Countdown 10/16/13

23 days remain...

Countdown 9/14/13

56 days remain...

Last Saturday I posted the second Gonzaga at BYU game of the Cougars' time in the WCC. Today gets the first. BYU fans should be more satisfied with this one.

Countdown 8/31/13

70 days remain...

It's a long weekend so you've got some time to kill. If you're not going to watch the BYU football game you might as well watch a BYU basketball game. So, here for your enjoyment, is the first conference game that the Cougars played as members of the WCC.

Countdown 8/10/13

91 days remain...

It's Saturday so kick back and relax with a full game of WCC basketball.
Video courtesy of BYUtv Sports.

Win Total Forecast

As of today the average number of conference games played by WCC teams is 7.111. Is that number important? Not as far as I can tell. It's just a good time to take a look at how things were at this nearly mid-point last season and compare them with the season we're going through right now.

20 win teams:

Last season, for the first time ever, five WCC teams had 20+ win seasons. At this point in the season that didn't look too probable. How does this season compare?

(Through seven conference games)

Thanksgiving Weekend's Second Act

Quick recaps of the WCC action from Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A more editorial, in depth look will follow as there is much to be learned from the Thanksgiving weekend action. The WCC went 7-4 during the Friday-Sunday span with every team taking the court in that time. Even future member Pacific got involved (and spoiled what was supposed to be an Orange County party).

Preseason Predictions: First Place

#1 Gonzaga Bulldogs

2011-12 Record: 26-7 (13-3) 2nd WCC, RPI: 25

NCAA Tournament Round of 32, 7 seed.

2011-12 Recap: 

Gonzaga entered last season in a strange position, they weren't the outright owners of the WCC regular season title, that would end up being an omen.

They had to replace two starters in the backcourt, and it didn't take long to accomplish that. In the second game of the season, Against local rival Washington State to start the ESPN Tip Off Marathon the 1-0 Zags started Kevin Pangos at point. He had 33 points and made nine three pointers in the contest, catapulting himself into the national hoops mainstream. Soon after he was joined in the starting lineup by fellow freshman Gary Bell Jr.

The Zags won their first five games, but most were painfully close down the stretch. They played Hawaii in Vancouver to honor fifth year senior Robert Sacre, as he is from North Vancouver. The fifth game, against Notre Dame in the Kennel, was a blowout twenty point victory for the Zags to push them to 5-0.

In an unusual start to the season that saw Gonzaga play no road games in the month of November, with only one game (the Vancouver game) not taking place in the Kennel. Even a big time program, Notre Dame, agreed to play on campus. Gonzaga's former anybody-anywhere approach to scheduling was being phased out it seemed, as they were able to draw the big programs to Spokane unlike in the past. On the flip side of that, the negative of playing so many home games is an inability to build toughness. That was evident in the Zags first road game of the season.

On December 3rd the Zags faced Illinois in Champaign's hostile, 16,600 seat Assembly Hall.  The Illini beat the Zags 72-65 in a game that saw Robert Sacre foul out while trying to battle Meyers Leonard in the paint. Leonard would be the 11th pick in the NBA draft and Sacre the 60th (and final). The Illini entered the top-25 with the win. A week later Michigan State did the same, but this time at the Kennel. The Spartans added a game to Gonzaga's losing streak, making it a two game streak and technically turning it from a single loss to a streak of losses, as well as to the Zags all time record at the McCarthey Athletic Center, bringing their loss total to seven. The Zags sat at 6-2 after the 74-67 loss to the Spartans.

That short streak was followed by a long one, an eight game winning streak. Starting with a win at home over Oral Roberts. Then, in the Battle in Seattle, an 11 point win over Arizona for bragging rights as "best in the west". Another bragging rights game, "best Bulldogs", "best mid-major", "best Cinderella", came against Butler on December 20th. The Zags beat the Bulldogs soundly, 71-55. That was followed by a 10 point win over Air Force.

