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OREM — In his first season at the helm of the Utah Valley University men's basketball program, head coach Mark Pope said to be the best you have to beat the best.
Well, UVU gets to play the best in its season opener as the Wolverines will travel to Spokane, Washington, for a Friday night tilt against 13th-ranked Gonzaga in the Kennel.
"We're really, really excited," Pope said. "I like where my team is right now .... These guys have worked really hard. The trick is we're kind of a completely unknown quantity because I don't have a single starter that's ever played for me before, so there is some uncertainty, but the uncertainty is limited to how long it's going to take us to be good because we're going to be really good."
The fact Pope has a new starting lineup might not bode well against a Gonzaga team that is once again in the national spotlight, especially with transfers Nigel Williams-Goss (Washington), Johnathan Williams (Missouri) and Jordan Mathews (California). Seven-footer Przemek Karnowski returns after back surgery forced him to miss the majority of the 2015-16 season.
"It's an unbelievable challenge," Pope said. "It's hard to win in this gym. They probably have their most talented team ever right now. But we're going to go up there and battle. We're trying to win this game, and we're going to try and score 1,000 points and we're going to try to guard as hard as we can and be aggressive and try and take it to them and see what we can do."
In an exhibition game against Western State Monday night in Orem, UVU guard Brandon Randolph recorded a triple-double with 20 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds. Randolph is a transfer from Xavier and is one of the many new faces on the Wolverines roster. University of Utah transfer Kenneth Ogbe is another new face and will be relied upon in a hostile environment.
"I expect it to be wild," Ogbe said. "Gonzaga is known for having a pretty wild gym and pretty good fans. I think I have a little bit of experience with that playing in the Pac-12. I'm excited. It's a great opportunity for us to play against them, a top-15 team that is looking really good this year. We're just going to go in there and try to do the best that we can."
The UVU offense is built to play with pace and at a fast tempo. The Wolverines might need all of that tempo to pull off the upset in their season opener. However, Pope was there on the BYU bench when the Cougars ended Gonzaga's 41-game home court winning streak and 22-game winning streak. Maybe he has a little magic up his sleeve and can help his new team pull off the upset.
Kyle McDonald is sports fan who loves the Chicago Cubs and the Utah Valley University Wolverines. He is a communication major at UVU and will graduate in the spring of 2017. Follow him on Twitter at @kylesportsbias
