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Five-minute season preview: The West Coast Conference
Yahoo Sports will break down the top 10 leagues for the upcoming college basketball season working backward from No. 10 to No. 1. Here’s a look at our No. 10 league, the West Coast Conference.
Like Nick Saban’s facial expressions or Mike Krzyzewski’s hair color, the pecking order in the WCC never seems to change.
Gonzaga reigns over the conference, Saint Mary’s frequently rises up to mount a challenge, BYU rounds out the league’s top tier and the WCC’s seven other programs forlornly press their nose against the glass staring up at the Marquee Three.
No program besides Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s or BYU has reached the WCC title game in the past eight years. San Francisco’s second-place finish in 2014 is the only time any other team has cracked the top three in the WCC standings since BYU joined the league in 2011.
The chasm between the WCC’s top three and the best of the rest appears to be wider than ever this year. Whereas Gonzaga welcomes an exceptional crop of newcomers, Saint Mary’s returns everyone from a 29-win team and BYU is loaded with young talent, four of the league’s other seven programs changed coaches this past spring.
Gonzaga should be the preseason favorite despite losing four starters from last year’s 28-win Sweet 16 team including lottery pick Domantas Sabonis, 20-point scorer Kyle Wiltjer and league defensive player of the year Eric McClellan. The optimism stems from a legion of transfers and freshmen that are as promising as any group of newcomers Mark Few has welcomed.
Washington transfer Nigel Williams-Goss is a former McDonald’s All-American who averaged 15.6 points and 5.9 assists during his sophomore season with the Huskies. The 6-foot-3 junior is expected to play side by side with Gonzaga’s incumbent point guard Josh Perkins, giving the Zags two starting guards who can initiate the offense, knock down jumpers or make plays for themselves or their teammates off the dribble.
Adding to the strength of the Gonzaga backcourt is Jordan Mathews, a graduate transfer who averaged 13.5 points per game at Cal last season and shot 41.6 percent from behind the arc. His shooting will space the floor for Gonzaga, while college-ready freshman Zach Norvell and defensive standout Silas Melson will likely carve out playing time off the bench.
How well mammoth 7-footer Przemek Karnowski rebounds from back surgery will be key to Gonzaga’s frontcourt outlook. If he’s healthy enough to play heavy minutes, he’ll man the middle for the Zags alongside Missouri transfer Johnathan Williams III, enabling Few to bring McDonald’s All-American 7-footer Zach Collins along slowly off the bench.
The team best equipped to challenge Gonzaga is Saint Mary’s, which could join the Zags in the preseason Top 25. The Gaels should be even better than they were last year when they shared the WCC regular season title with Gonzaga yet missed the NCAA tournament because of a soft non-conference schedule featuring no out-of-state games.
All five starters return including the all-conference backcourt of playmakers Emmett Naar and James Rahon and last year’s top big man Dane Pineau. There’s depth in the froncourt, shooters throughout the roster and enough talent and experience that it would be a disappointment if Saint Mary’s has to settle for a fourth straight NIT bid.
It’s a testament to Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s that BYU is the league’s consensus third-best team. The Cougars will miss do-everything Kyle Collinsworth and elite shooter Chase Fischer, yet an influx of talent gives them a chance to be better than last year’s 26-win team was.
Sophomore guard Nick Emery is fearless and gifted scorer who should emerge as the centerpiece of BYU’s typically high-octane offense. T.J. Haws is the younger, more heralded brother of former Cougars star Tyler Haws. And Eric Mika returns from his mission eager to anchor the frontcourt and improve on his 2013-14 averages of 11.8 points and 6.4 rebounds.
The questions facing BYU are whether it can find a steadying influence at point guard to replace Collinsworth and whether it can build on last season’s gradual improvement on defense. The Cougars will also need their numerous newcomers and returning missionaries to mesh quickly so they can build a NCAA tournament-caliber resume in November and December and leave themselves some margin for error in conference play.
There’s no obvious candidate to break up the Gonzaga-Saint Mary’s-BYU trio this season, but Santa Clara and Pepperdine could be the best of the rest. The Broncos need a frontcourt to emerge in support of all-conference guard Jared Brownridge and promising point guard K.J. Feagin, while the Waves will try not to take a step backward despite the graduation of three-time all-WCC standout Stacy Davis.
