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OREM, Utah — Once upon a time, the Utah Valley University men's basketball team was the darling that crashed the ball.
It began with a 114-101 victory in the Marriott Center over BYU on Nov. 26. ESPN anchor Kevin Connors had the Wolverines as his star of the night after UVU hit 18 3-pointers on its way to scoring the most points ever by a BYU opponent in the Marriott Center.
Ten days after the biggest win in school history, the Wolverines held their own against Pac-12 foe Utah in the Huntsman Center. UVU led by three points with just over two minutes to play but Utah closed the game on a 12-2 run to win the in-state contest.
Four nights later, UVU was one second away from beating Utah State for the first time after 12 tries. However, USU guard Shane Rector hit two free throws with one second left in overtime to give the Aggies their 12th-straight win over the Wolverines.
Since that time, UVU has lost six of its last 10 games. Two of the four wins were over opponents that are non-Division I schools — Montana Tech and Antelope Valley. UVU is 9-10 overall and 1-3 in Western Athletic Conference play.
"We're not in a great spot right now," UVU head coach Mark Pope said. "But that's an exciting place to be. Some of the glossiness that was around us early on in the season when we were playing really well has dissipated. Maybe we have some people that are doubting us a little bit right now, but I like it. I think it's a fun place to be, where you have to go prove it."
Not being in a great spot might be an understatement for the UVU men's basketball team. The Wolverines are averaging just 71 points per game in conference play while shooting 41.6 percent from the field. In four conference games, UVU has hit 24 3-pointers, six more than they hit in the win over BYU (18).
"This is not where we envisioned being right now," Pope said. "It doesn't scare me. I don't think it scares our guys. We might be in a little bit of a shaky place confidence-wise right now but that doesn't scare me because great things come out of that."
The schedule doesn't get any easier for UVU as it hosts the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley, on Thursday night in the UCCU Center. The Vaqueros lead the WAC in scoring at 80.2 points per game and are led by WAC Freshman of the Year Antonio Green, who is averaging 18 points per game. The sophomore from Tupelo, Mississippi, has hit 93 3-pointers on the season and is shooting 41.5 percent from beyond the arc.
"This Rio Grande Valley team had Grand Canyon beat twice and had UMKC beat," Pope said. "They're a good team. A really explosive scoring team."
After Thursday night's contest, UVU welcomes league-leading New Mexico State to town for a Saturday-night tilt. The Aggies have won 16 straight games and sit at 18-2 on the season. In the recent USA Today Coaches poll, the Aggies received four votes.
"Then New Mexico State, so far early in this season, has proved to be the cream of the crop of the league," Pope said. "This is hard and I wouldn't have it any other way."
Wins have been hard to come by and Pope knows his team is in a bit of a funk, but the second-year coach believes his team can and will grow from these struggles during this critical time in the season.
"We're just trying to find ourselves right now," Pope said. "We're not pleased with the way we've been playing. I think our guys are growing in a lot of ways ... so much of it is: How do you react to it? How do you respond? We're in a critical time and every game is critical ... and I'm excited to see what happens."
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
