Faith first: How Gabe McGlothan became heart and soul of Grand Canyon basketball team

Seven years after leading Chandler Basha High School to its first state basketball championship on Grand Canyon University's arena floor, Gabe McGlothan is center stage at GCU.

He's become the face of the men's basketball program, a nice guy off the court whose nasty streak on the court has helped the Antelopes to their best start as an NCAA Division I program.

GCU is on an 11-game winning streak, the third-longest going in the nation right now. They're 14-1, the best start to a GCU season since it went 19-1 starting the 1995-96 season, a time when dreams of playing in Division I felt distant and unrealistic for the small Christian school.

Now, their NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) ranking has them at No. 37, higher than Ohio State, Florida, Colorado, and even Gonzaga, the team that eliminated GCU in the first round of last year's NCAA Tournament. The Lopes received AP Top 25 votes for a fifth straight week, and this week received seven times more than the previous week with 35.

At the center of it all is the 6-foot-7, 235-pound graduate McGlothan, who earned his degree last year in engineering.

He now is working towards a master's in Divinity, something very personal for McGlothan, who says his faith grew during his first year at GCU in 2019-20. That's when he was rehabilitating a knee injury and redshirting. He also was reevaluating his life.

"That was the foundation," McGlothan said about when he came to GCU in 2019. "When I went through that injury, I started to deepen my faith. I started to be in a relationship knowing Jesus Christ. That began fueling henceforward."

McGlothan's consistency and leadership on the court have made him the most valuable player on what could be the team's most historic season.

He is averaging 13.9 points and 7.9 rebounds in 14 games, and nearly 34 minutes a game. He is making 41.5% of his 3-pointers (22 of 53) and 58% of his field goals overall (70 of 121). He leads a team that is ranked 15th nationally in blocked shots (5.5 a game) with 14.

Last week, when the Lopes were struggling at both Southern Utah and Utah Tech, trailing the latter by 16 at one point in the game, McGlothan provided the boost GCU needed, making 17 of 22 shots, scoring a total of 41 points in 96-75 and 75-65 wins to get to 4-0 in WAC play.

Now, they're hoping to maintain this momentum Thursday night at home against Abilene Christian (6-8, 1-2) and Saturday night against Tarleton State (10-4, 3-0) as the students are back on campus and the arena should be electric with the Havocs in top form.

McGlothan said nobody's taking this start and a potential Top 25 ranking for granted.

"It does matter, just to us," McGlothan said about breaking into the Top 25. "I know at the end of the day it's just rankings. But it keeps us striving for something. It has us shooting for something in the middle of the season. It's always been a goal of mine. It's always been a goal of this school to be Top 25 at some point. To be able to claim that spot as a piece of GCU history for the first time, that would be something I would be very proud to be a part of."

Coming full circle

This is the 24-year-old McGlothan's team now. After leading Basha to a historic 30-1 record, beating Tempe Corona del Sol 75-65 for the 6A championship in 2017 at GCU Arena, McGlothan was set to go to Army.

He went through boot camp but it was a hard year. His basketball career at Army never took root.

"Typical basketball things," McGlothan said. "Sometimes they decide to go in a different direction and overrecruit. I looked at it and was like, 'OK, this isn't what I signed up for.' I love the military but I decided to leave.

"That was a hard time, because a lot of harsh things when I was leaving. Like, 'I don't know if you'll ever play college again,' from higher-ups."

The boot camp and the transition, he said, toughened him.

He ended up playing 42 games for national prep champion Putnam Science Academy, before playing the 2018-19 season at Southeast Missouri State, where he averaged 7.1 rebounds during Ohio Valley Conference play.

Then, he transferred to GCU, where his brother Aidan played soccer from 2014-17, and his mother Janelle is an admissions manager. It was Dan Majerle's last season as head coach at GCU. He was let go after COVID-19 shut down the rest of the college season just before the start of the WAC Tournament in Las Vegas.

"It was a scary time," McGlothan said after leaving Army. "Continued to walk through and kept believing. I knew of God but didn't have that complete relationship. I could still rely on it a little bit."

Bryce Drew took over as head coach and McGlothan had to adjust to a new style. Drew was just as demanding but had a different way of relating to players. Drew's Christian faith fit in with McGlothan as a restored believer.

"I think his faith has really grown at GCU," Drew said.

So has his game.

Thriving on being the leader

McGlothan is now the leader, something he thrives on being. His consistency both at home and on the road has improved. And he's finding ways to stay in the game, despite foul trouble, avoiding picking up a foul that will send him to the bench.

The Lopes can't afford not having him on the court, even though transfer guards Tyon Grant-Foster and Collin Moore have thrived, helping lift the Lopes as much as McGlothan, along with returning leading score Ray Harrison.

"I really like this community that GCU is," McGlothan said. "Even back in high school with (coach) Mike Grothaus. They built a great community. He poured so much into me. I want to give that back to the people I care about."

This is McGlothan's final year of college basketball, and Drew has seen a player grow to the point of not ruling him out of making an NBA team.

"He's playing at such a high level," Drew said. "He's shooting the ball from the perimeter. He's rebounding. He's the prototype size that you want in the NBA right now."

'He's not going to judge me'

McGlothan also is great outside the court, always keeping teammates up, including senior point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr., who still is finding his footing after a torn ACL suffered on Jan. 5, 2023. McGlothan and Blacksher are the only two GCU players who have been there for four years. They created magic during their Vegas run in 2021, when the Lopes won their first WAC Tournament title and got to the NCAA Tournament for the first time.

"I saw him inspire at Basha, but I didn't really know too much of him," said Blacksher, who was still racking up 4A state titles at Phoenix Shadow Mountain after McGlothan graduated. "When he got here, that's when we got close.

"To see Gabe grow over these years, he's become more mature and a better basketball player. ... Gabe is somebody I could talk to about anything. He's not going to judge me. Gabe is a very important person."

Basha coach Mike Grothaus is not surprised to see McGlothan become the man and the basketball player he is today, the kind of man he said he would hope his daughters would marry someday. Even in high school, Grothaus said McGlothan was the nicest, caring, most selfless person off the court and an absolute competitor on it.

"When your best player and leader is your hardest work, you know you have a chance to be great."

The book won't be closed on McGlothan's basketball career after this season. He knows that. And, wherever he lands, he said, "where God places my feet, I'll walk in."

"You can't put limits on God, and that's where I'm standing."

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert atrichard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter:@azc_obert

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How Gabe McGlothan became heart and soul of 14-1 GCU hoops team