The Zags entered WCC play at 9-2 and had played only one true road game. They opened the WCC season on December 28th against Portland by blowing the pilots out in Spokane 90-51. Incidentally I ran into David Stockton at Atilano's Mexican restaurant after the game. Unfortunately I was not operating this blog at the time so our conversation was far less substantive than it could have been.

On New Years Eve the Zags took an early break from WCC play with a trip to Cincinatti to face Xavier. Sam Dower had a breakout game on national TV and the Zags beat the Musketeers, in another battle for "best mid-major", 72-65. Gary Bell showed his incredible defensive ability by holding then all-American candidate Tu Holloway to just two points. At the start of 2012 the Zags were 11-2. 

Santa Clara came to town for the Zags first game of the new year and got beat down by 22.

The Zags winning streak ended in brutal form at Saint Mary's, with an 83-62 loss to the Gaels. Another omen, the Gaels now had wins over both BYU and Gonzaga and sat alone atop the conference standings.
The Zags bounced back with wins over Loyola Marymount, San Diego, San Francisco and Portland and took a four game win streak into their first trip to Provo and the Marriott Center. The Cougars had three losses already in WCC play. Two of which were at home including a loss to Saint Mary's in their previous game that gave the Gaels the season sweep. BYU bounced back from their losses and kept themselves in the WCC title hunt with an 83-73 win over Gonzaga. Gonzaga now sat two games back of Saint Mary's in the standings and only one above the Cougars.

Another four game winning streak followed. The second win in that streak was critical. The Gaels, ranked #13, came to Spokane, and left bruised from a 73-59 revenge beatdown. Gonzaga stayed alive in the WCC title hunt thanks to a season split with the Gaels. Loyola Marymount would go on to beat Saint Mary's to put the Zags into a tie with Saint Mary's for first place. 

Unfortunately for the Zags, San Francisco still had to be faced on the Hilltop. Gonzaga has been unable to win much at San Francisco and this year was no different. The only difference being the loss put ownership of the WCC title out of Gonzaga's hands. San Francisco won 66-65 thanks to a last second bucket.

In the Zags next game they got revenge on BYU with a 74-63 win in Spokane. Finishing up WCC play with a win over San Diego, the Zags were 23-5, 13-3 in WCC play, and for the first time since 2000, did not own at least a share of the WCC regular season title.

In the WCC tournament the Zags faced BYU in their first game and beat the Cougars once again, this time 77-58. Gonzaga faced rival Saint Mary's in the WCC Tournament Final. This time it was Saint Mary's with the upper hand, for the first time ever. Gonzaga's historic streak was on the line. The game was a classic in the rapidly developing rivalry. Elias Harris hit a three at the end of regulation to send the game into overtime but Saint Mary's was too much, and they won 78-74. 

Gonzaga entered Selection Sunday at 25-6. They drew a 7 seed and were sent to face 10 seed West Virginia in Pittsburgh, PA. The Mountaineers, with the worse seed, were playing just over an hour from their campus while Gonzaga was playing across the country. The Zags beat up on the Big East representative with a 77-54.
The Win resulted in a round of 32 match up with 2 seed Ohio State. The Zags had the lead over the Buckeyes for most of the first half. Jared Sullenger, The Ohio State University's highly touted big man who surprisingly returned for his sophomore season, was held in check pretty well. At the half the Buckeyes had a two point lead. For the first ten minutes of the second period the Buckeyes pulled away but Gonzaga made a run to close the lead to two with six minutes remaining. Gary Bell hit an extremely tough, well defended three with 12 seconds left to cut the lead to four but the Buckeyes would hit some free throws and push the lead to seven. The Zags lost 73-66 but had a lot to be happy about going forward.

Preseason Predictions: Second Place

#2 Brigham Young Cougars

2011-12 Record: 26-9 (12-4) 3rd WCC, RPI: 46.

