Utah Valley’s heartbreaking finish in the WAC tournament championship game late Saturday night landed the Wolverines in the NIT field for the third time in the past four years.
UVU (25-8) earned a No. 4 seed in the NIT and will host George Washington on Wednesday in the tournament’s first round.
The game will tip at 6 p.m. MDT and be streamed on ESPN+.
The Wolverines led the WAC championship game by seven late in the contest against Cal Baptist, but the Lancers’ Dominique Daniels Jr. hit three 3-pointers in the final 1:54.
That included the go-ahead score with 14.6 seconds to play before UVU’s Isaac Davis missed a dunk with two seconds to play that would have tied the game.
As a result, Cal Baptist won 63-61 and is headed to its first NCAA Tournament appearance — the Lancers earned a No. 13 seed and are facing No. 4 seed Kansas on Friday — while UVU is headed back to the NIT.
The Wolverines also played in the NIT in 2025, 2023 and 2014.
Their most successful appearance in the tournament came in 2023, when they won three games and made it to the semifinals in Las Vegas before losing by two in overtime to UAB.
UVU’s first-round NIT opponent, George Washington, has an 18-15 record and finished ninth in the Atlantic 10 Conference standings.
The first three rounds of the NIT will be held at campus sites before the semifinals and championship are held at Hinkle Fieldhouse and Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on April 2 and April 5.