WCC Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2020-21 season

By Nick Raponi | Sep 17, 2020

LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 06: A logo for the West Coast Conference basketball tournament is shown on the court before the championship game between the Brigham Young Cougars and the Gonzaga Bulldogs at the Orleans Arena on March 6, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Bulldogs won 74-54. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – MARCH 10: Joel Ayayi #11 of the Gonzaga Bulldogs (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

Last season was collectively one of the best for WCC Basketball. How do the teams look for the upcoming 2020-21 season?

Over the past two decades, or so, WCC Basketball has always been known as a one-bid conference, sending only one team to the big dance come March. Aside from a few outliner seasons where two teams made the NCAA tournament, Gonzaga or Saint Mary’s has been the sole representative in the majority of cases.

However, in both the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 seasons, the caliber of basketball shot up considerably throughout the conference. The WCC bolstered three considerably strong teams, all of which were pretty well locked in to make the NCAA tournament and could have easily made a run. These three teams, Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s, and Brigham Young, are all looking strong yet again for the 2020-2021 season and are expected to do some damage.

Though the top three teams are pretty well guaranteed to finish first, second, and third in some order, the quality of basketball is beneath those three has also increased drastically. Five teams won 20+ games during the 2019-2020 season, a feat that had never been accomplished before last season.

While there are still countless reasons to be optimistic about the overall strength of the conference, a few teams also lost some quality players, one of which is the San Francisco Don’s losing standout guard Charles Minlend to Louisville via grad transfer. Will some of the mid-tier WCC teams be able to bounce back and/or improve upon their departures? Here’s a look at what we think will be the projected standings for the WCC come season end.