Men's Basketball Treks to Utah Valley for NIT Opener Wednesday

Calendar

Mar 18

8 p.m.

Men's Basketball

at Utah Valley

Orem, UT

George Washington men's basketball begins its NIT journey on Wednesday night as it ventures to Orem, Utah for a matchup with WAC regular season champion Utah Valley. Tip is set for 8 p.m. ET on ESPN+.

GW'S NIT & POSTSEASON HISTORY
The Revolutionaries return to the NIT for the first time since 2016, when they won the Championship at Madison Square Garden. The Buff & Blue are making their seventh appearance in the tournament overall and hold a 6-5 record with five of the six triumphs coming in the 2016 run over Hofstra, Monmouth, Florida, San Diego State and finally Valparaiso in the championship.

GW is making consecutive postseason appearances for the first time since 2014-17 after appearing in the Crown a year ago. GW has 11 postseason wins in program history and is searching for its first since a 2017 Opening Round win over Toledo in the CBI.

PROGRESS UNDER COACH CAPUTO
The Buff & Blue finished fourth in the A-10 in both KenPom (85) and NET ranking (91), making GW's first top-100 season since the 2016 NIT Championship. GW ranked 222nd in KenPom when Caputo took over and has improved each year, finishing 217th (2022-23), 203rd (2023-24), 128th (2024-25) and now 85th.

LIMITED HISTORY

GW is encountering a lot of "firsts" on Wednesday, taking on Utah Valley for the first time, playing a game in the Beehive State for the first time and playing a current member of the WAC for the first time. The Revolutionaries last bit of "WAC"-tion came vs. Seattle (now in the WCC) in the 2022 Diamond Head Classic.

A LOOK AT THE WOLVERINES

Utah Valley (25-8, 14-4 WAC) won the WAC regular season, but lost in the conference championship game to Cal Baptist, 63-61, to fall just short of its first NCAA Tournament bid in program history. The win snapped a seven-game winning streak for the Wolverines, who have won 20 of their last 24 games since early December. UVU is a perfect 15-0 at home this year and has won 27 consecutive home games, the fourth-longest active streak in the country.

Trevan Leonhardt and Jackson Holcombe lead the way for UVU with First Team All-WAC and All-Defensive honors. Holcombe is the team's top scorer at 15.6 ppg, has tallied eight double-doubles and is top-20 in the nation in steals (73) and steals per game (2.21). Leonhardt pours in 12.1 ppg and is top-25 nationally in assists (199), assists per game (6.0), steals (70) and steals per game (2.12).

The Wolverines rank among the nation's top-10 in steals per game (9.4, 6th), forced turnovers per game (15.2, 8th), assists per game (18.4, 8th), blocks per game (5.5, 9th) and FG% (50.3, 9th).