Postseason: NCAA Round of 64, 14 seed.

2011-12 Recap:

Things were a lot different this time last year in Provo. Jimmer Fredette, national player of the year and scoring leader, was gone. Also gone were the Mountain West logos on the floor of the Marriott Center. Despite the massive changes in store for the 2011-12 Cougars expectations were high. National, regional and beat writers, along with fans, bloggers and anybody else who was aware that BYU was moving to the WCC, expected them to compete with Gonzaga for the league crown in their first year. Fans, who seemed more faithful than anyone else (though this is anecdotal and based mostly on article from Bleacher Report and comments on ESPN and the like) figured that the 22,000 seat Marriott Center would intimidate the teams from gyms of a couple thousand and BYU would run through this league so inferior to the MWC or the Big-12 they dreamed of joining.
Instead the Cougars did what any team losing the player of the year and moving to a new environment would, rebuilt and stumbled.
The Cougars stumbled out of the gate with a loss at in state rival Utah State. A four game win streak followed until the Cougars fell, in Chicago, to then #11 Wisconsin in their backyard. The Cougars sat at 4-2 but neither loss was a bad loss. Another four game win streak followed, including two wins over Pac-12 squads (Oregon and Utah) and two wins over in state rivals (Utah and Weber State). For the second time in the season the Cougars four game winning streak would be ended by a ranked opponent, this time it was #6 Baylor in Provo. The three point loss was the first game in which Matt Carlino, a sophomore transfer from UCLA, was able to play.
The now full strength Cougars ended non-conference play with three straight wins. Entering WCC play at 11-3 with no bad losses and two of three losses coming to teams ranked in the top 25, BYU looked pretty good. Then, leaving the gargantuan Marriott Center for the cozy, 3,500 seat McKeon Pavillion in Moraga, BYU fell apart. Saint Mary's thrashed the Cougars 98-82, showing both the team and their legions of faithful that the WCC was no joke and the small arenas can be just as if not more intimidating than the large ones of the Mountain West.
To stay up with the WCC's big boys the Cougars followed the loss with wins over San Diego, Loyola Marymount, San Francisco, Santa Clara and San Diego again. Loyola Marymount was the only team to put up a real fight.

Preseason Predictions: Third Place

#3 Saint Mary's Gaels

2011-12 Record: 27-6 (14-2) 1st WCC, RPI: 28

NCAA Tournament Round of 64

2011-12 Recap:

In March of 2011 the Gaels were half way to their goal. They earned a share of the WCC title with Gonzaga. They didn't win it outright, but they proved they could be at least as good as the team that had run the conference for over a decade.

The Gaels opened the 2011-12 season with two straight wins. First over non-D-1 Sonoma State and then, in what would become uncharacteristic, a low scoring 57-41 win over the solid mid-major Northern Iowa. Those were followed by the first road game of the season and the first loss of the season, 70-58 at Denver. Randy Bennett's weak scheduling came into full effect and the Gaels ran off an eight game win streak. The only quality opponent in that streak was Weber State. Streaks must end, and for the Gaels the end came at the hands of then #7 Baylor in Las Vegas. The Gaels won their next game to finish the non-conference part of the season at 11-2. No bad losses but no big wins.

To open WCC play the Gaels welcomed the BYU Cougars to Moraga for their first ever WCC game. It was a rude welcome for the Cougars, who were blown out 98-82. A few games later the Gaels welcomed then #23 Gonzaga to McKeon Pavillion and blew them out 83-62. Then, a month after the first BYU match up the Gaels once again beat down BYU, this time in a gym nearly 10 times the size of McKeon Pavillion, 80-66. A twelfth win followed, this time over San Diego, pushing the Gaels to 22-2 and 11-0 in conference play. They sat at #16 in the polls at the start of February.

