Utah Valley Reaches Summit of Great West
Sometimes it's a monumental victory, even when nobody's really paying attention to you. Just ask the Utah Valley Wolverines women's basketball team, who came from nowhere to become the first ever Great West Conference champions.
Utah Valley is a determined school. Eight years ago, they were still Utah Valley Junior College. They skipped all the in between steps, and two years ago became Utah Valley University, a full-fledged member of Division I. Granted, the women's basketball team had won three previous DI-Independent championships, but when the championship tournament only consists of six teams, its a fairly small victory.
About four years before Utah Valley became a D-I university, the Great West Conference was born. The title itself is a bit of a misnomer. The conference includes schools from California all the way to New Jersey, and there are anywhere from seven to 11 participating schools depending on which sport you're discussing. This year marked the first that basketball, along with five other team sports, was part of the Great West lineup.
Utah Valley figured to be in a unique position. They were coming off their best ever season (17-10) and had to replace Robyn Fairbanks, a four-year starter at center and three-time Independent Player of the Year, who averaged an astounding 24.3 points and 9.6 rebounds per game over her entire career.
The roster is both thin and mixed. With only 12 players, everyone gets time, and those players are led by senior point guard Asumi Nakayama, who came to Utah Valley all the way from Japan. However, Fairbanks was missed dearly this season.
Three weeks ago, the Wolverines had just returned home from their third consecutive road game at the University of North Dakota. The 68-57 loss was their third in a row, and their 17th in their last 19 games. They won their last two regular season games, but were still in a bad way with a 7-22 record heading into the inaugural Great West Conference tournament.
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