PHOENIX -- No. 13 Grand Canyon heads into Friday's NCAA Tournament matchup against No. 4 Maryland playing its best basketball of the season, according to coach Bryce Drew and his players.
"You know, this is the best time to have that feel to play our best," said forward JaKobe Coles, who last week earned the WAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player award. "It's not how you start, it's how you finish. And I think that was the mindset we had this year."
And finish strong, they did. The 'Lopes have won nine of their last 10 games and secured their third consecutive WAC Tournament championship in Las Vegas.
That momentum carries them this year, but GCU's experience from the 2024 NCAA Tournament can help them as they prepare for a Big Ten opponent.
GCU won its first tournament game as a program last season and returned several cogs to the roster, including guards Tyon Grant-Foster and Ray Harrison and bigs Duke Brennan and Lok Wur. But a key factor in the Lopes' success in 2024-25 has been Cole, the senior power forward who averaged 19.7 points across three tournament games versus UT Arlington, Cal Baptist and Utah Valley.
The Terrapins rank No. 12 overall in KenPom rankings, boasting an offensive rating of 118.1 (28th) and a defensive rating of 91.8 (sixth). GCU, meanwhile, is No. 92 overall, ranking 151st in offense and 67th in defense.
Maryland's starting five averages 70 points per game with two frontcourt players averaging nearly a double-double per game each.
"I've had several coaches tell us ... 'I think it's the best starting five in the Big Ten,'" Drew said. "All five average double figures, you know, they have a lottery pick (freshman center Derik Queen). And so they can beat you by shooting threes. They can beat you in the post. They can beat you at the free-throw line. So a lot of different ways.
"They can beat you defensively, they're sixth in the country. So they have a lot of different ways that they can beat you."
Queen leads Maryland in scoring with 16.3 points per game and shares the team lead in rebounds at nine per game. Senior forward Julian Reese is fourth in scoring at 13.1 points per game and also averages nine rebounds.
Coles compared Maryland to Georgia, a team Grand Canyon faced earlier this season on Dec. 14 in a 73-68 loss. The 'Lopes hope that experience will help against the Terrapins.
"I thought we didn't really do a good job against Georgia, just when executing on the little stuff," Coles said. "But we're a much better team since we played Georgia. They got two bigs that are pretty good, and they got guards that can shoot. So I think that seeing their kind of style of play is similar."
Georgia is a No. 9 seed in this year's tournament.
Grand Canyon made history last season, winning its first-ever NCAA Tournament game with a 75-66 victory over No. 5 seed Saint Mary's in the first round.
The Antelopes are hungry for more than just one win this time and they're leaning on their previous tournament experience.
"I've learned a lot, so I've learned how to win a tournament game," said Brennan, who also played two games in the Big Dance with Arizona State in 2023. "But being in that environment, it's a crazy environment. For some people, the lights are too big for them sometimes.
"The last two years have allowed me to ease into the moment and understand how to get a win and what to do on and off the court. I'm looking forward to going to my third year in March Madness."
While last season's opponent in Saint Mary's had a different playing style as one of the slowest-paced teams in the country. GCU then got up and down in a 72-61 loss to a talented Alabama team in the second round.
Drew hopes that confidence in last season's first-round upset will carry over against Maryland.
"We've learned this team is different than that team," Drew said. "We're built different, just mentally we're different. It's not the same. Maryland's a totally different playing style and has different type of players than Saint Mary's. So there's really not too many similarities, but hopefully, the confidence that they can play well on the big stage -- hopefully that will carry with them."
Coles, meanwhile, carries experience from his TCU days.
He's played in five tournament games and for TCU hit a game-winning floater in the final seconds to eliminate Arizona State during the 2023 tournament.
For the third consecutive year, GCU will stay on the West Coast for the first round of the tournament.
In 2023, the 'Lopes faced Gonzaga at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado. Last season's two-game run took place in Spokane, Washington.
This year, the 'Lopes are back in Washington, in Seattle's Climate Pledge Arena.
"Spokane was so electric in there because we had our fans," Drew said. "We also had every Gonzaga fan cheering two times as hard against Saint Mary's.