By Lukas Weese, Jayna Bardahl, Brian Bennett and Brian Hamilton
The Grand Canyon Antelopes made program history Friday night in Spokane. The 12-seed upset No. 5 Saint Mary’s 75-66, advancing to the Round of 32 for the first time in a Division I NCAA Tournament.
The Antelopes are not your typical WAC team, as they are loaded with high-major talent, including star Tyon Grant-Foster, a former four-star recruit who went to Kansas. Grant-Foster led all scorers with 22 points to go along with eight rebounds. He has scored at least 20 points in six of Grand Canyon’s last eight games.
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He started his career at Indiana Hills Community College in Iowa before spending one season at his home-state school Kansas (2020-21) and one at DePaul (2021-22). Grant-Foster was rushed to the hospital after collapsing in the locker room at halftime of his season opener at DePaul. He had to be resuscitated and was revived three more times on the way to the hospital. He missed the rest of the 2021-22 season and all of 2022-23 before returning to the court this season.
This is Grand Canyon’s third trip to the men’s NCAA Tournament at the Division I level. The Antelopes’ first appearance was 2021, when they lost in the first round to Iowa.
With Grand Canyon’s victory, the 11 and 12 seeds in the NCAA Tournament went 5-3 against the 5 and 6 seeds. The Antelopes will take on Alabama in the Round of 32.
What does this mean for Grand Canyon?
This is a historical leap, with the first appearance in the Round of 32 coming up. But I wonder if this opens up many other possibilities in the ever-evolving world of college basketball. The Lopes ranked 55th on KenPom coming in. This is a program with power conference-level facilities and power conference-level fan energy, somehow stuck in the WAC. I don’t imagine established leagues will come calling. But what about a reimagined Pac-12? What about the WCC?
There are surely a lot of other complications — we won’t get into the Grand Canyon versus the U.S. Government issues that are the reality in this small, sports-centered space — but any postseason basketball success is worth money and worth a league’s attention. And then there’s coach Bryce Drew, clearly on a career-resuscitating trajectory. Grand Canyon is very much a fit for him on several levels. But is that enough? Or can the school offer him a package to convince him it’s enough, if bigger programs come calling? — Brian Hamilton, senior college basketball writer
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How big a loss is this for Saint Mary’s?
Big! It’s a big blow! This was a top 20 team that won the WCC regular season and tournament. This is a massive letdown for a team equipped to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. The Gaels kind of waited for their moment to be a bigger deal than Gonzaga … and then flubbed it.
Randy Bennett has been at this in Moraga, Calif., since 2001. He can stay as long as he wants. But … how long does he want to stay? It’s hard to imagine anything other than a West Coast opportunity enticing him, and right now Washington and Stanford are the only job openings in this cycle. He has it good. He also turns 62 in June. Does he want to try to have it better? — Hamilton
Required reading
For ticket information on all tournament games, click here.
(Photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)