2018-19 #WCChoops Schedule | Crumpacker Archives

By John Crumpacker
#WCChoops Columnist

By playing a mostly challenging slate of non-conference basketball games in November and December, West Coast Conference men’s teams tested their mettle 14 or 15 times before the start of league play on Jan. 3.

The record shows that the majority of WCC teams passed those tests. As a result of the conference’s enhanced non-conference schedule, four WCC teams rank in the top 100 of this week’s NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) rankings with Gonzaga 7, San Francisco 40, Saint Mary’s 65 and San Diego 85. Loyola Marymount (112) and BYU (115) are just outside the top 100.

With only two non-conference games remaining on Monday (Alabama A&M at Pepperdine and Cal State Bakersfield at Gonzaga) before things start to get real on Thursday, eight WCC teams have winning records, five with 10 wins or more.
No. 7 Gonzaga, 12-2, remains the prohibitive favorite to win the regular season title, but San Francisco and Loyola Marymount are also 12-2, with San Diego at 11-4 and Pacific at 10-5. LMU has already won as many games in 2018-19 as it did all of 2017-18.

“That’s a real exciting thing for WCC basketball,’’ USD coach Sam Scholl said.

Scholl’s Toreros took on four Pac-12 teams and emerged with a 2-2 record after defeating Colorado (70-64) and Washington State (82-75) while losing to Washington (66-63) and Oregon (65-55). USD also beat Long Beach State (74-70) and San Diego State (73-61) and went on the road to Mississippi State and lost a competitive game 93-86.

All those games account for USD being in good stead in the latest NET rankings at behind the solid play of Isaiah Pineiro, Olin Carter III and Isaiah Wright.

Gonzaga achieved its 12-2 mark largely without forward Killian Tillie, who has yet to play a game, and guard Geno Crandall, who missed most of the non-conference games. Still, coach Mark Few’s team achieved a No. 1 national ranking in knocking off Illinois, Arizona and then-No. 1 Duke to win the Maui Invitational in November. Losses to No. 3 Tennessee (76-73) and No. 15 North Carolina (103-90) only add to the gravitas of the non-conference schedule the Zags play.

Some people might consider USF, at 12-2, a surprise in the WCC. Those people would be wrong. Coach Kyle Smith is building something good on the Hilltop in his third year in the wake of last season’s 22-17 record. The Dons defeated Harvard (61-57) and Bay Area non-rivals Cal (79-60, in Berkeley) and Stanford (74-65) while losing to No. 21 Buffalo (85-81) in a tournament in Northern Ireland and at UC Santa Barbara (73-71) to conclude their non-league games.

“We’ve been really good defensively,’’ said Smith, whose team is limiting opponents to 59.9 points per game, No. 2 in the WCC. “We made some adjustments offensively to be more suited to who we had coming back. I’ve had the same staff for three years. We have continuity. They’re really an unselfish group.’’

The WCC’s third 12-2 team, Loyola Marymount, defeated UNLV (61-50), Georgetown (65-52) and Boise State (70-69) while losing to UCLA (82-58) at Pauley Pavilion. Coach Mike Dunlap’s defense is the stingiest in the conference as it allows only 59.2 points per game.

Another team that excelled in non-conference play was Pacific in crafting a 10-5 mark as it defeated UNLV (96-70) and UC Irvine (84-75) while losing to No. 6 Nevada (83-61) and Boise State (83-71). The trio of Roberto Gallinat (14.6 ppg), Lafayette Dorsey (12.5) and Anthony Townes (10.8) put the Tigers in good stead throughout non-conference play. As well, freshman guard Ajare Sanni was named WCC Player of the Week in leading the Tigers to an 84-75 overtime victory vs. UC Irvine with 23 points, including a trio of 3-point shots in OT.

BYU’s challenging non-conference slate of 8 wins and 7 defeats included losses to Nevada (86-70), Houston (76-62), UNLV (92-90, OT), San Diego State (90-81) and Mississippi State (103-81) with notable wins over Utah State and Utah. As great as he is, star forward Yoeli Childs (22.3 ppg, 10.0 rpg) can’t do it all.

The loss to UNLV was a gut-punch for the Cougars, who had scratched out a 90-89 lead late in overtime only to lose on an improbable fall-away 3-point shot at the buzzer. The game was part of a doubleheader at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The Gaels took a tough loss as well, losing 78-74 to an athletically superior LSU team.

Saint Mary’s is in an unfamiliar place after the end of non-conference play, as in 9-6. Included in that mark was a stretch of four consecutive defeats, to Utah State (80-63), Mississippi State (61-57), Harvard (74-68) and UC Irvine (80-75), before a road win at Cal (84-71). Four losses in a row is something almost unheard of for coach Randy Bennett, at least in recent years.

“We’ve got to get better in a hurry,’’ Bennett said. “League’s going to be tough. We’ve got to get tougher in rebounding and defense. We’ve made progress there. We have a mindset that we’re going to do it.’’

Perhaps the most surprising games in non-conference play were turned in by 8-6 Santa Clara as the Broncos went 2-2 vs. Pac-12 opponents; overall, WCC teams posted a 10-7 record against this Power 5 conference. The Broncos defeated USC in overtime 102-92 and went to Washington State with only eight scholarship athletes and beat the Cougars 79-71 – all this without the services of All-WCC guard K.J. Feagin, out for the season with foot and hand injuries.

Portland (7-8) and Pepperdine (6-7) were the only WCC teams not to post winning marks at the end of non-conference play. In November Pepperdine had to deal with the disruption caused by the Woolsey Fire that crept to the very edges of campus and forced an evacuation. Coach Lorenzo Romar, in the first season of his second go-round in Malibu, led the Waves to wins over Miami of Ohio (86-80) and Idaho State (97-82) while dropping games to Oregon State (82-67) and Long Beach State (67-66).
Besides ringing up 111 points in a season-opening win over Multnomah, in which perimeter marksman Josh McSwiggan poured in 37 points, Portland’s most notable win was at Cal State Northridge (80-77). That’s also the high-point game for the WCC in non-conference play.