Great West tourney tips off Wednesday

OREM -- The Utah Valley University men's basketball team will open the first-ever Great West Conference Tournament on Wednesday as the No. 4 seed and will battle No. 5 UTPA at 2:30 p.m. at the UVU Events Center, while UVU women open tournament play Thursday at 7:30 p.m. as the No. 6 seed and will take on No. 3 Chicago State.

On the men's side, South Dakota is the No. 1 seed and earned a first-round bye, and will play the winner of Utah Valley-UTPA on Friday at 5 p.m. in the semifinals.

Houston Baptist is the No. 2 seed and will play No. 7 Chicago State at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, while No. 3 North Dakota plays No. 6 NJIT at 7:30 p.m. to close out first-day action.

On the women's side, North Dakota is the No. 1 seed and earned a bye directly into the semifinals, and the Fighting Sioux will play the winner of No. 4 South Dakota and No. 5 NJIT, who play on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.

No. 2 seed UTPA battles No. 7 seed Houston Baptist at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

The women will play the first two semifinal games on Saturday and the men will play the last two contests.

The championship game for the women is sent for 4 p.m. Saturday and that game will be followed by the men's championship at 7:30 p.m.

For ticket information, visit www.wolverinegreen.com.

* AGGIES' WESLEY NAMED WAC PLAYER OF WEEK: Utah State men's basketball player Tai Wesley has been named the Western Athletic Conference player of the week.

It is the second time this year that Wesley has been named WAC Player of the Week and the third time that a USU player has received the award, joining senior guard Jared Quayle.

Wesley, a 6-foot-7 junior forward from Provo, led Utah State to a pair of home wins last week against Fresno State (76-39) and New Mexico State (81-63) to clinch its third-straight Western Athletic Conference regular season championship. Against the Bulldogs, Wesley scored 21 points on 10-of-13 shooting, to go along with seven rebounds, five assists and one steal. Against NMSU, he scored a season-high 24 points on 9-of-10 shooting, and added six rebounds, a season-high tying six assists and two blocks.

For the week, Wesley averaged 22.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.5 blocks. On the season, Wesley is averaging 13.7 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.3 blocked shots per game, and is shooting 57.8 percent from the field and 71.5 percent from the free throw line. He currently ranks third in the WAC in field goal shooting, third in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.02), seventh in blocked shots, 10th in rebounding, 11th in assists, 13th in scoring and 15th in free throw shooting.

Utah State (25-6, 14-2) is the top seed in the upcoming WAC Tournament in Reno, Nev., and will play Boise State (15-16, 5-11) in the quarterfinals on Thursday at 1 p.m.

* KANSAS BACK ON TOP IN AP POLL: Kansas is No. 1 -- again.

The Jayhawks (29-2), coming off their sixth straight Big 12 regular season title, moved back into the top spot in The Associated Press' college basketball poll Monday. It is their 14th week at No. 1 this season, more than triple the total of the other three schools who have been there in 2009-10.

Kansas, which dropped to second last week after a four-week stint on top, was a near unanimous No. 1, receiving 63 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel.

Kentucky (29-2) moved up one place to No. 2 and had the other first-place votes.

Syracuse (28-3), No. 1 last week for the first time since 1990, lost to Louisville on Saturday in the last game played at Freedom Hall and fell to No. 3.

Syracuse's one-week run at No. 1 matched Kentucky's, while Texas, which dropped out of the rankings last week, was on top for two weeks.

Duke held fourth while Ohio State and Purdue both moved up one place to fifth and sixth.

West Virginia moved from 10th to seventh after wins last week over Georgetown and Villanova, while New Mexico, Kansas State and Villanova rounded out the top 10.

Villanova's loss to West Virginia was the Wildcats' fourth in six games and they dropped one spot to No. 10. Kansas, Kentucky, Duke and Villanova are the only teams to be ranked in the top 10 all season with one poll remaining.

Kansas State dropped from fifth to ninth after losing at Kansas and to Iowa State at home last week.

Michigan State was 11th, followed by Butler, Wisconsin, BYU, Tennessee, Pittsburgh, Temple, Gonzaga, Maryland and Vanderbilt. The last five ranked teams were Baylor, Georgetown, Texas A&M, Xavier and UTEP.

The Big Ten's three teams that finished tied for the regular season title with 14-4 records -- Ohio State, Purdue and Michigan State -- were all in the top 11.

Vanderbilt lost 77-73 to South Carolina at home and had the week's biggest drop, falling from 13th to No. 20.

Temple, which ended its Atlantic 10 regular season with wins over Saint Louis and George Washington, and Maryland, which beat Duke and Virginia to earn a share of the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season title with the Blue Devils, both matched West Virginia's jump of three spots from last week.

Nine teams -- Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, Purdue, West Virginia, Michigan State, Villanova, Tennessee and Georgetown -- have a chance at being ranked the entire season. Since no team can lose more than one game this week because of the conference tournaments, only No. 22 Georgetown from that group appears to be in any danger of not going wire to wire.

The Big East heads into the conference tournaments with the most ranked teams, five, while the Big 12 and Big Ten both have four. The Southeastern Conference has three and the ACC, Mountain West and Atlantic 10 have two each.

* HAWAII MEN'S BASKETBALL COACH FIRED: At Honolulu, Bob Nash has been fired as coach of the University of Hawaii's men's basketball team after posting a 34-56 record over three seasons.

University officials announced the move Monday.

Nash was a member of the "Fabulous Five," a group of UH basketball players during the 1970-71 and 1971-72 seasons that led the team to a 47-8 record, and made the postseason twice, including the school's first NCAA tournament appearance.

He became head coach in 2007 after 23 seasons as an assistant coach.

But he compiled a 10-20 record overall this season and a 3-13 record in the Western Athletic Conference.

* ST. MARY'S 81, NO. 18 GONZAGA 62: At Las Vegas, Mickey McConnell scored 26 points, Ben Allen added 20 and Saint Mary's upset No. 18 Gonzaga with an 81-62 victory Monday night in the West Coast Conference tournament title game.

Omar Samhan had nine points and seven rebounds for the Gaels (26-5), who earned the sixth NCAA tournament berth in the small Bay Area school's history with a remarkable shooting performance against the top-seeded Zags (26-6), the 10-time regular-season WCC champions.

Saint Mary's won the WCC tournament for just the second time since it began in 1987, beating Gonzaga for the first time in 10 tourney meetings.

In other conference tournament championships, Wofford (Southern Conference), Old Dominion (Colonial Athletic Association), and Siena (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) each won to earn NCAA tourney berths on Monday.