At this point in the season the Gaels started to stumble. First, on February 9th in Spokane, Gonzaga exacted revenge and beat the Gaels 73-59. Saint Mary's rebounded at awful Santa Clara in their next game but the rebound didn't last long. Two straight losses followed, at home by 15 to Loyola Marymount and then on the road at Murray State, then #14, in a Bracketbusters game. The Gaels offense looked hapless in the 65-51 loss.
The Gaels closed out WCC play with four straight wins, two to end the regular season and two in the WCC tournament. The championship game, which cemented total ownership of the WCC for Saint Mary's was an overtime thriller against, you guessed it, Gonzaga. In the NCAA tournament the Gaels were awarded a 7 seed and sent to Omaha to face 10 seed Purdue. Rob Jones recorded his 20th double-double of the season but it would also be his last as a Gael, as his team fell to the Boilermakers 72-69.

Preseason Predictions: Fourth Place

#4 Loyola Marymount Lions

2011-12 Record: 21-13 (11-5) 4th WCC, RPI: 117

Postseason: CIT Second Round

2011-12 Recap:

The Lions were coming off an awful 2010-11 WCC campaign that saw only two wins. They immediately showed that 2011-12 would be different with an 11 point victory at then #20 UCLA in their season opener. While they would drop their next two games the Lions got back in the win column with three straight wins. Their third straight came against then #25 Saint Louis, it was a seven point victory over a Billikens squad that beat Memphis in the NCAA tournament before falling to 1 seed Michigan State. 

As was the case all season for the Lions they would continue to drop games they should win and grab upsets they shouldn't. They entered WCC play one game over .500 at 7-6, though two of those wins came against non-D-1 schools. Another year long trend for the Lions was being a better team on the road. Through their first eight WCC games the Lions lost three, all at home, and won their five road games. One of those road wins was season defining, an 82-68 pounding of BYU in Provo. During that stretch they lost both their first games against the Zags and Gaels, which were ranked #23 and #20 respectively. After the Saint Mary's loss the Lions went on a four game winning streak which included a season sweep of the closest team behind them, San Francisco, and saw them win three games at home (their first home win against a D-1 team since December 10th when they beat Idaho State).
The winning streak was snapped by Gonzaga. The Lions stood at 16-9 before the loss, 9-3 in WCC play which had them tied with BYU for third. They then beat #16 Saint Mary's in Moraga 75-60, picking up a season split with two of the league's top three teams. The next game, an ESPN Bracket Busters match-up against Valparaiso, saw the Lions win once again. It was a real possibility, at this point in late February, that LMU could make the big dance without costing BYU, Gonzaga or Saint Mary's an at-large bid. That thought was shortlived as the Lions dropped a home game to San Diego in their next game.

The Lions entered the WCC tournament with a bye into the quarterfinals and sitting at 19 wins, poised to become the fourth WCC team to win 20 games. They fell to a resurgent San Francisco team by seven. Their 20 win hopes remained intact though thanks to an invitation to the postseason CIT. The Lions won two games, to finish with 21 wins, in the CIT, including a victory over now NBA Rookie of the Year candidate Damian Lillard and his Weber State Wildcats. They weren't able to outplay a second Utah team though, as Utah State ended the Lions season in the CIT quarterfinal.

Preseason Predictions: Fifth Place

#5 San Diego Toreros

2011-12 Record: 13-18 (7-9) 6th WCC, RPI: 193

2011-12 Recap:

San Diego entered last season as an extremly green team. Of their 14 players 11 were freshmen, one was a sophomore and the only one was a senior. Two of those freshmen, guards Christopher Anderson and Johnny Dee, became the Toreros starting backcourt and quietly had very productive seasons.

The inexperienced Toreros opened the season 4-1 with the loss coming to a Montana team that would make the NCAA tournament. Two of the wins, however, came against non-D-1 squads. That was followed by a three game losing streak capped off by a 12 point home loss to intracity rival San Diego State. The Toreros then picked up a win over Maine to stay above .500 but went on another three game losing streak to enter WCC play at 5-7.

