As Grand Canyon basketball players came onto the court to start practice on Tuesday, Feb. 24, a March Madness teaser was played on the large video board.
That wasn't on their minds just yet. The Lopes were busy preparing for a home game on Feb. 25 at 7 p.m., against suddenly hot UNLV.
GCU realizes their home court doesn't guarantee a win. At this point, after losing at home to Wyoming only three days after winning at San Diego State, the Lopes pretty much have to win the Mountain West Conference tournament in Las Vegas to secure an NCAA Tournament bid.
"Right now, we're just trying to focus on one game at a time," coach Bryce Drew said. "We've got to play better than our last game out. We've got four games left to sprint."
The Lopes took a step back from the sweep of San Diego State with a 70-65 loss on Feb. 21 to a Wyoming team that is 97th in the NCAA NET ranking and used a late 12-0 run to win.
GCU wasn't able to close out New Mexico at home on Feb. 11, after climbing out of a 20-point, first-half hole and taking the lead in the second half. And they still are hurting over what should have been a lock win at Nevada that got away in overtime.
Drew said the team can't dwell on the past.
"If you do, you're going to stumble as you move forward," Drew said. "As much as we could so easily be in a better position than we are right now, we're the ones who are in it and have to correct it."
The Lopes are at 17-10 overall, 10-6 in the Mountain West and tied with Nevada for fourth in the conference. Nevada holds the tie-breaker with the head-to-head win. The Lopes' NET ranking is 75, after being at 69 following the loss to Nevada.
They can pick up a Quad 1 win at first-place Utah State on Feb. 28. That would give the Lopes the season sweep of the conference's top two teams, Utah State and San Diego State. But they were swept by New Mexico.
And they have to figure out how to beat UNLV (14-13, 9-7), which beat GCU 80-78 in Las Vegas on Feb. 7.
After this week, they close out the regular season with games at Air Force on March 3 and at home against Fresno State on March 7. The conference tournament is March 11-14. The top four teams receive a first-round bye.
"They're probably the hottest team in the league right now," Drew said of UNLV. "They've won four out of five. They have probably right now the most prolific scorer (Dra Gibbs-Lawhor) from the last two or three weeks, averaging 30 a game. They're playing really good basketball. We played really good basketball a couple of games until the last game. We need to be at our best to have a chance (against UNLV)."
GCU leading scorer Jaden Henley, who played at UNLV last season, said this Rebels team, with a new coaching staff and many new players, doesn't resemble anything he was part of last year.
"It's a whole new look for them," Henley said. "We know we've got a big task ahead."
Power foward Nana Owusu-Anane said nobody is looking ahead, not to Utah State, not to the conference tournament, not to March Madness.
"We want to win each day, each practice, win each game in front of us," he said. "We're trying to win the practice and go into a big opportunity (on Wednesday)."
Richard Obert has been covering high school sports since the 1980s for The Arizona Republic. Catch the best high school sports coverage in the state. Sign up for Azcentral Preps Now. And be sure to subscribe to our daily sports newsletters so you don't miss a thing. To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @azc_obert
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: GCU basketball faces tough road to NCAA basketball tournament