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
Roster
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.
!colspan=12 style=| Exhibition
!colspan=12 style=| Non-conference regular season
!colspan=12 style=| WAC regular season
!colspan=12 style=|WAC tournament
!colspan=12 style=|CBI
References