Grand Canyon hopes tough schedule pays off in final stretch of season

PHOENIX – The Grand Canyon University men’s basketball team has played a schedule loaded with tough opponents this season, and it is by design.

Their non-conference schedule included games against some of the best programs in college basketball, coached by some of the biggest names in coaching such as Mike Krzyzewski at Duke, Louisville and Rick Pitino, San Diego State and Steve Fisher, Arizona and Sean Miller and Penn State, coached by Pat Chambers.

Those coaches have combined for 75 NCAA Tournament appearances, 18 trips to the Final Four and eight national championships.

Although the Lopes beat only San Diego State among those five opponents, senior point guard DeWayne Russell said the tough schedule will pay dividends as Grand Canyon heads down the stretch in the Western Athletic Conference race.

“I think it’s been really helpful, especially because that’s the best competition in the world,” Russell said. “We played against Louisville, we played against Arizona, so it gives us a lot of confidence.”

For fourth-year GCU coach Dan Majerle, playing the powerhouse programs in college basketball is part of the program’s master plan. The school also has scheduled basketball powers such as Indiana and Kentucky during Majerle’s tenure, which began in 2013.

“We want to play the best teams,” said Majerle. “Our goal is to be a top-25 team eventually, so it’s always good to play top-25 teams to see how they act, how they look, how they play. And our guys enjoy it.”

The Lopes are in their final year of transition into NCAA Division 1 basketball and will be eligible for the WAC and NCAA  tournaments starting next season. Meanwhile, games against NCAA powers like Duke and Louisville are preparing GCU for what lies ahead.

The Lopes were 3-1 in WAC games going into a game at Missouri-Kansas City Thursday night, but they blew a 12-point halftime lead in an 83-77 loss. They hope to bounce back Saturday night when they visit Chicago State.

Junior forward Keonta Vernon said the team’s focus has to be on defense and rebounding, which fuels their offense.

“We give them one shot, and then we get the ball and go,” Vernon said. “We’re best in transition. We can’t get the ball out in transition if they’re making buckets.”

Unfortunately for the Lopes, staying healthy has proven to be one of their biggest challenges this season.

The Lopes lost promising 6-foot-11 center Boubacar Toure to a season-ending injury for a second year in a row, and WAC Preseason Player of the Year Joshua Braun went down for nine games due to injury.

The team has had rely on other players to produce in their absence.

“We did a good job of everybody picking it up,” Vernon said. “Everybody had a certain game.” “Hopefully it just continues on to the rest of the conference.”

And even as the Lopes finally seem to be getting healthy and rounding into form, they may be limited again as they prepare for their upcoming games on the road.

Russell recently suffered an injury to his shooting hand in a home victory over Seattle University. The hand didn’t appear to bother Russell at Missouri-Kansas City, where he scored 27 points to lead the Lopes.