Game Day Info 11/30

7:00 PM PST:

San Francisco Dons vs. Montana Grizzlies
War Memorial Gymnasium, San Francisco, California.
San Francisco is 3-1 on the season. They are on a three game winning streak and 2-0 at home.
Montana hails from the Big Sky Conference. They are 3-2 on the season, on a one game losing streak and 1-2 on the road.
Online: Live audio from Montana Athletics.

Game Day Info 11/29

6:00 PM PST:

#12 Gonzaga Bulldogs vs. Lewis Clark State Warriors (NAIA)
McCarthey Athletic Center, Spokane, Washington.
Gonzaga is 6-0 so far this season and 3-0 at home.
Lewis Clark State is located in Lewiston, ID and is 9-0 on the season.
TV: KHQ in the Inland Northwest and Root Sports NW in the greater Northwest region.
Radio: AM 1510 KGA in the Inland Northwest.
Online: Live Audio from KGA.

7:00 PM PST:

Pepperdine Waves at Montana State Bobcats
Worthington Arena, Bozeman, Montana.
Pepperdine is 3-2 so far this season. They are on a three game winning streak and 1-2 on the road.
Montana State hails from the Big Sky Conference. They 1-3 on the season, on a two game losing streak and 1-0 at home.
Online: Live Audio from KMMS AM in Bozeman.

Loyola Marymount Lions vs. Long Beach State 49ers
Gersten Pavillion, Los Angeles, California.
LMU is 3-2 so far this season. They are on a one game winning streak and 1-0 at home.
Long Beach State is 2-3 so far this season. They are on a one game winning streak and are 1-2 on the road.
Radio: KXLU 88.9 FM in Los Angeles
Online: Live audio from KXLU.

Rankings Roundup

With Monday comes the release of the weekly AP and Coaches Polls. Here are how the top WCC teams fare in those highly publicized polls along with selected other rankings.

• Gonzaga (6-0): 20th RPI, 12th AP, 12th Coaches, 10th ESPN, 9th CBS, 5th Sagarin, 2nd Pomeroy.
  The Zags made a big jump in the human polls this week and slighter jumps in the computer ones. Finally the voters seem to be seeing what the computers have been aware of, this team is one of the best in the nation. The Zags fell from first in the nation in scoring to 21st. They're 29th in points allowed, 7th in field goal percentage (52.3), 18th in rebounds per game (39), 14th in points per possession (1.14) and 14th in effective field goal percentage (57.6). They are one of 33 remaining unbeaten teams.
•  Saint Mary's (4-2): 41st Coaches, 65th Pomeroy, 71st Sagarin.
  The Gaels dropped out of the "others receiving votes" section of the AP Poll this week due to their two weekend losses but they managed to stay in that section of the Coaches poll, albeit barely. If Ken Pomeroy was the NCAA selection committee the Gaels would be playing a first four game.
•  Brigham Young (4-2): 66th Pomeroy, 57th Sagarin, 56th RPI.
  The Cougars didn't fall out of the polls, because they weren't in them to begin with. Their two losses came to strong teams so the computer rankings are treating them pretty well. One big positive is Tyler Haws who is currently 9th in points per game with 23.3.
• Santa Clara (5-0): 117th RPI, 107th Pomeroy, 100th Sagarin,
  With five wins already the unbeaten Broncos are three short of their season total from last year. They should easily pass that mark before they lose a game but don't expect them to be undefeated by the time WCC play rolls around. They play at #2 (AP/Coaches) Duke in their last non-conference game of the year.

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).

