Title Game Schedule, Power Rankings, and More
WAC releases time and broadcast information for title games, weekly power rankings and more.
It is another WAC Wednesday and we are here for it. There was some news that came out Tuesday about the WAC Tournament, which is both good and bad. We will get to that in a bit.
Who is the No. 2 team in the WAC behind GCU? Well, a couple of teams have a little claim on the spot right now. But, with 10-11 conference games left to play, so many things can change between now and March 9.
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Anyway, back to the task at hand.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Western Athletic Conference made the announcement for the times of the men’s and women’s WAC Tournament championship games. Along with this, the WAC also announced some major broadcast news for the WAC Tournament.
In a big move, especially since the movement in women’s sports to be seen continues to grow, the WAC took up ESPN on a big opportunity. Sure, it comes at the expense of a quick turnaround and having to wake up quite a bit earlier than normal on Saturday, March 16. But, it will be worth it.
The women’s championship game will tip at 10:30 a.m. PT and will be broadcast on ESPNU. That is huge news. Makes the effort to get to that title game even more prevalent.
On the men’s side, a big opportunity awaits the 2-seed and its opponent. Yes, the second semifinal of the men’s tournament will be broadcast on either ESPN2 or ESPNU depending on the slot that opens up on either channel. That semifinal tips at 8:30 p.m. PT at Orleans Arena on March 15.
Along with that, the men’s championship game will be broadcast live on ESPN2 with tip set for 8:30 p.m. PT at Orleans Arena on March 16.
Getting a semifinal game as well as the women’s title game on the ESPN linear platforms kind of makes up for the ESPNU mishap last week between Utah Valley and Seattle U.
Power Rankings
I changed up the format of the Power Rankings a bit. Not sure if these stick out a little more or not. You can be the judge.
Anyway, GCU obviously holds the top spot after a pair of road wins at SFA and at UT Arlington. CBU moves up to two after a pair of road wins that made it five straight wins for the Lancers.
Tarleton stays at three despite going 1-1 at Wisdom Gym this past week. Seattle U only played one game and it was a home game at the Redhawk Center where they had to come from behind to beat Utah Valley. Redhawks go to GCU for a Thursday night showdown before going to CBU on Saturday.
SFA dropped a few spots after a pair of home losses. Utah Valley at six after its loss to Seattle U. SUU makes a big jump from 11 to 7 after a pair of road wins at ACU and Tarleton.
The rest of the teams either suffered home losses this week or are just struggling altogether as is the case with Utah Tech and UTRGV.
There are 11 games left for everyone except GCU, who has not had its bye week, yet.
Injuries are Mounting
On Tuesday morning, SFA took a significant hit when star forward Day Day Hall announced he was done for the season with a knee injury.
Hall is not the only one in the WAC with injury concerns.
Southern Utah forward Parsa Fallah missed both games this week due to a back injury.
Hasan Abdul-Hakim hasn’t played for UTRGV since sustaining a foot/ankle injury against UT Arlington a little over two weeks ago.
Ahren Freeman sustained a back injury in UTRGV’s loss to Tarleton two weeks ago and hasn’t played since.
Elijah Elliott also missed UTRGV’s game against California Baptist last Thursday.
Beon Riley hasn’t played for Utah Tech since a 75-67 loss to GCU at Burns Arena.
Cam Tyson was out for a bit with a sprained ankle.
Injuries are mounting. Some are season-ending while others have been minor brush-ups.
Either way, as we get into February, teams want to be at full strength, although for many, that isn’t the case.