WEST COAST CONFERENCE PROJECTIONS
1. Gonzaga
2. Saint Mary’s
3. BYU
4. Santa Clara
5. Pepperdine
6. Portland
7. Loyola Marymount
8. San Francisco
9. Pacific
10. San Diego
FIRST-TEAM ALL-WCC
G Emmett Naar, Jr., Saint Mary’s
G Nigel Williams-Goss, Jr., Gonzaga
G Nick Emery, So., BYU
G Jared Brownridge, Sr., Santa Clara
C Przemek Karnowski, Sr., Gonzaga
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Nigel Williams-Goss, Gonzaga
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: T.J. Haws, BYU
MAKING A LIST
Best shooter: Jordan Mathews (Gonzaga). Mathews averaged 13.5 points per game last season, shot 41.6 percent from behind the arc and would have been Cal’s leading returning scorer had he opted to come back. The 6-foot-3 graduate transfer instead could be a perfect fit at Gonzaga, where his outside shooting ability will punish opposing defenses who collapse on Przemek Karnowski on the block or Nigel Williams-Goss and Josh Perkins off the dribble.
Best playmaker: Emmett Naar (Saint Mary’s). Nobody in the WCC made better decisions with the ball in his hands last season than Naar, who scored 14 points per game and tallied nearly three times as many assists as turnovers. The 6-foot-1 Australia native is also one of the league’s most reliable outside shooters, enabling him to punish defenders who sag too far off him to keep him from beating them off the dribble.
Best defender: Dane Pineau (Saint Mary’s). One of the biggest reasons typically offense-oriented Saint Mary’s cracked the top 100 defensively last year was the presence of Pineau in the paint. The 6-foot-9 Aussie forward finished fourth in the WCC in rebounding, checked in second in blocked shots and played solid post defense. He also was an efficient scorer from inside eight feet at the other end of the floor.
Top NBA prospect: Zach Collins (Gonzaga). Collins, Rivals.com’s No. 21 prospect in the 2016 class, is a mobile 7-foot center with the ability to impact a game in a number of ways. The McDonald’s All-American runs the floor well, rebounds effectively and is comfortable facing up or scoring with his back to the basket. Collins will likely come off the bench behind Przemek Karnowski this season, but his size and skill give him a chance to impress NBA scouts in a couple years.
Best backcourt: Gonzaga. While Saint Mary’s returns the conference’s best backcourt from last season, Gonzaga’s new additions give the Zags a slight leg up. Washington transfer Nigel Williams-Goss provides a second playmaker and scoring point guard along with Josh Perkins, while Mathews’ outside shooting should help free up driving lanes for his teammates. Six-foot-4 junior Silas Melson makes up for a wayward jump shot with tenacious on-ball defense, while Zach Norvell is a college-ready freshman wing.
Best frontcourt: Gonzaga. The news that Przemek Karnowski has been cleared to practice is vitally important for Gonzaga. The space-eating 7-foot-1 senior, who was felled by a back injury a few games into last season, provides the Zags with a formidable low-post scorer, rebounder and rim protector. Starting alongside Karnowski will be Johnathan Williams III, a 6-foot-9 transfer who averaged 11.9 points and 7.1 rebounds his final season at Missouri. McDonald’s All-American Zach Collins and skilled French forward Killian Tillie will provide depth, as will veteran 7-footer Ryan Edwards.
Best recruiting class: Gonzaga. In addition to Gonzaga’s three marquee transfers, the Zags also landed an exceptional freshman class. The 7-foot Collins could be Mark Few’s next elite big man because of his size and shooting ability. French face-up forward Killian Tillie is one of the better international prospects in the 2016 class and Norvell bring size, toughness and shooting ability at wing. Gonzaga can afford to be patient with international big men Rui Hachimura and Jacob Larsen.
Coach on the rise: San Francisco’s Kyle Smith. While Smith is making his San Francisco debut this season, his recent track record is impressive. He won 101 games in six years at Columbia, capped by a 25-win season and a CIT championship last spring. He also is very familiar with the WCC, having spent time as an assistant at Saint Mary’s from 2001-10 and before that at San Diego.
Coach on the hot seat: None. Of the seven programs chasing Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s and BYU, four made coaching changes last spring. That leaves second-year San Diego coach Lamont Smith, third-year LMU coach Mike Dunlap and sixth-year Pepperdine coach Marty Wilson. Smith will get more time to rebuild the Toreros, Dunlap has made gradual headway with the Lions and while Wilson might have missed his best chance to crack the top three in the league last season, the Waves have finished in the upper half three straight years.
FACTS AND FIGURES
New coaches: Damon Stoudamire (Pacific), Terry Porter (Portland), Kyle Smith (San Francisco), Herb Sendek (Santa Clara)
Regular-season winner last season: Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s
Tourney winner last season: Gonzaga
League RPI rank in each of past 3 seasons: 2015-16: 14th, 2014-15: 9th, 2013-14: 9th
NCAA bids the past three seasons: 5 (Gonzaga 3, BYU 2)
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
