Mid-Week Non-Conference

7:00 PM PST:
Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners at Santa Clara Broncos
Leavey Center, Santa Clara, California.
The Roadrunners are an independent (joining the WAC next season). They are 7-13 on the season, 1-9 on the road and are currently on a one game winning streak.
The Broncos are 14-6 on the season, 3-3 in WCC play, 9-4 at home and currently on a two game winning streak.
Radio: KDOW 1220 AM in the Bay Area, KERN 1180 AM in the Bakersfield/Kern County area.
Online: Live audio from KDOW and from KERN.

The start of conference play does not mark the end of the non-conference schedule. Tonight Santa Clara hosts one of Division 1's newest members, the independent Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners. The Roadrunners, once a power in Division 2, should pose no threat to the Broncos tonight. They've already suffered two setbacks to Loyola Marymount this season, and the Lions sit at the bottom of the WCC standings right now.



There are, including tonight's game, four non-conference games remaining on the WCC schedule. BYU will play Utah State on February 19th while both Saint Mary's and Loyola Marymount are participating in the Bracketbusters event on either February 22nd or 23rd. That leaves four more chances for teams to improve the WCC's non-conference win percentage which is currently .653.

If Santa Clara, BYU, LMU and Saint Mary's win each of their games the WCC's non-conference win percentage will improve to .664, if they all four lose it will drop to .633.

At .653 the WCC is ahead of the Atlantic 10 (.651), Conference USA (.635), Missouri Valley (.641) and Western Athletic Conference (.528). Of those leagues the A-10 and Missouri Valley sit in the spots immediately ahead of the WCC in ESPN's conference rankings while CUSA and the WAC sit one and three spots behind.

If the WCC moves to .664 they will not pass any other leagues but will come very close to a power conference. The SEC, which has a .669 non-conference win percentage, has the lowest of any BCS conference. It is conceivable then, if the WCC wins the four remaining games this season and has a winning record in the NCAA Tournament, that the WCC could finish the season with a higher win percentage than a power six conference not to mention the power six conference that produced the reigning national champion (considering that the reigning national champion is flirting with the NIT it's not farfetched in the least).

The WCC, barring some amazing miracle where Gonzaga, Saint Mary's and BYU all storm to the Final Four and one of the three wins the title, coupled with a conference-wide collapse in the first round from one of the following, can not pass the ACC (.756), Big 10 (.800), Mountain West (.792), Pac-12 (.730),  and Big East (.817).

For now, however, the WCC holds the highest win percentage of any non-BCS league other than the Mountain West. The .653 mark is the eighth best in the nation.