Weber State University Athletics
Weber State University
Utah
11/9/2026 11:41:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Weber State and Utah tipoff at 7 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN+.
• It's another in-state matchup for the Weber State men's basketball team as the Wildcats travel to Salt Lake City to take on the Utah Utes on Tuesday night.
• Tuesday's game will tip off at 7 p.m. at the Jon M. Huntsman Center. It will be televised on ESPN+ with Chris Sylvester and former WSU head coach Joe Cravens on the call.
The Weber State radio broadcast will be on 103.1 FM with Carl Arky and former WSU standout and Big Sky MVP David Patten calling the action.
Live stats will be available at WeberStateSports.com and the new Weber State Wildcats app.
• Weber State is 0-2 on the season entering Tuesday's game. The 'Cats opened the season with a 102-61 loss at Oregon State and are coming off a 101-93 home loss to Utah Valley on Saturday night. Against the Wolverines, Weber State knocked down 12 3-pointers and outrebounded UVU 36-30, but Utah Valley made 14 3-pointers and shot 60 percent from the field for the win.
• It's a new era of Wildcat basketball as Kaleb Canales is in his first season as head coach at Weber State. Canales was named the 11th head coach in Weber State's Division I history in April. He spent last season as the associate head coach at Troy, where he helped the team to the NCAA Tournament. A native of Laredo, Texas, Canales had an 18-year career in the NBA. He was a longtime assistant coach with the Portland Trail Blazers and in 2012, he served as the interim head coach for 23 games. He also spent time as an assistant coach with the Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks, and Indiana Pacers.
• Weber State has 12 new players and only two returners from last season. ArDarius Grayson and Declan Cutler are the only two returners from last year. The 'Cats have nine players who transferred from Division I schools. WSU has one of the youngest teams in the nation, with only six players who had played in a Division I game entering the season.
Weber State does not have any fifth-year seniors and has just one fourth-year senior in Brock Felder, a transfer from Southern Utah and Seattle. The 'Cats have four juniors, including Dylan Warlick, a transfer from Saint Louis, and Dyllan Thompson, a transfer from Georgia Tech. Junior Alvin Jackson III suffered an ACL injury and will miss the season.
The 'Cats have five sophomores, but only Grayson, and Augustine Ekwe, a transfer from New Mexico State, had played in a game before this season. WSU also has three freshmen on the roster in Gavin Lowe, Hunter Hansen, and Maximillian Russell. Lowe has started both games for the 'Cats, the first true freshman to start a season opener since 2018.
• Three Wildcats reached double figure scoring and had career highs in Saturday's game with Utah Valley. Mason Abittan led the Wildcats with 22 points, along with five rebounds and two assists. Abittan also knocked down four 3-pointers in just his second college game. The sophomore from Las Vegas redshirted at UNLV last season before transferring to Weber State.
• ArDarius Grayson reached his career-high of 19 points off the bench for the Wildcats on Saturday. He was 7 of 11 from the field and also knocked down four 3-pointers to go along with four rebounds and three assists. Grayson also scored 12 points in the season opener at Oregon State and leads the Wildcats in scoring through two games at 15.5 points per game. He played in 31 games as a freshman at Weber State last season.
• Augustine Ekwe scored a career-high 14 points on 7 of 10 shooting on Saturday. He is shooting 58 percent from the field after two games. Ekwe played in 23 games as a freshman at New Mexico State last season. A native of Lagos, Nigeria, he played high school basketball at Wasatch Academy in Mt. Pleasant, Utah.
• Coach Canales added Patrick Zipfel as the associate head coach for the Wildcats. He has over 24 years in the NBA as an assistant coach and advance scout. Dondrale Campbell is an assistant coach with the Wildcats and joins WSU after three seasons at Northern Colorado. Bobby Jones was promoted to an assistant coach and Luke Spring returns as an assistant coach over Operations.
• Weber State played three exhibition games before the season opener, with home wins over Colorado Christian, Westminster, and Colorado Mesa. In the three games, Dylan Warlick averaged 13.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game. Mason Abittan averaged 13.5 points per game, and Aaron Powell added 12 points. Dyllan Thompson and Augustine Ekwe each averaged 11.3 points a game.
• Utah started the season with a 66-63 win over Long Beach State and a 67-57 win over Towson last week. A senior on Utah's team, Malek Gomma, spent last season at Weber State where he played in all 32 games for the Wildcats.
• Utah is coached by Ute legend Alex Jensen, who is in his second season at the helm. On the Utah coaching staff is Eric Daniels, who spent five seasons as an assistant coach at Weber State from 2019-24.
• This will be the 43rd all-time meeting between Weber State and Utah with the Utes lead the all-time series 28-14.
WSU is 3-18 all-time against the Utes in the Huntsman Center and has lost the last six games. The 'Cats lost in overtime 92-89 last November in Salt Lake City. The last Wildcat win at the Huntsman Center was in December 2000. The Wildcats, coached by Joe Cravens and led by Jermaine Boyette's 27 points, beat the Utes 79-77 and snapped Utah's 54-game home winning streak.
• Weber State is the only school in Utah that is playing every other school in the state this season. The Wildcats played Westminster in an exhibition, then hosted Utah Valley last Saturday. After Tuesday at Utah, WSU will also play at Utah State and BYU, in addition to two games with new Big Sky members Southern Utah and Utah Tech.
• NBA superstar Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers is the General Manager of the Weber State program. Lillard was an All-American and a two-time Big Sky MVP from 2008-12 before being drafted sixth in the 2012 NBA Draft.
• After Tuesday's game, the Wildcats will be back home to host Lincoln on Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Dee Events Center, before playing at Utah State next Wednesday.
