r Utah Valley heads out on its final regular season road trip of the season as the Wolverines wrap up WAC road play at New Mexico State and UTRGV on Thursday and Saturday. Tip-off for Thursday’s game at New Mexico State is set for 7 p.m. (MST)
The Wolverines head out on the road where the team holds a 4-10 record this season. UVU’s road wins inlcude victories at Denver, BYU, and UC Riverside. Chicago State is the lone WAC road victory for UVU this season.
UVU went 0-2 at home last week with an 80-71 loss to Bakersfield before a 77-71 setback to Grand Canyon. Ivory Young scored a season-high 18 points and Isaac Neilson added a 10-point, 13-rebound double-double in the setback to Grand Canyon on Saturday night. Brandon Randolph and Kenneth Ogbe were also in double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Conner Toolson leads the Wolverines in scoring at 12.6 points per game. Kenneth Ogbe ranks second on the team in scoring at 10.9 points a contest. Neilson leads the team on the boards, pulling down 9.5 rebounds a game. Randolph leads the team in assists, averaging 4.6 helpers a game.
Neilson ranks in the top-30 nationally in a pair of individual statistical categories. The junior forward ranks 16th nationally at 3.50 offensive rebounds per game and 30th in the country in rebounds per game at 9.5. He also ranks 41st in the country with 247 rebounds and 55th in the nation at 1.73 blocks per game.
Utah Valley is the seventh fastest team in the nation according to KenPom.com at 75.0 possessions per 40 minutes. Savannah State (81.7) is ranked as the No. 1 tempo team in the nation, followed by The Citadel (81.1), Marshall (78.3), BYU (76.5), Central Michigan (75.9), and Auburn (75.1). UVU is seventh, followed by Lipscomb (74.9), Wyoming (74.8), Green Bay (74.7), UTRGV (74.6), Omaha (74.3), Kentucky (74.2), and UCLA (74.1). The Wolverines rank ninth nationally in average possession length at 14.8 seconds a possession.
BROADCAST INFORMATIONrThursday’s game at New Mexico State will be broadcast live on ESPN3 with Adam Young and Rus Bradburd on the call. The game marks UVU’s second ESPN3 game of the season. The game will also be broadcast live on Fox Sports Arizona and Fox Sports Southwest. The game will be broadcast on the air waves at ESPN 960 AM radio with Jim McCulloch and Jason Erickson handling the play-by-play and color duties. A live stream of the radio broadcast will be available through ESPN960sports.com and also through the ESPN 960 app, which is available for both iPhone and Android.
