WCC Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2023-24 season
By Tuck Clarry
There’s a lot of movement going on throughout college basketball, and look no further than WCC Basketball to see the effects of those changing winds. That movement includes the turnstile nature of the transfer portal, with nearly every school on the left coast impacted (kudos to you, Saint Mary’s and Randy Bennett). But there’s also the looming ramifications of college football’s broadcast turf war that sees a Pac-12 conference likely getting shuttered and the Big 12 sucking all reputable markets up in a way that would make Daniel Plainview blush.
BYU, a perennial contender yet never victor, has bounced to the aforementioned Big 12, leaving the WCC with just 9 teams and the top two teams with one less quality win opportunity in conference play. That move leaves teams like Gonzaga (25 straight tournament appearances) and Saint Mary’s (3 appearances in the last 4 tournaments) on shaky ground. Shaky enough that Gonzaga speaking to Power 6 conferences has been an underlying storyline for two straight offseasons. Will they or won’t they?
It’s a shame, too, because the consistency of the conference from top to bottom really has been the best it’s ever been. After a three-bid season, the WCC followed up with a year of plenty of parity and an abundance of talent, culminating in three players taken in the NBA Draft–and only one of them was a Zag!
This season has plenty of narratives to keep the league compelling late-night hoops. Is this the year that Saint Mary’s wins the league undisputed? What does Gonzaga look like without Drew Timme and without the level of recruits Zag Nation has become accustomed to? Can Herb Sendek pull magic out of a hat again and develop another elite playmaker like he did with Jalen Williams and Brandin Podziemski? What does San Francisco look like now without either of their electric point guards we’d seen on the hilltop for half of a decade? What does a third year for head coach Shantay Legans and Portland look like after a disappointing second season? Considering the ebbs and flows, what is year four for LMU coached by Stan Johnson?
And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Here is a preview of all nine teams of the WCC and what we can look forward to this season.