The losing streak extended to six with losses to BYU, Loyola Marymount and Saint Mary's before the Toreros faced the to-be-winless Broncos of Santa Clara. All but one of the Toreros WCC wins came via season sweeps of Santa Clara, Portland and Pepperdine, the three teams that finished below them in the standings. San Diego's only other conference win came at Loyola Marymount in the last weekend of the regular season. LMU was a strange team that played significantly better on the road last season, but none the less that was San Diego's best win of the season.

The Toreros took the third game against Pepperdine in their first game of the WCC tournament before falling by only five points to BYU in the quarterfinals.

Preseason Predictions: Sixth Place

#6 San Francisco Dons

2011-12 Record: 20-14 (8-8) 5th WCC RPI: 136
Postseason: CBI First Round.

2011-12 Recap: 

Last season was up and down for the Dons. They lost their first game to North Dakota State but followed that loss with a five game winning streak. On Friday, November 25th, in Anchorage, Alaska for the Great Alaska Shootout the Dons came fell to Murray State 67-70 for their second loss of the season. A late game surge that brought them within one point with under a minute to play nearly derailed the Racers magical season. Had the Dons managed to put up four more points the Racers wouldn't have been the last unbeaten team in the land and Isaiah Cannan would still be a relative unknown.

Entering WCC play at 9-4 the Dons lost four straight games and found themselves at the bottom of the conference despite having a winning record overall. Three of those four losses came to BYU, LMU and Saint Mary's, all of which finished above the Dons in the final standings. By the end of January the Dons sat at 5-5 in WCC play. Though their .500 record doesn't show it, thanks mostly to dropping four straight to open the season, the Dons had a late season surge that propelled them into the postseason. On February 16th the Dons fell by one point at the end of the game to BYU. That loss was followed up by a one point win at the end of the game against  24th ranked Gonzaga, which essentially ended the Zags streak of conference titles. Then the Dons played the third game in a row against a team which would make the NCAA tournament when they hosted 23rd ranked Saint Mary's on February 25th. The game was a battle all night long with the Dons and Gaels trading leads in the first half but the Gaels managed to pull ahead late for a 67-60 win. Despite going only one for three in those games the Dons showed they could hang with the big boys. 

In the WCC Tournament the Dons breezed past Portland in their first game and then upset Loyola Marymount, the cinderella of last season, in the Quarterfinals. That win gave the Dons 20 on the season and made them the fourth WCC team to reach that mark. In the Semis the Dons once again battled with the Gaels but once again came up short at the end 83-78. Cody Doolin fueled the late season surge and put up 28 points to lead all scorers in the loss.

San Francisco received an invitation to the CBI postseason tournament where they fell to eventual runner up Washington State in the first game. Despite the loss things were looking good for the future of this once dominant program.

Preseason Predictions: Seventh Place

#7 Santa Clara Broncos

2011-12 Record: 8-22 (0-16) 9th WCC, RPI: 304.

2011-2012 Recap:

Last season got off to a bad start before it even began for the Broncos. During an exhibition game in Vancouver, British Columbia, Marc Trasolini tore his ACL ruining his homecoming and forcing him to redshirt his senior season. It became clear that this team would not repeat the 24 wins and CIT championship of 2010-11, but nobody expected things to play out the way they did.

Kevin Foster and Evan Roquemore picked up the slack and led the Broncos through the non-conference portion of the season. With wins over New Mexico and Villanova the Broncos entered WCC play looking strong despite the loss of Trasolini. They were 8-5 at the time, coming off a loss against a solid Wagner team when they began the WCC slate in Portland. They lost that game in Portland by only two points, they would lose every game from then on by wider margins.

