Grand Canyon men’s basketball has made the NCAA Tournament in four of the last five years under coach Bryce Drew, and they’ll likely need to win the Mountain West Conference Tournament and earn an automatic bid to return to the tournament this season.
However, the Antelopes are used to that, as they spent the last 12 seasons in the Western Atlantic Conference, where they often needed to earn that automatic bid to make the NCAA Tournament. But the competition within the MWC is higher.
“It looks like you have to go in and win the conference tournament,” Drew told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta of GCU’s NCAA Tournament hopes. “So, just as much pressure as there was the last couple years. But there’s a lot of good teams. There’s a lot of teams that could win it.”
Drew said the key to the MWC tournament is getting a top-four seed, which would give GCU a first-round bye.
To do that, the ‘Lopes need to play their best ball to finish the season, as they currently have the same conference record as Nevada, which holds the No. 4 seed, and have a one-game advantage on UNLV in the sixth seed. GCU’s next opponent is UNLV and then it’ll face Utah State, which currently leads the conference.
What does Bryce Drew believe is the key when Grand Canyon has success?
Grand Canyon has wins against some of the top four teams in the conference and has numerous very close losses. Drew said his team is playing at its best when it has a presence in the paint.
“Big key for us has been Efe Demirel, our center,” Drew said. “When he’s played aggressive, when he’s played well, our team’s been on a different level of performance, and so he’s a really big key to what we do.”
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Demirel is averaging just 8.6 points per game, but he leads the team with 27 blocks. The ‘Lopes are 9-3 when Demirel scores at least 10 points.
Drew added that his guards bring consistent scoring every night, and multiple guys can step up and score 20 points in a given night, when needed.
But when GCU gets strong minutes from its bigs, including Dennis Evans off the bench, that’s when the ‘Lopes thrive.
“When it’s a great matchup and he can be around the rim and protect it,” Drew said. “He’s a game changer for us with how he alters shots, can block shots, and also the energy he brings. Our crowd loves him, our players like him when he does good things.
“I think it excites our players, too. So, he’s a great cog that we have that, when he’s effective, our team has played at even a higher level.”
Playing strong down the stretch of the season has been a characteristic of GCU since Drew took over in 2020, and he said it’s built into his players’ mentality.
“We definitely are March-focused all throughout the season, all throughout the summer, on things that we do. It boils down to the players, their mentality. I think, especially, you get to March, everybody knows what everyone’s going to run, everyone knows what everyone’s going to do.
“Players can go out there and play with poise and play with the confidence that they need and make enough plays to win.”
Grand Canyon won the MAC tournament all four years it made the NCAA Tournament, but only finished atop the conference twice in the regular season. The ‘Lopes likely won’t finish as the MWC regular season champions and will have to earn their way to March Madness by winning the conference tournament.
GCU currently sits fifth in the conference with four games remaining after losing to Wyoming Saturday. The ‘Lopes will face UNLV (6th) and Utah State (1st) in their next two games before finishing the regular season with Air Force (12th) and Fresno State (10th).
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