Men's Basketball | 3/4/2023 10:20:00 AM
The Western Athletic Conference announced on Saturday morning the official bracket and pairings for the 2023 Hercules Tires WAC Men's Basketball Tournament, which will be played in Las Vegas on March 7-11.
Utah Tech (13-18/5-13; -3.519 pts) was awarded the 11th seed in the tournament and will make its "WAC Vegas" debut against No. 6 seed Stephen F. Austin (19-12/11-7 WAC; 1.131 pts) in the final game of this Tuesday's opening round at 8 p.m. (PT).
Tuesday night's game between the Trailblazers and Lumberjacks will mark the second time the two sides have squared off this season. The two teams met up in St. George on Jan. 18, with Utah Tech dropping an 85-72 home decision.
The first round of the WAC men's basketball (Tuesday, March 7) tournament will be played inside the Michelob ULTRA Arena at the Mandalay Bay Resort. Meanwhile, the quarterfinals (Thursday, March 9), semifinals (Friday, March 10), and conference championship game (Saturday, March 11) will be played at the Orleans Arena.
All preliminary round games of the 2023 Hercules Tires WAC Women's Basketball Tournament will air live on
ESPN+, with the men's championship game to be broadcast live on
ESPN2 at 8:30 p.m. (PT).
Tuesday's tournament first round will feature four games, beginning with No. 8 seed California Baptist (16-15, 8-10 WAC; -1.890 pts) taking on No. 9 seed Abilene Christian (13-16/7-11 WAC; -2.538 pts) at 12 noon (PT), followed by No. 5 seed Grand Canyon (20-11/11-7 WAC; 2.771 pts) squaring off against No. 12 seed UT Arlington (11-19/6-12 WAC; -5.067 pts) at 2 p.m. (PT).
Session two will see No. 7 seed Tarleton (16-15/9-9 WAC; -0.069 pts) play No. 10 seed UTRGV (15-16, 6-12 WAC; -3.163 pts) at 6 p.m. (PT), with the Utah Tech/SFA game serving as the nightcap at 8 p.m. (PT).
Sam Houston (25-5/15-3 WAC) claimed the men's top seed for the 2023 Hercules Tires WAC Tournament by virtue of registering 6.977 points in the first season of the WAC Resumé Seeding System.
Also earning byes to the March 9 quarterfinal round were No. 2 seed and WAC regular-season champion Utah Valley (24-7, 15-3 WAC; 6.904 pts), No. 3 seed Southern Utah (20-11, 12-6 WAC; 3.148 pts) and No. 4 seed Seattle U (20-11, 11-7 WAC; 3.102 pts).
For more information about the 2023 Hercules Tires WAC Men's Basketball Tournament, visit www.WACSports.com.