On January 21st Broncos hosted Bay Area rivals Saint Mary's and lost, again, 93-77. Kevin Foster, the WCC's leading scorer put up 22 points in the loss. That game would be his last on the season, as Foster was arrested for DUI and suspended for the remainder of the season. With both leaders out for the season the hobbled Broncos limped to the finish. Their last game, the WCC Tournament play in game against Portland, would be their final defeat of the season. What began with a promising non-conference record ended at the bottom of the WCC and nowhere to go but up.

Preseason Predictions: Eighth Place

#8 Portland Pilots

2011-12 Record: 7-24 (3-13) 8th WCC, RPI: 238

2011-12 Recap:

The Pilots entered last season having won 20 games the past two seasons and making the postseason CIT the past three. They had looked to be the team to challenge the big three atop the league. Coach Eric Reveno decided to pull an early-2000s-Zags and play an anybody/anywhere non-conference schedule. The Pilots played an insane number of teams that made the postseason, and did so in this order: Georgia State, at Washington, Washington State, at UC Santa Barbara, at Kentucky, at Saint Louis, Ohio, Montana and at Nevada. They also played three other teams, those three others were the only three teams in the Pilots non-conference schedule not to make the postseason. Of those teams named the only win the Pilots managed was against Georgia State.
Last year the Pilots were a young squad, having lost most of the players who led them to 19, 20 and 20 wins in the prior seasons. Apparently that schedule was too grueling for the young team and they wilted away during league play. Other than sweeping winless Santa Clara the Pilots only win in WCC play was against a Pepperdine squad that managed only four WCC wins. The Pilots beat Santa Clara by four points in the WCC Tournament play in game before falling to San Francisco 66-87.

Preseason Prediction: Ninth Place

#9 Pepperdine Waves
2011-12 Record: 10-19 (4-12, 7th WCC) RPI: 272

2011-12 Recap:

First year coach Marty Wilson took over a struggling and stagnant Waves program that had failed to achieve a winning season since 2004-05. The Waves took a small step backwards in the win column, losing two more games than in the prior season. In their first game against a D-1 opponent Pepperdine helped make the case that the WCC was the best league out west with a victory over the Pac-12's Arizona State, 66-60 in Tempe, on November 15th. From there the Waves lost their two remaining contests with Pac-12 foes, at UCLA and vs. Washington State in Seattle. Despite their losing record against the Pac-12 the Waves entered WCC play one game above .500. Pepperdine convincingly beat San Francisco at home to open conference play but followed that up with an eight game losing streak. Their only other wins on the season came against the two teams that would finish below them in the standings, Santa Clara and Portland. The Waves swept the Broncos but split with the Pilots. In the WCC Tournament Pepperdine was dispatched by San Diego 54-76 in their first game. Four Waves went down with season ending injuries last season but three will return for this season.

Countdown 10/23

17 days remain...

With each passing day not only does the season get closer but the hype gets bigger. Today ESPN published a whole mountain of articles on the WCC. Previews, predictions, team overviews, rankings, lists etc. Many of these require a subscription to ESPN.com Insider to view like the team overviews, but the Gaels' is free for all to see. Fill your brain with this and be satisfied for a day.

Here's the main page on ESPN.com for the WCC content.

Countdown 10/20

19 days remain...

This year's Kraziness in the Kennel is going on right now so, here's last year's introduction. Listen to all the countries represented.

Countdown 10/19

20 days remain...

How much with the Gaels miss this guy next season?

Countdown 10/11

28 days remain...

The end of the 2012 WCC Championship game. The end of Gonzaga's streak of winning, in some form, the WCC crown.

Countdown 10/7

32 days remain.

Here's a video from before the start of last season featuring interviews with the USF backcourt. Cody Doolin, the WCC's most underrated point guard, looks to keep the seriously depleted Dons trending upward. Doolin is the only player in this video returning for this season. His performances late in the season and during the WCC Tournament were among the best by any floor general in the WCC last season. If the Dons are to stay afloat in this league Doolin will be the reason.