A spat between the Western Athletic Conference and one of its departing members took a very public turn on Tuesday and threatened top seed Utah Valley’s place in the conference tournament.
Utah Valley is leaving the league to join the Big West later this year. On Tuesday – one day before the WAC Tournament was set to begin – the conference announced that Utah Valley hadn’t complied with a judge’s order to place its $1 million exit fee into an escrow account with the court.
The WAC went as far as to say that if Utah Valley hadn’t complied by 5 p.m. MT on Tuesday, its men’s and women’s teams would be excluded from the WAC Tournament. The conference announced around 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday that it had been assured by the court that the payment was in process and would be completed on Wednesday morning, before tournament games were scheduled to begin at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
Utah Valley (24-7, 14-4 WAC) clinched the No. 1 seed after winning its final six regular-season games and nine of its past 10 contests, including a 104-101 double-overtime victory over Utah Tech, which is the No. 3 seed in the tournament. The Wolverines also knocked off No. 2 seed California Baptist, 65-46, in February. The top two seeds come with byes all the way to the semifinals. UT Arlington is the No. 4 seed, followed by Southern Utah, Abilene Christian, and Tarleton State.
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Utah Valley leads the WAC with 79.4 points per game and a .494 team field goal percentage. The Wolverines are led by two of the conference’s top six scorers. Six-foot-7 guard Jackson Holcombe ranks No. 5 in the WAC with 15.7 points a game and No. 3 in the league with 6.8 rebounds a night. Six-foot-5 guard Trevan Leonhardt ranks No. 6 in the league with 13.9 points a night and leads the team with 188 assists.
California Baptist (23-8, 13-5) is led by WAC Player of the Year Dominique Daniels Jr., who ranks No. 1 in the conference with 22.6 points a game. He also paces the team with 98 assists.
First-team all-conference pick Ethan Potter leads Utah Tech (18-14, 11-7) with 16.3 points and eight rebounds a game and 28 blocked shots.
WAC Basketball Tournament Odds
Utah Valley is a -115 college basketball betting odds favorite to win the WAC Tournament championship on BetMGM as of this writing.
Cal Baptist’s odds are at +190, followed by UT Arlington at +1000, Utah Tech at +1200, and Tarleton State at +3000.
| Team | BetMGM Odds |
| Utah Valley | -115 |
| Cal Baptist | +190 |
| UT Arlington | +1000 |
| Utah Tech | +1200 |
| Tarleton State | +3000 |
| Southern Utah | +5000 |
| Abilene Christian | +10000 |
| Odds as of March 11 |
WAC Basketball Tournament Predictions
I predict Utah Valley wins its first WAC Tournament championship.
The Wolverines are led by two talented scorers in Holcombe and Leonhardt, and they may be the most lethal combo in the conference. They both shoot better than 50 percent from the floor, they have the size to battle for rebounds, and they both made the WAC All-Defensive Team this year.
They’re going to give teams a problem on their own. Add a 6-foot-6 3-point shooter like Tyler Hendricks and a 6-foot-10 forward in Isaac Hawkins, who has come off the bench to block a team-high 45 shots, and that’s a winning equation almost every time.
Cal Baptist has the talent to push the Wolverines, but keep an eye on Utah Tech. Potter ended the regular season as one of the hottest scorers in the conference. He put up 28 points and 10 rebounds in the finale against Utah Valley. It was the second time in the Trailblazers’ final three games and the 10th time this season that he scored at least 20 points.