Thanksgiving Tournaments So Far

The first two days of this long holiday weekend have come and gone. The tournaments have begun and college hoops are all over TV. The WCC fared well in these first two days posting five wins in seven games. Portland, Santa Clara, Brigham Young, Gonzaga and Saint Mary's all won while San Diego and Loyola Marymount suffered defeat. For the teams in the holiday tournaments; Gonzaga in the Old Spice Classic, Saint Mary's in the DirecTV Classic, Loyola Marymount in the Great Alaska Shootout and to a lesser degree Santa Clara in the CBE, things are just heating up. Both the DirecTV and Old Spice Classics will receive major coverage on the ESPN networks so a good showing by WCC teams over the next three days will be great for the conference brand.
For now though it looks pretty darn good. The WCC is 26 and 12 so far this season. Read about the games from Wednesday and Thursday after the jump.

Game Day Vital Info 11/21/12

There are four WCC teams in action tonight. Here is a quick rundown of the teams, times and media coverage.

6:00 PM PST:

Brigham Young Cougars vs. Texas San Antonio Roadrunners
Marriott Center, Provo, Utah.
BYU is 2-2 so far this season. They are 2-0 at home and currently on a two game losing streak.
UTSA hails from the Western Athletic Conference and is 3-1 on the season. They are 1-1 on the road and currently on a three game winning streak.
TV: BYUtv
Radio: KSL 102.7 FM and 1160 AM along the Wasatch Front.
Satellite Radio: BYU Radio - Sirius XM 143
Online: BYUtv Sports (live video),KSL Newsradio (live audio).
Brigham Young Athletics official release of game information.

7:00 PM PST:

Portland Pilots vs. Portland State Vikings
Chiles Center, Portland, Oregon.
Portland is 1-2 so far this season. They are 1-0 at home and currently on a one game losing streak.
Portland State hails from the Big Sky Conference and is 1-1 on the season. They are 0-1 on the road and 0-1 against D-1 opposition.
Radio: KPDQ 800 AM in the Portland area.
Online: (live audio courtesy KPDQ)
Portland Athletics official release of game information.

San Diego Toreros at California Santa Barbara Gauchos
The Thunderdome, Santa Barbara, California
San Diego is 3-2 so far this season. They are 0-0 on the road and currently on a one game winning streak.
UCSB hails from the Big West Conference and is 1-2 on the season. They are 1-0 at home, 0-2 against D-1 opposition and currently on a one game winning streak.
Radio: 1090 AM or 1700 AM in the San Diego area.
Online: (live audio courtesy KZSB)
San Diego Athletics official release of game information.

8:15 PM PST:

Santa Clara Broncos vs. Utah Valley Wolverines
Leavey Center, Santa Clara, California.
Santa Clara is 3-0 so far this season. They are 2-0 this season and 2-0 against D-1 opposition.
Utah Valley hails from the Great West Conference and is 1-2 on the road and currently on a two game winning streak.
Radio: KDOW 1220 AM in the South Bay.
Online: (live audio courtesy KDOW)
Santa Clara athletics official release of game information.

Turkey on the Table, Tournaments on the Tube

It's once again that wonderful time of year when fans of college hoops fill themselves with turkey before sitting down on the couch to have an extended battle with tryptophan over the ability to stay awake for multiple, sure to be great, college basketball games. For those who make it to the final buzzer without falling asleep the reward is two-fold. Firstly they have just been given hours of entertaining early season hoops. Secondly they can feel good about themselves for not succumbing to the effects of that seasonally popular essential amino acid.

That was a fun to write and long to read way to say "it's time for the thanksgiving weekend and the great college basketball tournaments that come with the holiday".

This year four of the WCC's nine teams are participating in Thanksgiving week tournaments. Santa Clara in the sub-CBE (I'll get to that later), Loyola Marymount in the Great Alaska Shootout, Saint Mary's in the Directv Classic (Anaheim Classic) and Gonzaga in the Old Spice Classic. Here is the first part of my previews for these tournaments. The following are the games on Wednesday and Thursday. The Friday and Sunday games will be determined by the outcomes of the games on Thursday and Friday so I will preview those on Thursday night after the action. The only exception is Santa Clara, which will play Eastern Washington on Friday. That preview will also be included with Thursday's round of previews.

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.