# 2017–18 Utah Valley Wolverines men's basketball team

The 2017–18 Utah Valley Wolverines men's basketball team represented Utah Valley University in the 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Wolverines, led by third-year head coach Mark Pope, played their home games at the UCCU Center in Orem, Utah as members of the Western Athletic Conference. They finished the season 23–11, 10–4 in WAC play to finish in second place. They defeated Cal State Bakersfield in the quarterfinals of the WAC tournament before losing in the semifinals to Grand Canyon. They were invited to the College Basketball Invitational where they defeated Eastern Washington in the first round before losing in the quarterfinals to San Francisco.

## Previous season

The Wolverines finished the 2016–17 season 17–17, 6–8 in WAC play to finish in fifth place. They defeated Seattle in the quarterfinals of the WAC tournament before losing in the semifinals to Cal State Bakersfield. They received an invitation to the College Basketball Invitational where they defeated Georgia Southern and Rice before losing in the semifinals to Wyoming.

## Offseason
### Departures

| Name | Number | Pos. | Height | Weight | Year | Hometown | Reason for departure |
| Telly Davenport | 3 | G | 6'4" | 195 | Sophomore | Idaho Falls, ID | Transferred to College of Southern Idaho |
| Jordan Poydras | 10 | G | 6'3" | 185 | Senior | Los Angeles, CA | Graduated |
| Ivory Young | 13 | G | 6'3" | 185 | Senior | Houston, TX | Graduated |
| Jared Stutzman | 24 | G | 6'6" | 205 | Freshman | Idaho Falls, ID | Transferred to Idaho State |
| Andrew Bastien | 42 | F | 6'9" | 235 | Senior | Tustin, CA | Graduated |

### Incoming transfers

| Name | Number | Pos. | Height | Weight | Year | Hometown | Previous School |
| Ben Nakwaasah | 10 | G | 6'2" | 175 | Junior | Richardson, TX | Junior college transferred from Jacksonville College |
| Jerrelle DeBerry | 15 | G | 6'5" | 205 | Senior | Milwaukee, WI | Transferred from Kent State. Under NCAA transfer rules, DeBerry will have to sit out for the 2017–18 season. Will have one year of remaining eligibility. |
| Baylee Steele | 44 | F/C | 6'11" | 235 | Junior | Norwalk, IA | Transferred from Eastern Michigan. Under NCAA transfer rules, Harris will have to sit out for the 2017–18 season. Will have two years of remaining eligibility. |

### Recruiting class of 2017

US college sports recruiting information for high school athletes :
| Name | Hometown | High school / college | Height | Weight | Commit date |
| Richard Harward #70 C | Orem, UT | Orem High School | 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) | 255 lb (116 kg) | Aug 11, 2014 |
| Recruiting star ratings: Scout: N/A Rivals: N/A 247Sports: N/A ESPN grade: 62 ||||||
| Overall recruiting rankings: ||||||
| Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources: "2017 Team Ranking". Rivals.com. Retrieved December 6, 2017. ||||||

