The Wolverines won the outright WAC title and earned a number of individual accolades, including having sophomore center Aziz Bandaogo named WAC Defensive Player of the Year and head coach Mark Madsen named WAC Coach of the Year.

But while UVU should rightfully be proud of all of those achievements, this is the week they have been pointing to since before the season began.

Yes, it’s tournament time.

“Our guys have worked incredibly hard, the staff members have worked incredibly hard and we’ve put ourselves in a good position being an upper seed,” Madsen said in a phone interview on Monday. “Now we need to go out there and execute against some really good teams. I feel excited. I think we’re playing well. We had a great day of practice (on Monday) and we’re really looking forward to the challenge.”

With all the successes the Wolverines have enjoyed over the years, winning the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament by winning the WAC tournament has eluded them.

They want this to be the year that changes and there are good reasons to believe it might be.

A good first step, as Madsen pointed out, was getting a high seed — although it wasn’t as high as it would be in many leagues.

Even though UVU took first place, it ended up as the No. 2-seed in the tournament due to the WAC seeding process.

“The WAC and the commissioner of the WAC are doing something very innovative with the end goal of being to elevate the stature of the Western Athletic Conference,” Madsen said. “What it does is it encourages teams to play difficult nonconference schedule in the preseason, rather than just playing a bunch of easy games. So a lot of teams did that as best they could as soon as they got the information and we did too. I think ultimately it helped us because we played against some really, really good competition leading up to our conference games.”

Madsen said he doesn’t see any disappointment from his guys about not being the top seed. He sees a group that is hungry to go show what they can do.

“I looked at the focus in our guys’ eyes today in practice,” Madsen said. “Guys like Trey Woodbury, Le’Tre Darthard, Tim Fuller, Blaze Nield, they have been together now for three or four years. These are some really key seniors who have had the experience before in Vegas. The intensity, the energy, and the focus were all there today in practice. That brings excitement, it brings anticipation, and we just could not be more looking forward to this opportunity to compete down there.”

But they know it won’t be easy, since every team in the conference is going into this week with the same objectives.

“This is what every competitor dreams of,” Madsen said. “This is the best the WAC has been in years. Every competitor dreams of going out into a situation like this where every team is strong, where every team is full of great players. They want to have the chance to go out there and do everything possible to try to win it all.”

Madsen and the Wolverines are working hard to take it one game at a time and live in the moment. They don’t want to think about any potential disappointments down the road but instead focus on taking care of the business at hand.

He said his team will need to continue to be good at the two areas that have brought them success this year.

“Our calling card really this season has been our defense,” Madsen said. “Obviously it’s anchored by Bandaogo but it’s really everybody. We’re able to use the ice coverage that so many NBA teams use, we’re able to use switch and we’re able to throw some zone defenses out there. Our players have just bought into the different defensive concepts and the different defensive principles that that that we have on this team.

“So we need to have great defense and we need to continue to share the ball. Our best games this year have been when we’ve had 18 assists or more. When we’ve struggled, we’ve occasionally tried to go one-on-one too much. And that doesn’t work at any level. So sharing the ball and a continued sustained and strong effort on the defensive end will be key.”

But UVU is still going to dream big as they prepare to take the floor.

“The ultimate goal for us as a staff as well as every player that has been in this program, that is currently in this program or they’re just coming to this program, is to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament,” Madsen said. “If we’re able to do all the things that can lead us to that goal, there’s going to be an outpouring of excitement and love. It will be an amazing situation. But we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We won’t get ahead of ourselves but that has always been and is the goal.”

The No. 2-seed Wolverines will take on No. 7-seed Tarleton State in the quarterfinals at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on Thursday at 7 p.m MT. The game can be seen on ESPN+.

Tournament notes

• The Wolverines make their ninth appearance at the WAC Tournament this week in Las Vegas.
• Utah Valley holds an all-time 5-8 record at the event.
• UVU heads into the tournament with the No. 2 seed for the fourth time (2018, 2019, 2021, 2023) in UVU’s WAC Tournament history. As the No. 2 seed, UVU holds an all-time 2-3 record.
• Under head coach Mark Madsen, Utah Valley holds a 1-2 record in WAC Tournament play.
• Utah Valley has made it to the semifinals in four of the previous five tournaments. UVU has never made it to the championship game.