2018-19 #WCChoops Schedule | What We Learned 2/18/19  |  Crumpacker 2018-19 Archives

By John Crumpacker
#WCChoops Columnist

With the possible exception of Gonzaga at Saint Mary’s to conclude the West Coast Conference’s regular season on March 2, the game of the year in conference could well take place on Saturday night when BYU pays a visit to The Kennel to take on No. 2 Gonzaga.

Since joining the WCC, the Cougars have a 3-4 record vs. the Zags in Spokane, as compared to 2-6 in Provo, prompting a thinking person to go “Hmmm.’’

At this point in the season, Gonzaga must be thinking mid-March and beyond in the NCAA Tournament since a WCC regular season championship is all but assured. Might the Zags be ripe for an upset, at home, after clicking off 16 victories in a row, longest in the nation (see below)?

This does not appear to be the best team coach Dave Rose has had in Provo, but it is one not to be trifled with after winning five conference games in a row. All-WCC forward Yoeli Childs is a candidate for conference Player of the Year, averaging 21.1 points and 9.6 rebounds per game. Guard TJ Haws, coming off a career-best 35 points vs. San Diego last week, is a crafty son of a gun with the ball in his hands. Freshman forward Gavin Baxter is starting to show his potential with the season winding down.

Gonzaga can counter Childs with one of the best defensive players in the nation, as well as the certain WCC Defensive Player of the Year, in 6-foot-8 junior Brandon Clarke (see below). Those two tussling on the low block could be compelling viewing on Saturday night. Clarke had five blocked shots vs. No. 1 Duke in November and is averaging a little more than three rejections per game.

The question for the Cougars is, do they have enough offense to hang with the Zags? Gonzaga leads the nation in scoring at 90.2 per game while BYU is 10 back at 80.1.

If Clarke keeps Childs at bay, the wild card could be the play of Gonzaga’s Rui Hachimura. The Cougars do not appear to have anyone capable of keeping Hachimura in check given his size and athletic ability. Hachimura is thought to be an NBA first-round draft pick based on his ability to score (20.2), rebound (6.5) and bring the ball up court whenever he pleases, with apologies to point guard Josh Perkins.

No matter how the game plays out, it’s worth tuning in to ESPN on Saturday night.

What We Think

1. Athletic directors at Santa Clara (Renee Baumgartner), Loyola Marymount (Craig Pintens) and Pepperdine (Steve Potts) should feel good about their head men’s basketball coaches. All three programs have won more games in 2018-19, with two weeks of regular season games and the WCC Tournament to go, than they did in 2017-18. The Broncos, 11-20 last season, are 14-13 under Herb Sendek. The Lions, 11-20 a year ago, are 17-10 in Mike Dunlap’s fifth season at his alma mater. The Waves, 12-15 this season in the first year of Lorenzo Romar’s second stint in Malibu, were 6-26 last season.
2. Other than BYU at Gonzaga on Saturday night, the best game in the WCC’s penultimate week of regular season games is San Francisco at BYU on Thursday night. This is an important game for both schools. It’s a chance for the Dons to make a statement late in the season and move closer to the second-place Cougars. For BYU, it’s an opportunity to defend home court and all but solidify second place in conference behind You Know Who.
3. Speaking of BYU, coach Dave Rose’s team needs to finish strong in its final three regular season games (USF, Gonzaga, San Diego) to enhance its standing for an NCAA Tournament at-large berth. That is, unless the Cougars roar their way to the WCC Tournament championship. At 18-10 overall, BYU has a NET ranking of 76, well behind Saint Mary’s (47) and USF (52), both of whom are on the bubble for the NCAA tourney. The Cougars have some burnishing of the old resume to do between now and mid-March.

 
Game of the Week
On the surface, LMU at Pacific on Saturday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. does not exactly stir the soul or inspire the interest of college basketball fans. But scratch a little deeper and there is meaning to be found, at least for the Lions. LMU is 17-10 overall and has a decent chance to reach the 20-win plateau by the end of the WCC Tournament. Dunlap’s team is 5-8 in the WCC and it’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility that it could close out the regular season with wins at Pacific, home vs. Santa Clara and at USF for an 8-8 conference finish. LMU was 5-13 in the WCC last season.

Gonzaga by the numbers
It’s been brought up before in this space that No. 2 Gonzaga is so good, it tends to be overlooked and put in a glass jar on a shelf, separate from the other nine members of the WCC. That does a disservice to coach Mark Few’s team, which might be the best one he’s had in his long tenure in Spokane.

Consider these digits:
30 – Consecutive conference road victories, an ongoing NCAA record.
16 – Current win streak, longest in the NCAA for 2018-19.
16, again – Number of WCC Tournament championships in the last 20 years.
3 – NCAA ranking of blocked shots per game by Brandon Clarke (3.04).
3, again – NCAA ranking of total blocked shots by Clarke (82, a Gonzaga single-season record).
1 – National ranking of team field goal percentage (.528).
1, again – National ranking of points per game (90.2).
1, again & again – National ranking of field goal percentage by Clarke (.688).