Grand Canyon's big results came from big aspirations last season, and the Lopes are maintaining that push to be elite again this season with an ambitious schedule.
GCU announced a nonconference schedule with seven opponents that won at least 20 games last season, giving the Lopes 13 games vs. 20-win teams this season when conference play is added. GCU's schedule now sits at 29 announced games with the likelihood of two more being added at a later date to reach the NCAA maximum of 31 games.
The highly anticipated debut of a Lopes team that went 30-5 last season will come with an Oct. 29 exhibition home game against Eastern New Mexico before the regular season starts Nov. 4 against Cal State Fullerton at Global Credit Union Arena.
Five more of those 20-win teams – Western Kentucky, UC Davis, Norfolk State, Hawaii and Bryant – will visit GCU in November and December while the Lopes continue to test themselves off-campus with neutral-site games against Arizona State, Georgia and Stanford and a game at Louisiana Tech.
The Lopes are built to be challenged with five of their top six scorers returning from a team that won WAC regular-season and postseason titles before beating No. 15 Saint Mary's at the NCAA tournament.
"We were able to get a lot of great games in this nonconference schedule," said fifth-year GCU head coach Bryce Drew, who has led the Lopes to three NCAA tournaments over four seasons in Phoenix. "Playing in three NBA arenas and against many top teams is going to be a great challenge."
GCU will prepare itself against a top Division II team in Eastern New Mexico, which went 22-10 last season and won the Lone Star Conference Tournament.
That will precede the opener against Cal State Fullerton, which had 20-win seasons in 2021-22 and 2022-23 under 12th-year head coach Dedrique Taylor. He spent six years as Herb Sendek's top assistant at Arizona State before taking over the Titans, who held opponents to 69.1 points per game last season and added point guard and touted Japanese recruit Lolo Rudolph.
Conference USA's fastest-rising program, Western Kentucky, comes to GCU on Nov. 9 after making its first NCAA tournament since 2013. Hank Plona, who led junior college powerhouse Indian Hills in Iowa, moves to Hilltoppers head coach after one season assisting Steve Lutz, now Oklahoma State's head coach. Returning guard Don McHenry, who averaged 15.1 points per game, will help maintain the nation's fastest tempo.
GCU will make its annual downtown trek to Footprint Center on Nov. 14 to play Arizona State in an ESPN2 game as part of a men's/women's doubleheader between the Lopes and Sun Devils. GCU lost narrowly to ASU in a home-and-home series in 2020-21 and 2021-22. The Sun Devils, under 10-year head coach Bobby Hurley, are playing their first season in the Big 12 with a trio of top-100 recruits, including top-10 center Jayden Quaintance.
"The Biggest Party in College Basketball" will be treated to successful visitors in a three-day span with UC Davis coming to Global Credit Union Arena on a Nov. 20 and Norfolk State coming two nights later.
UC Davis went 20-13 and finished second in the Big West last season under head coach Jim Les, who has 349 career wins at UC Davis and Bradley. Les' defense provoked 14.6 turnovers per game last season with senior point guard TY Johnson, who returns after also leading the Aggies with 17.8 points per game last season.
Norfolk State won the most games last season (24) of any nonconference opponent. The Spartans' third consecutive 20-win season under 12-year head coach Robert Jones included winning the CollegeInsider.com Tournament. Jones' teams have won the Mid-Eastern Athletic (MEAC) title in four of the past six years, but leading scorer Jamarii Thomas transferred to South Carolina.
Each of the GCU nonconference opponents that did not win 20 games last season is on the uptick. That is true with GCU's Nov. 26 trip to Palm Desert, California, to play Stanford. The Cardinal hired head coach Kyle Smith, the offensively innovative Pac-12 Coach of the Year at Washington State last season. He inherits Stanford 7-foot center Maxime Raynaud, who averaged 15.5 points and 9.6 rebounds last season. The game is part of the Acrisure Holiday Classic, which is played at the 2-year-old Acrisure Arena.
A challenging December slate begins with a Dec. 3 game against Hawaii, which posted its second consecutive 20-win season with opponents held to 68.7 points per game and 31% 3-point shooting last season. GCU's third Big West opponent is led by 10th-year head coach Eran Ganot, who added former Xavier 6-foot-9 starter Gytis Nemeiksa and former Utah Tech 6-10 starting center Tanner Christiansen.
The Lopes will play another home game Dec. 7 against NAIA opponent Life Pacific to help prepare them for their second NBA arena stop a week later.
GCU will face Georgia at State Farm Arena in Atlanta as part of a Holiday Hoopsgiving tripleheader with ASU-Florida and Auburn-Ohio State games on ESPN networks. The Bulldogs are coming off their first 20-win season in eight years and a trip to the NIT semifinals. Third-year head coach Mike White, who previously built Louisiana Tech and Florida success, returns sophom*ore guard Silas Demary Jr. and added a top-10 transfer class that features 6-9 Conference USA Player of the Year Justin Abson.
That trip will include a stop two days later in Ruston, Louisiana, to play at Louisiana Tech, which had its 10th 20-win season in the past 12 years by going 22-10 last season. It will be a rematch of the Bulldogs' visit to GCU on Dec. 30, when the Lopes needed a 9-2, game-closing run to win 73-70 with 22 points from guard Ray Harrison. That proved to be a hallmark win for GCU with Louisiana Tech finishing the season ranked sixth nationally for field goal percentage defense (39.1%). Bulldogs 6-11 center Daniel Botcho returns after averaging 15.2 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game last season.
Upon returning to Phoenix, GCU will see a former WAC foe in Chicago State on Dec. 19. New head coach Scott Spinelli takes over after assisting the past three years' rebuild of the program. The Cougars, now in the Northeast Conference, won 13 games last season for the first time since 2013-14 with a hallmark win coming at then-No. 25 Northwestern.
Saint Louis, a traditionally strong program, is on the way back with first-year head coach Josh Schertz, who went 55-20 in his final two seasons at Indiana State. That 2 p.m. game on Dec. 22 will feature a duo he brought from the Sycamores' winningest team (32-7) since Larry Bird played there in 1978-79. National favorite Robbie Avila, a 6-10 center, averaged 17.4 points last season for Indiana State, and he transferred to the Billikens with guard Isaiah Swope, who averaged 15.9 points last season. Schertz also retained sixth-year guard Gibson Jimerson and Larry Hughes II while adding 10 newcomers.
The nonconference slate ends Dec. 30 at home against Bryant, which went 20-13 last season under first-year head coach Phil Martelli Jr., the son of legendary St. Joseph's head coach Phil Sr. Martelli built the nation's No. 10 defense in opponent field goal percentage (39.7%) and returns start guard Earl Timberlake, who averaged 14.6 points, 9.0 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game. Rafael Pinzon is also back after averaging 26 points in the season's final four games.
That will lead into GCU's final WAC regular-season campaign, which begins Jan. 4 at home against Southern Utah and leads up to the March 11-15 WAC Tournament in Las Vegas.
The full GCU schedule can be seen here.
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