Lopes preparing to face hoops giant
Grand Canyon is making its second trip in three years to the NCAA Tournament, this time to face No. 3 seed Gonzaga in the West Region on Friday afternoon at approximately 4:35 p.m. (Arizona time) in Denver.
GCU (24-11) came out of the Western Athletic Conference as the No. 5 seed to win the championship, beating four teams in five days. Gonzaga (28-5) is the program mid-majors aspire to be, especially GCU, which made Gonzaga the blueprint when it began its move from NCAA Division II to Division I 10 years ago.
This team came in as the preseason WAC favorite, but injuries — including what could have been a soul-crushing loss on Jan. 5 of point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr., preseason WAC Player of the Year — had the team struggling to find its identity through conference play.
Things came together in the last trip of the regular season through Utah with two wins to start March — with a snowball fight being an ice breaker.
“It’s been awesome as a coach to see it play out and be a player-led team,” said coach Bryce Drew, who is 2-0 in WAC championship games since coming to GCU in 2020 when the pandemic was hitting hard.
Here is a quick look at the Lopes as they head out Wednesday to get ready for this next giant step as a mid-major program:
GCU’s five biggest wins
1. First, of course, has to be the 84-66 win against Southern Utah in the WAC Tournament championship game in Las Vegas on Saturday. It was the last of a four-games-in-five-days stretch and ended up being the easiest thanks to a monster game from guard Ray Harrison, who had 31 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. The Lopes continued to torch from beyond the 3-point arc, making 13 of 20, five each by Harrison and reserve guard Noah Baumann.
2. The Lopes’ 78-75 semifinal win over No. 1 Sam Houston teetered on the edge of an exit back home. But the basketball gods were looking down on the Lopes with a 76-75 lead with eight seconds left when Kaosi Ezeagu missed two free throws. GCU’s Walter Ellis, calm and cool, sank two free throws with five seconds left, and WAC POY Qua Grant couldn’t get a last-second shot to fall.
3. The quarterfinal win over Seattle U, 84-79, which made up for two regular-season losses to the Redhawks, the last of which coming on GCU’s Senior Night that led to a players-only meeting and the run they are currently on. In that revenge win, junior forward Gabe McGlothan took over with a career-high 35 points to go with 10 rebounds. He also made 5 of 9 3-pointers.
4. The 83-74 win at Southern Utah on March 1. The Lopes seemed up against the wall, at a loss on what went wrong this season, before this game jump-started a renewal, the beginning of the current season-long six-game winning streak, and it came at a place where the Thunderbirds hadn’t lost a WAC game at all season. Harrison had 29 points and nine rebounds to revive this team.
5. In a 94-84 win against Abilene Christian on a late Friday night game at home on Feb. 17 in front of an ESPNU national audience, the Lopes had their best shooting performance in their Division I history, making 30 of 45 field goals (66.7%) and 10 of 14 3-pointers (71.4%), as Harrison, Chance McMillian and McGlothan all had at least 20 points. This was the potential they knew they had and caused such frustration later when they weren’t able to maintain consistency.
GCU’s NCAA tournament history
Two years ago, the first season the Lopes were led by Drew, they reached their first March Madness in one of the weirdest years in NCAA history. This came the season after the pandemic shut down college basketball during conference tournaments and led to no NCAA tournament. People were still masked up, players and coaches constantly testing for COVID, and everybody was placed in Indiana to play in a tournament bubble format. GCU won its first WAC championship, behind the great play of Jovan Blacksher, who was tournament MVP. But the Lopes, who went to Indianapolis as a 15 seed, were a quick exit, facing No. 2 Iowa and big man and Big Ten Player of the Year Luka Garza, falling 86-74 after getting into a 16-point hole early in the second half.
Keys for the Lopes
Not losing their mojo: They’re going to have to stay laser-focused and continue their hot outside shooting. They shot better than 50% in each of the four WAC tournament games in Vegas. They made at least 10 3-pointers in each of their last three games, which were on successive days.
Keep helping Harrison: For so long this season, the Lopes were dependent on the transfer guard from Presbyterian, who, at times, was trying so hard to win games that some of his shots were forced. He’s as strong a guard as GCU has ever had at driving the lanes to make tough shots, but he couldn’t do it alone. Along came McGlothan, McMillian, freshman guard Kobe Knox, Walter Ellis, Noah Bauman and everything started to click during this six-game
streak. In the semifinal win over the top seed, Harrison spent much of the bench in foul trouble and ended up fouling out with seven points. But everybody picked up the slack to pull out the win. It was Baumann’s 3-pointer with 51 seconds left that gave GCU a 76-73 lead.
Yvan Ouedraogo’s big body: He is the team’s enforcer at 6-foot-9, 250 pounds, not an ounce of fat, an immoveable object in the paint who does the little things. He grabs offensive rebounds, blocks shots, bodies up, deflects passes, dives for loose ball, gets hands on missed shots to bat to a teammate. Gonzaga is easily the biggest team GCU has seen, and its will be vital for Ouedraogo to find a way to make life uncomfortable for the Bulldogs’ bigs, including 6-10 Drew Timme, one of the best players in the nation.