0–0
Southland	1–0
SWAC	2–0
The Summit	2-1
Sun Belt	1-0
WCC (except Gonzaga)	2-1
Other Division I Total	19-13
Non-Division I Total	9-0
NCAA Division I Total	21-18

Record against ranked non-conference opponents edit

This is a list of games against ranked opponents only (rankings from the AP Poll):

Date	Visitor	Home	Score	Conference record

Team rankings are reflective of AP poll when the game was played, not current or final ranking

Rankings edit

		Improvement in ranking
		Drop in ranking
RV		Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25
NV		No votes received

		Pre	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5
Abilene Christian	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Abilene Christian	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

California Baptist	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
California Baptist	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

Grand Canyon	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	RV
Grand Canyon	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	RV

Seattle U	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Seattle U	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

Southern Utah	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Southern Utah	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

Stephen F. Austin	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Stephen F. Austin	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

Tarleton	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Tarleton	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

UT Arlington	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
UT Arlington	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

UTRGV	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
UTRGV	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

Utah Tech	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Utah Tech	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

Utah Valley	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Utah Valley	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

Head coaches edit

Coaching changes edit

Three coaching changes were made during the offseason. Todd Simon accepted the head coaching position at Bowling Green in March 2023.^[5] The next month, Rob Jeter began as head coach at Southern Utah.^[6] With 20 years of coaching experience at the college level, KT Turner was hired as the new head coach at UT Arlington.^[7] Mark Madsen was hired as the head coach at California and Todd Phillips was promoted from associate head coach to the head coach at Utah Valley in April 2023.^[8]

Coaches edit

Note: Stats shown are before the beginning of the season. Overall and WAC records are from time at current school.

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Seasons at school	Overall record	WAC record	WAC titles	NCAA tournaments
Abilene Christian	Brette Tanner	(Associate HC)	3rd	38–28 (.576)	18–18 (.500)	0	0
California Baptist	Rick Croy	St. Mary's (assistant)	11th	85-66 (.563)	38-42 (.475)	0	0
Grand Canyon	Bryce Drew	Vanderbilt	4th	64-27 (.703)	33-15 (.688)	1	2
Seattle U	Chris Victor	(Assistant/interim HC)	3rd	43-21 (.672)	25-11 (.694)	1	0
Southern Utah	Rob Jeter	Western Illinois	1st	0-0 (–)	0-0 (–)	0	0
Stephen F. Austin	Kyle Keller	Texas A&M (assistant)	8th	145-68 (.696)	25–11 (.694)	1	0
Tarleton	Billy Gillispie	Ranger College	4th	30-33 (.476)	23-25 (.479)	0	0
UT Arlington	K. T. Turner	Kentucky (assistant)	1st	0-0 (–)	0-0 (–)	0	0
UTRGV	Matt Figger	Austin Peay	3rd	23-40 (.258)	9-27 (.250)	0	0
Utah Tech	Jon Judkins	Snow College	19th	320-168 (.656)	15-35 (.300)	0	0
Utah Valley	Todd Phillips	(Associate HC)	1st	0-0 (–)	0-0 (–)	0	0

Notes:

Overall and WAC records, conference titles, etc. are from time at current school and are through the end of the 2022–23 season.
Records and season totals only include time spent at Division I as head coach.
NCAA tournament appearances are from time at current school only.
NCAA Final Fours and Championship include time at other schools.

Post season edit

WAC tournament edit

The conference tournament was played from March 13–16, 2024, at the Orleans Arena in Paradise, Nevada near Las Vegas. Eight of the eleven members were invited to the tournament. While Tarleton and Utah Tech were ineligible for the NCAA tournament, they were eligible for the WAC tournament.^[9]

NCAA tournament edit

Teams from the conference that were selected to participate:

Seed	Region	School	First Four	First round	Second round	Sweet Sixteen	Elite Eight	Final Four	Championship
			–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	Bids	W-L (%):	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	TOTAL: 0–0 (–)

National Invitation Tournament edit

Number from the conference that were selected to participate:

Seed	School	First round	Second round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Finals
		–	–	–	–	–
	W-L (%):	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	TOTAL: 0–0 (–)

College Basketball Invitational edit

Number from the conference that were selected to participate:

Seed	School	First round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Finals
		–	–	–	–
	W-L (%):	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	TOTAL: 0–0 (–)

Index to colors and formatting
WAC member won
WAC member lost

*Denotes overtime period

Awards and honors edit

Players of the week edit

Throughout the conference regular season, the WAC offices name a player of the week, and a freshman of the week each Monday.

Week	Player of the Week	School	Newcomer of the Week	School
November 13	DaJuan Gordon	UT Arlington	Dominique Daniels Jr.	CBU
November 20	Shemar Wilson	UT Arlington	Tyon Grant-Foster	Grand Canyon
November 27	Jakorie Smith	Tarleton	Tyon Grant-Foster	Grand Canyon
December 4	Tyon Grant-Foster	Grand Canyon	Tyon Grant-Foster	Grand Canyon
December 11	Gabe McGlothan	Grand Canyon	Caleb Stone-Carrawell	Utah Valley
December 18
December 26
January 2
January 8
January 15
January 22
January 29
February 5
February 12
February 19
February 26
March 4

Totals per school - Players of the week edit

School	Player of the week	Freshman of the week	Total
Abilene Christian University
California Baptist University		1	1
Grand Canyon University	2	3	5
Seattle University
Southern Utah University
Stephen F. Austin State University
Tarleton State University	1		1
University of Texas at Arlington	2		2
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Utah Tech University
Utah Valley University		1	1
Total	5	5	10

