On Wednesday morning, Utah Valley University broke ground on its first basketball practice facility. The new $3.5 million, 14,500-square-foot practice and conditioning center will offer 8,000 square feet of coart space, nine basketball standards and what the program calls "game-day atmosphere" graphics.

"All of us who know President [Matthew] Holland and what he's done here at this University is truly amazing," men's basketball coach Mark Pope said. "The way he's grown it, the way he's made it functional for every single student here and student athlete to chase their dreams as hard they can … this building is going to play a huge role in that."

The privately funded facility will be called the NUVI Basketball Center, named after its lead donor, NUVI executive chair Keith Nellesen.

"The thing that connects a community to a college is sports," Nellesen said. "Here at UVU, as it's grown from this tiny technical college to, I believe, the largest publicly funded university in the state of Utah, you need to build that connection. Basketball is going to be that connection."

On the surface, it's a move that was prompted by being in the competitive Western Athletic Conference, which features bigger programs that already offer its own facilities and arenas.

"You only get connected to an athletic program that wins and if it wins championships," Nellesen said. "In today's day and age, if you want to win and win championships, and build a great program, you have to have facilities to go out and recruit the best players that they feel can come and develop them. I believe with this facility, UVU will be able to compete at a high level."

Pope, now entering his second season, said its purpose and impact go far beyond its structural layout.

"It's a really important step among a thousand steps we have to take for our program to get to the level we want to get to," Pope said. "The beauty of Utah Valley is that they allow to come in here … take any great idea and chase it as fast as you can. Hopefully this is one of many examples that we'll have here."

The Wolverines had been practicing at local high school gyms and sharing available facilities with other sports programs. When the circus would come to town, they even shared space with tigers.

Junior forward Zach Nelson will be a part of the first group of Wolverines who will help break in the basketball teams' new home.

"To be able to have a facility like this where it's ours, where we're not sharing with other high schools … is really exciting for us as a university, us as a team and us as a community."

Next fall, Pope and Cathy Nixon, who will enter her 22nd season as the women's head coach, will move into their new space. It will officially mark another groundbreaking moment for Utah Valley.

For Pope and Nixon, there is always more ground to break, more steps to be taken.

"We continue to break ground," Nixon said. "For us to have a home where we can go and live and we're not guests is just literally something I've dreamed about for long, long time. We're just looking for a bright, bright future ahead."