Listen to ESPN 960 as the Utah Valley Basketball team heads down to Las Vegas to face the UAB Blazers in the NIT Semifinals.
Trey Woodbury throws down a dunk vs Cincinnati in an NIT game in Orem, Photo Courtesy of UVU Athletics and UVU Marketing.The UVU Men’s basketball team will take on the UAB Blazers on Tuesday night in the NIT Semifinals at The Orleans arena in Las Vegas. The game will tip off at 7:30pm MT on ESPN 2 and ESPN 960 AM, 92.1 FM.
Will Head Coach Mark Madsen be in attendance?
While the Wolverines are getting ready for their first NIT Semifinal game in program history, they might be doing so without their Head Coach Mark Madsen. Madsen and his wife are expecting the birth of their child this week, which might prevent Madsen from making the trip down to Vegas for the game. Madsen was absent from the NIT pregame media availability on Monday, but plans on being in Vegas should the baby not come Tuesday.
The fourth year head coach has also been reported to be the frontrunner to replace former Cal Bears Head Coach Mark Fox after Cal decided to move on from Fox earlier this month.
Sources: Utah Valley’s Mark Madsen has emerged as a leading candidate for the head coaching vacancy at Cal.
Madsen has won a combined 48 games in the past two seasons at Utah Valley.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 26, 2023
Source: The Cal boosters believe Utah Valley coach Mark Madsen Will be the next coach
Won 48 games over the past 2 seasons. https://t.co/N3mFLo3vmT
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) March 27, 2023
Madsen could be the second coach from the state of Utah to be poached from an outside school after former Southern Utah Head Coach Todd Simon took a job at Bowling Green electing to not coach the Thunderbirds through their postseason run in the CBI tournament.
Know the foe
UAB comes into Tuesday night’s game at 28-9 overall and on a three game win streak after defeating Southern Miss, Morehead State and Vanderbilt in the first three rounds of the NIT. The Blazers had a 14-6 record in Conference USA this season. A conference that featured FAU, that is now in the NCAA Final Four, and North Texas, that finds themselves facing Wisconsin in the other NIT Semifinal game in Las Vegas this week.
Listen to the Utah Valley Basketball pregame show
Make sure to tune into ESPN 960 AM and 92.1 FM at 7:15 pm MT for the Utah Valley Basketball Pregame show. You can also find the UVU pregame NIT interviews on the UVU Basketball podcast below.