All-Americans edit

All-WAC edit

First team

Name	School

‡ WAC Player of the Year
‡‡ WAC Defensive Player of the Year

Second team

Name	School

All-Newcomer team edit

Name	School

† Newcomer of the Year

All-Defensive team edit

Name	School

‡WAC Defensive Player of the Year

Other awards edit

Sixth Man of the Year:

Freshman of the Year:

Coach of the Year:

2024 NBA draft edit

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	Team	School/club team
−	−				−

Home game attendance edit

Team	Stadium	Capacity	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3	Game 4	Game 5	Total	Average	% of Capacity
Abilene Christian	Moody Coliseum	3,600	1,895					1,895	1,895	---
California Baptist	CBU Events Center	5,050	3,290	5,096	2,540	2,034	2,009	8,386	4,193	83%
Grand Canyon	GCU Arena	7,000	7,186	7,118				14,304	7,152	102%
Seattle U	Redhawk Center/Climate Pledge Arena	999/18,100^[10]	999	999	1,410			1,998	999	100%
Southern Utah	America First Event Center	5,300	1,461					1,461	1,461	28%
Stephen F. Austin	William R. Johnson Coliseum	7,203	3,250					3,250	3,250	45%
Tarleton State	Wisdom Gymnasium	3,000	1,040					1,040	1,040	35%
UT Arlington	College Park Center	7,000	2,185	2,512				4,697	2,349	34%
UTRGV	UTRGV Fieldhouse/Bert Ogden Arena	2,500/7,688^[11]	1,622					1,622	1,622	65%
Utah Tech	Burns Arena	4,779						---	---	---
Utah Valley	UCCU Center	8,500	1,849					1,849	1,849	22%
Total		73,523						38,607	23,915	57%

Bold – At or exceed capacity; capacity ratios for Seattle U and UTRGV computed based on smaller home arena

†Season high
‡Climate Pledge Arena
‡‡Bert Ogden Arena

References edit

^ "C-USA picks Liberty among four new additions". ESPN.com. November 5, 2021. Retrieved November 6, 2023.
^ Bourne, Isaac (November 2, 2023). "Conference USA Season Preview: A Conference Flipped Upside Down". Mid-Major Madness. Retrieved November 6, 2023.
^ "Championship Format And Dates For 2024 Hercules Tires WAC Basketball Tournament Set". wacsports.com. November 4, 2023. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
^ "Grand Canyon Chosen By WAC Coaches To Repeat In 2023-24 Men's Basketball Preseason Poll". wacsports.com. November 4, 2023. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
^ "Fowler's Todd Simon comes back close to home, takes over Bowling Green men's basketball program". Lansing State Journal. Retrieved November 9, 2023.
^ Walker, Sean; April 12, KSL com | Posted-; A.m, 2023 at 9:59. "Southern Utah finalizes hiring of new coach Rob Jeter from Western Illinois". www.ksl.com. Retrieved November 9, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ "Kentucky basketball assistant KT Turner named UT Arlington head coach". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
^ Dallas, Kelsey (April 7, 2023). "UVU has chosen its next head basketball coach". Deseret News. Retrieved November 9, 2023.
^ "WAC approves Conference Championship eligibility for Tarleton in recent board meeting". Tarleton State University Athletics. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
^ Seattle U uses two home arenas: Redhawk Center, which is located on campus, and the newly renovated Climate Pledge Arena in uptown Seattle.
^ UTRGV uses two home arenas: UTRGV Fieldhouse, which is located on campus, and Bert Ogden Arena which is also located in Edinburg, Texas and is home to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA G League.

[1] "C-USA picks Liberty among four new additions". ESPN.com. November 5, 2021. Retrieved November 6, 2023.

[2] Bourne, Isaac (November 2, 2023). "Conference USA Season Preview: A Conference Flipped Upside Down". Mid-Major Madness. Retrieved November 6, 2023.

[3] "Championship Format And Dates For 2024 Hercules Tires WAC Basketball Tournament Set". wacsports.com. November 4, 2023. Retrieved November 5, 2023.

[4] "Grand Canyon Chosen By WAC Coaches To Repeat In 2023-24 Men's Basketball Preseason Poll". wacsports.com. November 4, 2023. Retrieved November 5, 2023.

[5] "Fowler's Todd Simon comes back close to home, takes over Bowling Green men's basketball program". Lansing State Journal. Retrieved November 9, 2023.

[6] Walker, Sean; April 12, KSL com | Posted-; A.m, 2023 at 9:59. "Southern Utah finalizes hiring of new coach Rob Jeter from Western Illinois". www.ksl.com. Retrieved November 9, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[7] "Kentucky basketball assistant KT Turner named UT Arlington head coach". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved November 10, 2023.

[8] Dallas, Kelsey (April 7, 2023). "UVU has chosen its next head basketball coach". Deseret News. Retrieved November 9, 2023.

[9] "WAC approves Conference Championship eligibility for Tarleton in recent board meeting". Tarleton State University Athletics. Retrieved December 16, 2022.

[10] Seattle U uses two home arenas: Redhawk Center, which is located on campus, and the newly renovated Climate Pledge Arena in uptown Seattle.

[11] UTRGV uses two home arenas: UTRGV Fieldhouse, which is located on campus, and Bert Ogden Arena which is also located in Edinburg, Texas and is home to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA G League.

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