After years of riding Gonzaga’s success, WCC Basketball has finally started the season with a strong month from top to bottom. How do conference’s teams stack up against each other?
While teams like BYU and Saint Mary’s have been somewhat disappointing to start the year, the WCC as a whole has been pretty impressive. Gonzaga is ranked at the top of the AP and Coaches’ Polls, LMU and San Francisco have both started off hot, and San Diego has been one of the toughest teams out west.
The success of the WCC is not only good for Gonzaga, who will rely on the strength of the conference to keep them ready for March, but also for west coast basketball fans, who desperately need an intriguing basketball conference outside the Pac-12. With 8 teams carrying a winning record, and a 57-27 record overall, thing look to be pretty intriguing when conference play starts.
While Gonzaga, BYU and Saint Mary’s once again feature some of the nation’s top players, there are some other, lesser-known players that can light up the scoreboard. Colbey Ross for Peppedine, James Batemon for LMU and Isaiah Pineiro for San Diego are three of the more versatile players in the country.
If you want to catch some WCC action before the conference slate returns, there are plenty of excellent matchups to watch: Gonzaga still has games against North Carolina, Tennessee and Washington, San Diego has a date with Oregon in Eugene, BYU takes on San Diego St and Mississippi St and Saint Mary’s will play LSU and Western Kentucky.
So how do the WCC Power Rankings shape up after one month of non-conference play?