ARLINGTON, Texas – Grand Canyon repeated as the preseason favorite in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Men’s Basketball Coaches Poll for the third straight season. All nine WAC head coaches cast votes for the 2024-25 preseason predicted order of finish and all-conference awards that were released on Tuesday.

GCU, the two-time defending WAC Men’s Basketball Tournament champion, claimed eight first-place votes to finish ahead of UT Arlington in the preseason coaches poll. Seattle U (one first-place vote), California Baptist and Utah Valley rounded out the top five teams in the preseason rankings.

GCU senior guard Tyon Grant-Foster was named the 2024-25 WAC Preseason Player of the Year by the WAC coaches after capturing conference player of the year honors last season. Grant-Foster averaged 20.1 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game in 34 starts (19.3 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 1.6 STL/G in 20 conference starts) for the Lopes in 2023-24, guiding GCU to a WAC Tournament victory as the championship’s Most Outstanding Player (25.0 PPG, 7.5 RPG in two tournament starts).

Grant-Foster was joined on the 2024-25 preseason all-conference team by California Baptist senior guard Dominique Daniels Jr. (20.7 PPG, 3.7 AST/G in conference play in 2023-24), GCU senior guard Ray Harrison (12.8 PPG, 3.9 AST/G in conference play in 2023-24), Seattle U redshirt junior guard John Christofilis (13.7 PPG, .435 3PT% in conference play in 2023-24) and Tarleton State senior guard/forward Freddy Hicks (11.8 PPG, 5.4 RPG at Arkansas State in 2023-24).

2024-25 WAC MEN’S BASKETBALL PRESEASON HONORS

2024-25 WAC Men’s Basketball Preseason Coaches Poll
 

Rank	Team (1st-Place Votes)	Points
1.	Grand Canyon (8)	64
2.	UT Arlington	49
3.	Seattle U (1)	46
4.	California Baptist	45
5.	Utah Valley	38
6.	Tarleton State	30
7.	Abilene Christian	29
8.	Utah Tech	12
9.	Southern Utah	11

 
2024-25 WAC Preseason Player of the Year
Tyon Grant-Foster, Sr., G, Grand Canyon
 
2024-25 Preseason All-WAC Team
Dominique Daniels Jr., Sr., G, California Baptist
Tyon Grant-Foster, Sr., G, Grand Canyon
Ray Harrison, Sr., G, Grand Canyon
John Christofilis, R-Jr., G, Seattle U
Freddy Hicks, Sr., G/F, Tarleton State