## Schedule and results

The Wolverines notably promoted their first two regular-season games as the "Toughest 24 Hours in College Basketball History", complete with a Twitter hashtag of #Toughest24, which involved the Wolverines visiting Pope's alma mater of Kentucky on November 10, followed the next day by a visit to Duke. With Duke ranked No. 1 in the preseason AP Poll and Kentucky ranked No. 5, this marked the first time in the AP Poll era (1948–49 to present) that a team opened its season with road games against two top-5 opponents.
| Date time, TV | Rank$^#$ | Opponent$^#$ | Result | Record | High points | High rebounds | High assists | Site (attendance) city, state |
| Exhibition |||||||||
| November 1, 2017* 7:00 pm | | Dixie State | W 81–70 | | 19 – Manyang | 10 – Manyang | 3 – Tied | UCCU Center (1,488) Orem, UT |
| Non-conference regular season |||||||||
| November 10, 2017* 5:00 pm, SECN | | at No. 5 Kentucky | L 63–73 | 0–1 | 12 – Ogbe | 9 – Neilson | 7 – Randolph | Rupp Arena (19,807) Lexington, KY |
| November 11, 2017* 5:00 pm, ACCN Extra | | at No. 1 Duke | L 69–99 | 0–2 | 17 – Manyang | 12 – Manyang | 6 – Manyang | Cameron Indoor Stadium (9,314) Durham, NC |
| November 14, 2017* 7:00 pm, Pluto TV 243 | | at Idaho State | L 71–84 | 1–2 | 27 – J. Toolson | 7 – Manyang | 4 – Tied | Holt Arena (1,387) Pocatello, ID |
| November 18, 2017* 3:00 pm | | UC Davis | W 80–71 | 2–2 | 21 – Ogbe | 8 – Manyang | 6 – Randolph | UCCU Center (2,726) Orem, UT |
| November 20, 2017* 6:00 pm | | Eastern Oregon | W 97–52 | 3–2 | 20 – Manyang | 11 – Manyang | 6 – C. Toolson | UCCU Center (2,329) Orem, UT |
| November 25, 2017* 1:00 pm, FS NO, Pluto TV 240 | | at North Dakota | L 75–83 $^{OT}$ | 4–2 | 24 – Manyang | 10 – J. Toolson | 2 – Tied | Betty Engelstad Sioux Center (1,669) Grand Forks, ND |
| November 29, 2017* 7:00 pm, BYUtv | | BYU Old Oquirrh Bucket | L 58–85 | 4–3 | 16 – Randolph | 5 – Manyang | 2 – Randolph | UCCU Center (7,574) Orem, UT |
| December 2, 2017* 7:00 pm | | UTSA | W 88–80 | 5–3 | 19 – Tied | 12 – Neilson | 6 – Randolph | UCCU Center (2,762) Orem, UT |
| December 6, 2017* 7:00 pm | | Weber State Old Oquirrh Bucket | W 83–56 | 6–3 | 25 – Manyang | 15 – Manyang | 9 – J. Toolson | UCCU Center (3,389) Orem, UT |
| December 9, 2017* 7:00 pm | | at Cal State Fullerton | L 83–91 | 6–4 | 17 – Ogbe | 9 – Manyang | 5 – Randolph | Titan Gym (914) Fullerton, CA |
| December 14, 2017* 7:00 pm | | Bethesda | W 106–44 | 7–4 | 19 – J. Toolson | 8 – 3 tied | 7 – Randolph | UCCU Center (2,705) Orem, UT |
| December 17, 2017* 9:00 pm, SPEC HI | | at Hawaii | L 69–70 | 7–5 | 18 – J. Toolson | 8 – Manyang | 3 – Randolph | Stan Sheriff Center (5,187) Honolulu, HI |
| December 20, 2017* 7:00 pm | | Montana Tech | W 84–56 | 8–5 | 17 – Ogbe | 7 – Tied | 4 – Tied | UCCU Center (2,105) Orem, UT |
| December 22, 2017* 11:00 am | | at Sam Houston State | W 75–64 | 9–5 | 21 – Manyang | 10 – Manyang | 8 – Randolph | Bernard Johnson Coliseum (610) Huntsville, TX |
| December 28, 2017* 7:00 pm | | UC Riverside | W 90–82 | 10–5 | 20 – Tied | 8 – Neilson | 6 – Nakwaasah | UCCU Center (2,936) Orem, UT |
