The Utah Valley basketball team again won its share of games on the court this season.
It has also prevailed in the courts.
The Wolverines are a two-time Western Athletic Conference regular-season champion. They begin play in the league tournament Friday at Orleans Arena.
By winning the conference, Utah Valley (24-7, 14-4) was placed directly into the semifinals, where it will face the winner of UT-Arlington and Southern Utah.
But the Wolverines had to receive a preliminary court injunction just to be eligible for the tournament.
The dispute between Utah Valley and the WAC stems from the league filing a lawsuit that alleged the school refused to pay $1 million as a contractually obligated exit fee.
Utah Valley is set to officially join the Big West Conference in July.
The Wolverines were initially denied by the WAC to play in postseason tournaments and banned from all WAC-sponsored media broadcasts.
The court injunction stopped that from occurring and also allowed Utah Valley coaches and players to be eligible for postseason awards.
There was an original injunction for 14 days before Utah Valley applied for a second stay to allow its men’s and women’s teams to compete in the league basketball tournament.
That was granted last week.
The WAC originally filed its lawsuit in the district court of Tarrant County, Texas.
Utah Valley countered with the argument that the court lacked jurisdiction. It in turn filed a lawsuit against the WAC, claiming — among other things — damages to its athletes and coaches for lost chances at competition.
It all led to the Fourth District Court in Utah granting the preliminary injunctions.
So the Wolverines play on.
Contact Ed Graney at egraney@reviewjournal.com. Follow @edgraney on X.
