WAC champion Utah Valley receives another injunction to play in conference tournament
OREM — One day after head coach Todd Phillips and the Utah Valley males’s basketball crew clinched a second consecutive Western Athletic Conference regular-season championship, the Wolverines added another win in a Utah court docket.
The Wolverines might be allowed to play in the WAC males’s and ladies’s basketball tournaments subsequent week in Las Vegas after a court docket granted the college’s movement for a preliminary injunction in Utah’s Fourth District Court, the varsity confirmed Friday to KSL.com.
“We’re really proud of the guys,” Phillips mentioned Thursday after Isaac Davis scored a career-high 28 factors to assist the Wolverines clinch the regular-season championship with a 92-88 street win over Southern Utah. “We didn’t have a lot of returners coming back this season, but we’ve had new guys step up all year. To come in here and get a win against a really good Southern Utah team and clinch a regular-season championship says a lot about this group.”
The Wolverines improved to 23-7 and 13-4 in WAC play with one sport remaining Saturday at Utah Tech. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 pm MT on ESPN+ from St. George.
The college had already acquired a brief restraining order towards the WAC whereas the 2 sides contest a $1 million lawsuit associated to an unpaid exit charge for leaving the conference July 1, which allowed the Wolverines to take part in the WAC indoor monitor and discipline championships and broadcast their video games by means of the conference’s media accomplice at ESPN+.
The resolution additionally allowed Utah Valley athletes and coaches to be eligible for postseason awards throughout the conference. Scoutt Houle was named WAC males’s coach of the yr Friday after main the UVU males’s crew to its first indoor title since 2015, with mile and three,000-meter star Sila Kiplagat successful league freshman of the yr.
The injunction was for a window of up to 14 days, which means the college would have to apply for another keep in the choice to compete in the basketball tournaments. That resolution was revealed Friday.
“Utah Valley University is pleased with the court’s decision to grant UVU’s motion for preliminary injunction in its lawsuit with the Western Athletic Conference,” the varsity mentioned in a press release to KSL.com. “This favorable outcome protects UVU student-athletes’ rights by allowing them to participate in postseason opportunities that they have earned through their hard work, dedication and performance throughout the season. The ruling also reinstates broadcast rights, ensuring our athletes, teams, coaches and fans receive the coverage, visibility and viewership they deserve.”
At the time of the first injunctionJudge Denise M. Porter of Utah’s Fourth District Court wrote in her 11-page abstract judgment that the college was “likely to prevail upon its claims and is entitled to equitable remedy of a restraining order as relief to reinstate their participation in the conference while the fee issue is litigated to prevent irreparable harm.”
The conference, which is rebranding because the United Athletic Conference efficient July 1 of this yr, launched a lawsuit Feb. 3 in a Tarrant CountyTexas, court docket alleging the college was refusing to pay a “contractually obligated exit fee in the amount of $1 million.”
Utah Valley responded about two weeks later, claiming that the Texas court lacked jurisdiction of the state’s largest public college and that the exit charge was associated to a $5.6 million settlement starting June 2024 between the conference and its remaining member faculties to stay members of the league for 2 years.
