2018-19 #WCChoops Schedule | WCC Conference Play Preview | Crumpacker 2018-19 Archives
By John Crumpacker
#WCChoops Columnist
Sometimes in sports teams are so good, and have been so good for so long, that they are taken for granted. Well,
of course they’re good. Aren’t they always? The New England Patriots come to mind in this regard.
So, too, does Gonzaga.
Coach Mark Few’s team, currently ranked No. 5 nationally with a NET number of 6, has set the standard in the West Coast Conference for two decades now, with no end in sight. Given its continuing dominance, it’s easy to put Gonzaga over in a corner by itself and focus instead on the teams that
might challenge the juggernaut from Spokane or at least acquit itself well by finishing in second or third place.
Indeed, a lot of chatter around the WCC before the season started, and again following the non-conference slate of games, was which team might ascend to second among BYU, Saint Mary’s and – welcome aboard – San Francisco and possibly secure an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
That’s all well and good but it would be doing a disservice to Gonzaga to assume that all it takes to win games is to just show up. Now 16-2/3-0, the Zags have won 25 straight WCC road games, the latest being a hard-won contest at fired-up USF, 96-83. The Dons gave it their best shot and played even for the first 36 ½ minutes before succumbing to this rising tide of excellence.
A perusal of the latest conference statistics shows just how good this Gonzaga team is. The Zags are first in the WCC in scoring (92.3), first in scoring margin (+23.7), first in field goal percentage (.526), first in assists per game (18.4), first in blocked shots (5.7), first in steals (7.7) and first in assists-to-turnovers ratio (1.7).
That’s a lot of firsts.
While players around the WCC tend to stay for three or four years before moving on to the next stage in their lives, the composition of teams change from season to season. For Gonzaga, point guard Josh Perkins is a senior, as is valuable reserve guard Geno Crandall. Junior Rui Hachimura seems destined for the NBA. Fellow juniors Brandon Clarke and Killian Tillie likewise may be playing professionally after this season.
The point is to enjoy this talented assemblage before its components scatter to new destinations. Don’t take Gonzaga for granted just because it’s so darn good.
What We Learned
- Two weeks in, the upper half of the WCC is beginning to take shape with Gonzaga at 3-0, BYU at 3-1 and San Francisco and Saint Mary’s both at 2-1. Following an indifferent non-conference schedule, BYU won back-to-back home games last week, improving to 11-8 overall. USF put up a valiant fight against the Zags on Saturday night on the Hilltop before taking its first WCC defeat. Will that game linger into the third week of conference play as the Dons face Pacific in Stockton and BYU on the Hilltop?
- Conversely, Loyola Marymount and San Diego have slipped a bit after their encouraging non-conference results and are both 1-2 in league play, ahead of only 1-3 Pacific and 0-3 Portland. It doesn’t get any easier for the Lions as they prepare to face Gonzaga in Spokane on Thursday and improving Pepperdine (2-2) at Gersten Pavilion on Saturday afternoon in the WCC’s Game of the Week.
- Several weeks in with the new NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) rankings of all 353 Division I teams, the WCC is holding its own. Gonzaga is 6, USF 43 and Saint Mary’s 53. Those are solid numbers and bode well for the Zags, Dons and Gaels as the season progresses. In the next tier, BYU is 121, San Diego 122 and LMU 154. Those three have some work to do.
Stat Line of the Week
Pacific’s Jahlil Tripp is no stranger to this category. In his team’s 65-57 win vs. Portland, Tripp had 17 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.
Runners-up include BYU’s T.J. Haws with 16 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists in a win over Santa Clara; LMU’s Eli Scott with 14 points and 12 rebounds in a loss to Saint Mary’s; and Pepperdine’s Kameron Edwards, who had 23 points 8 rebounds, 1 block and 1 steal in a win vs. San Diego.
Tweet of the Week
Quote of the Week
“Any team has a chance to win on any given night. It’s easier said than done.’’
That’s LMU’s James Batemon, whose team started out 12-2 before losing two of its first three conference games.
Duel of the dopplegangers
It’s been noted previously in this space the similarities in dress, appearance and hairstyle of Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett and Santa Clara’s Herb Sendek, whose teams take the court at McKeon Pavilion on Thursday night. The coaches are aware of their relative lookalike status and have fun with it, as Sendek did at the WCC’s Tip-off event in Las Vegas in October when he introduced himself as “Randy Bennett, Saint Mary’s.’’ Tune in to NBC SN at 8 p.m. and see for yourself.
All-Zero Team
We had fun with this a year ago and we’re going to do it again, presenting those players around the conference who have the confidence to put a big fat zero on their jerseys. Every WCC team has a player sporting uniform No. 0 (in one case No. 00), except Pepperdine, which has zero players wearing uniform number zero.
The team is guard-centric, with six backcourt players wearing that solitary number without a numerical value. Three are forwards.
Here’s the starting five:
G – Geno Crandall, Gonzaga
G – Jahlil Tripp, Pacific
G – Tanner Krebs, Saint Mary’s (wearing No. 00)
F – Isaiah Pineiro, San Diego
F – Eli Scott, LMU
Sixth man:
Jashire Hardnett, BYU
Off the bench:
Crisshawn Clark, Portland; Khalil Shabazz, USF; D.J. Mitchell, Santa Clara.
Follow the three dots…
BYU stalwart Yoeli Childs was named the WCC’s Player of the Week for leading the Cougars to a pair of home wins vs. Portland and Santa Clara, averaging 27.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.0 steals. … Portland’s Marcus Shaver Jr. scored a career-high 25 points in a 65-57 loss to Pacific. … It’s worth mentioning that five teams in the WCC have scoring defense figures in the 60’s while five are in the 70’s. … Free throws could be USF’s downfall in a close game. The Dons are last in the conference in free throw percentage at .670. … Saint Mary’s is first in the WCC in 3-point percentage at nearly .400 (.398). … The free throw battle between Portland’s Josh McSwiggan (.902) and Pacific’s Lafayette Dorsey (.901) is on. May the superior marksman win. … It was nice to see USF coach Kyle Smith go out on the court to help one of his players, freshman forward Dzmitry Ryuny, to the bench after he appeared to injure an ankle vs. Gonzaga. I’m sure his players liked it, too.