WCC Basketball: 2020 conference tournament preview and predictions
Key players to watch
SO Filip Petrusev — Gonzaga
2019-20 Stats: 17.8 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 1.3 apg
The newly-minted WCC POY has been a bruiser in the paint as of late, imposing his will upon smaller and less-defensively equipped posts. As GU’s biggest center, Petrusev’s rim protection and ability to neutralize other bigs without fouling often has been crucial for a roster that’s thin on bigs, too. If he can continue making his home in the paint, there won’t be many scoring droughts for a Zags team that is already among the nation’s best offensively. A key matchup could be against Yoeli Childs, who outplayed Petrusev in Provo a couple of weeks ago.
SR Killian Tillie — Gonzaga
2019-20 Stats: 13.6 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 2.0 apg
Vegas is Killian Tillie’s city: he just can’t seem to miss this time of year. In the past two WCC tournaments, he’s made 17 shots from beyond the arc on 19 attempts. And when healthy, Tillie is the Zags’ most consistent scorer and arguably their best player. He has displayed an ability to get a bucket at any given time that GU needs it, and his combination of spacing and help as a second big body on the boards and at the rim complements Petrusev well.
SR Yoeli Childs — BYU
2019-20 Stats: 22.2 ppg, 8.9 rpg, 2.1 apg
It’s been one day since the WCC awards came out, and the outcries that Childs was snubbed for POY are already mounting. To be fair, by almost any statistical measure, Childs has had a superior season save for his absence due to suspension and injury. He is nigh-on unstoppable under the basket and doesn’t seem undersized at all despite being 6’8. Even more importantly, his physical presence demands doubles and frees up the Cougars’ shooters to tee off and open up the wings. Childs is the glue for this team. When he thrives, the entire BYU offensive machine speeds up.
SR Jordan Ford — Saint Mary’s
2019-2020 Stats: 21.2 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 2.4 apg
The Gaels ride Ford’s on-ball creativity heavily when the offense is stalling, and he is a workhorse in every sense of the word. He leads the NCAA in minutes played and leads the league in field goals attempts, and Saint Mary’s lives and dies by his performance for the most part. Lucky for them, for the most part, he’s been incredibly consistent, especially against the conference’s upper half.
He can do practically anything with the ball — he will punish defenders for overcommitting on the perimeter with slicing drives but also can shoot better than almost anyone in the conference. But Saint Mary’s plays best when Ford is deflecting attention with those drives and finding Malik Fitts down low. Gonzaga struggled to figure out how to stop him on Saturday when he went off for 28 points, and he’ll need to continue with performances like that if the Gaels want to make some noise.
SR Jahlil Tripp — Pacific
2019-2020 Stats: 15.8 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 2.0 apg
Pacific’s best player is now the WCC Defensive Player of the Year, and his physical defensive identity is representative of the way his team plays as a whole. As the league’s leader in total rebound percentage, Tripp forces his matchups to get involved in the paint and slow down fast-break opportunities.
He also draws the most fouls on Pacific and can get lead defenders in foul trouble early. Consequently, when Tripp is shutting down another team’s best perimeter player and making plays to keep the offense humming on the other end, the Tigers have a chance. It’s too early to count them out now.