Unapologetic: The rise of GCU Basketball and the New Reality of the Mountain West
It was a long offseason for GCU Basketball fans. Midway through summer they were without a conference home, still getting to know a staff full of new faces, and the roster only returned two contributors from the season before.
But everything changed July 8th 2025, when Ross Dellenger broke the news that “The Mountain West has finalized an agreement with Grand Canyon for the school to join the league as a member this fall, a year earlier than anticipated.”
By lunch time my friends and I had scoped out the golf courses and climates in each Mountain West university city for potential road trips, and we quickly changed our “WAC Vegas 2026” group chat name to “MW Vegas 2026”.
Grand Canyon’s Jaden Henley (10) drives around San Diego State’s Miles Bryd (21) in a Mountain West Conference matchup on January 21, 2026 at Global Credit Union Arena in Phoenix, Az. Photo: GCU Athletics
But then reality set in. At this time, there was obvious push back amidst the five schools leaving for the PAC 12 in only a year, and GCU fans got a good look for the first time at the ugly underbelly of college sports (realignment, money, power, egos, etc.). After pushing through the scoffing, posturing, and statements, it was then onto the basketball side of things.
Sure, GCU had plenty of success in the one bid WAC over the previous five years. They even won a tourney game in 2024 against fellow mid-major behemoth Saint Marys. But it was hard not to think about everything the Mountain West had recently accomplished…
Just a few months earlier, GCU would lose by 32 to a Maryland team that Colorado State nearly took down, New Mexico won their first round game and hung around in round two against Michigan State, and in 2023 San Diego State played for a National Championship.
Then you hear about the way UNLV talks about their famous Runnin’ Rebels teams, the various NBA All-Stars to play at Mountain West programs, and it would be hard not to think, “man, how is this going to go for a team that was playing in D-2 only twelve years earlier?”.
Fast forward to late January 2026, and that opportunity GCU so much craved for so many years was one they flourished in. First, Utah State was given a 23 next to its name by the AP Poll, and came into GCU Arena as the crown jewel of college basketball intellectual circles. The Aggies left with a ten point loss (and maybe some of their own skepticism after dropping their next game to UNLV) and it set the stage with the new first place team, the San Diego State Aztecs, later that week.
SDSU ironically enough is a program the Lopes are very familiar with, and one they have had a ton of success against. The Lopes were 4-1 all time entering the game, and had proved they could win in Viejas and handle the pressure of protecting home court in non-conference one offs. But the conference bout felt different, a great reminder that you can’t manufacture juice with MTE’s and buy games. The result was the same though, and once again the Lopes came out on top 70-69.
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The parting thought internally in the fan base and from others around the league was “Man, maybe the Lopes do belong”.
GCU has somehow checked all the Mountain West boxes so far in this young season.
Lost a random and inexplicable conference game (Colorado State at home without Jorgensen and Mbemba, snack time anybody?)
Had multiple weird games with very late starts
Beat and rattled the two best teams in the league
Refs have over-involved themselves in multiple games
Streaming issues on the Mountain West Network, which seems to be the final boss to conquer and even had Utah State burner accounts extending the olive branch
Back to the belonging idea though. It is no secret that GCU really wants a seat at the college basketball table. I promise you I have the self awareness as an independent media member to see and understand those from afar that find GCU as the tacky new kid at school who tries way too hard and forces things sometimes. You could even see it at the big Utah State and SDSU wins, with music choices during crucial timeouts that would break the brains of legacy college basketball fans.
But here is the reality about the way GCU operates, and will probably hold true moving forward. They may never perfectly fit in anywhere, and I think they are ok with that.
A school who relentlessly invests in its program/reserves 2,000 seats in its arena for students/does things differently academically/expects to win every game they play in every sport, probably will always have its own lane.
So yes, they might care too much and try too hard.
But that is because they aren’t scared. They weren’t scared to go Division one. They weren’t scared to part with an under-achieving coach who was a local legend in Phoenix. They weren’t scared to adapt to new rules and laws in college sports. They weren’t scared to upgrade and join the Mountain West.
We have six to seven weeks left to see what comes of this GCU season. They are comfortably outside of the bubble and at-large conversation. The Youngstown State loss continues to be the cricket in the wall you can’t find when it comes to their resume, even after a nice last few weeks in conference play. They are trending in a great direction, and across every metric have made a seismic leap.
Bryce has shown he knows how to push the right buttons down the stretch, and we will see how they adjust to a conference tournament that will be unlike anything they have seen before. It is likely they will have to run the table to meet the season’s expectations, having to stare down the league's best for a third time.
Regardless of what happens, I can promise you a few things. The Lopes will continue to not be scared. They will continue to invest. They will continue to set tough expectations. Because that is all they know how to do.