| December 30, 2017* 7:00 pm | | Cal State Fullerton | W 87–78 | 11–5 | 23 – Ogbe | 9 – Manyang | 5 – Ogbe | UCCU Center (3,158) Orem, UT |
| WAC regular season |||||||||
| January 6, 2018 7:00 pm | | Cal State Bakersfield | W 75–42 | 12–5 (1–0) | 15 – J. Toolson | 7 – J. Toolson | 4 – Tied | UCCU Center (3,178) Orem, UT |
| January 11, 2018 7:00 pm | | UMKC | W 95–59 | 13–5 (2–0) | 18 – Ogbe | 9 – Neilson | 6 – J. Toolson | UCCU Center (2,733) Orem, UT |
| January 13, 2018 7:00 pm | | Chicago State | W 83–58 | 14–5 (3–0) | 22 – Manyang | 9 – Manyang | 6 – Nakwaasah | UCCU Center (3,741) Orem, UT |
| January 18, 2018 6:00 pm | | at Texas–Rio Grande Valley | W 84–76 | 15–5 (4–0) | 23 – C. Toolson | 12 – Manyang | 12 – Randolph | UTRGV Fieldhouse (828) Edinburg, TX |
| January 20, 2018 4:00 pm, ESPN3 | | at New Mexico State | L 59–86 | 15–6 (4–1) | 13 – Ogbe | 4 – Tied | 3 – Randolph | Pan American Center (6,046) Las Cruces, NM |
| January 27, 2018 3:00 pm, ESPN3 | | Grand Canyon | W 68–56 | 16–6 (5–1) | 14 – Manyang | 6 – Manyang | 4 – Tied | UCCU Center (4,881) Orem, UT |
| February 3, 2018 7:00 pm | | at Seattle | L 54–55 | 16–7 (5–2) | 15 – Randolph | 9 – Neilson | 6 – Randolph | KeyArena (3,242) Seattle, WA |
| February 8, 2018 6:00 pm | | at Chicago State | W 97–57 | 17–7 (6–2) | 18 – Tied | 11 – Manyang | 4 – 3 tied | Jones Convocation Center (163) Chicago, IL |
| February 10, 2018 6:00 pm | | at UMKC | L 70–77 | 17–8 (6–3) | 22 – Manyang | 9 – Manyang | 9 – Randolph | Municipal Auditorium (1,357) Kansas City, MO |
| February 15, 2018 7:00 pm | | New Mexico State | W 86–79 | 18–8 (7–3) | 22 – Ogbe | 7 – C. Toolson | 5 – J. Toolson | UCCU Center (4,271) Orem, UT |
| February 17, 2018 7:00 pm | | Texas–Rio Grande Valley | W 84–72 | 19–8 (8–3) | 16 – Tied | 8 – J. Toolson | 6 – Randolph | UCCU Center (4,271) Orem, UT |
| February 22, 2018 8:00 pm | | at Cal State Bakersfield | W 70–47 | 20–8 (9–3) | 22 – C. Toolson | 7 – Neilson | 4 – J. Toolson | Icardo Center (2,644) Bakersfield, CA |
| February 24, 2018 7:00 pm, ESPN3 | | at Grand Canyon | L 59–60 | 20–9 (9–4) | 15 – Randolph | 7 – C. Toolson | 2 – Randolph | GCU Arena (7,179) Phoenix, AZ |
| March 3, 2018 7:00 pm | | Seattle | W 73–47 | 21–9 (10–4) | 17 – C. Toolson | 6 – C. Toolson | 3 – C. Toolson | UCCU Center (4,271) Orem, UT |
| WAC tournament |||||||||
| March 8, 2018 3:30 pm, ESPN3 | (2) | vs. (7) Cal State Bakersfield Quarterfinals | W 81–74 | 22–9 | 19 – J. Toolson | 10 – Nelson | 3 – Randolph | Orleans Arena (1,508) Paradise, NV |
| March 9, 2018 7:00 pm, ESPN3 | (2) | vs. (3) Grand Canyon Semifinals | L 60–75 | 22–10 | 18 – Manyang | 12 – Manyang | 2 – Randolph | Orleans Arena (2,739) Paradise, NV |
| CBI |||||||||
| March 13, 2018* 7:00 pm | | Eastern Washington First round | W 87–65 | 23–10 | 20 – Manyang | 11 – Manyang | 5 – Tied | UCCU Center (997) Orem, UT |
| March 19, 2018* 8:00 pm | | at San Francisco Quarterfinals | L 73–78 | 23–11 | 20 – Ogbe | 11 – Manyang | 4 – Randolph | War Memorial Gymnasium (1,239) San Francisco, CA |
| *Non-conference game. $^#$Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Mountain Time. |||||||||