Loyola Marymount advanced to the second round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament tonight with an 88-79 win over Cal State Fullerton. This is the Lions first postseason win since the 1989-90 team that threw up over a hundred points a game in the NCAA tournament. More importantly, Loyola Marymount (20-14) joins San Francisco (20-12), Brigham Young (26-8), Gonzaga (25-6), and Saint Mary's (27-5) with 20 or more wins on the season. The WCC has never had 5 teams with 20 wins in a season.
4 teams have finished with 20 wins only once in conference history (1988-89). As recently as 2005-06 Gonzaga was the only WCC team to crack the 20 win threshold when they finished 29-4, San Diego was next best with 18.
I've been saying the WCC is truly a conference on the rise all season long in my posts... and for a few years before I started this blog thanks to the Gaels ascent to perennial bubble team. This year though the WCC added Brigham Young, who are competing in their 6th straight NCAA tournament. It is worth noting though that even without the Cougars there are 4 teams in the conference with 20 wins, and that had only happened once before as I stated above. It's also worth noting that the worst team in the league this season, 0-17 in WCC play Santa Clara, won last year the very same CIT post season tournament that LMU is competing in this year. The Broncos would have been a much better team had Evan Roquemore not gone down with an season ending knee injury in the preseason and Kevin Foster not been involved in a DUI case. While this season is still active I can't help imagine how great the next few will be in the West Coast Conference.
Loyola Marymount advances to the second round of the CIT and will host Weber State (25-6, 2nd Big Sky) on Sunday at 3pm PDT.
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