WCC Basketball: San Francisco rise, Gonzaga drops in latest power rankings

6. Portland Pilots - 7-11 (1-2)

The Pilots opened league play with a 78-64 win over Pacific, led by 19 points, nine rebounds, and eight steals from star guard Tyler Robertson. Tyler Harris, a freshman impact player who is second on the team in scoring, had 16 points on 7/13 shooting. They followed that up with losses to Saint Mary’s and San Francisco by 30+ points each.

Portland takes on San Diego at home in a battle of the lower-tier teams in the conference. The Pilots will need to get that victory because road battles with Santa Clara and LMU will follow.

5. LMU Lions - 8-9 (1-2)

LMU nicely represents the line between the “good” and “bad” teams in the WCC. The question is which good are they closer to? They lost to Santa Clara and Saint Mary’s at home to open league play, though the Gaels' loss was by just four points. The Lions did beat Pacific by 17 points last week, including 21 points from Dominick Harris and 22 points and nine rebounds from Justin Wright off the bench.

LMU goes on the road this week to take on San Francisco and Pepperdine, looking to get at least a split. They’ve been much more competitive against the top teams compared to the bottom tier but now we’ll see how they do away from home.