Men's Basketball WCC Columnist Jeff Faraudo

WCC Hoops Is Heating Up

The fun is just beginning in the West Coast Conference. The final week of the regular season for men's and women's basketball is upon us and there will be no shortage of drama involving consequential games, jockeying for position in the University Credit Union WCC Basketball Tournament or pursuit of statistical milestones.

The top two teams on both the men’s and women’s side are clear, but still to be settled are the regular-season championships and No. 1 seedings to the UCU WCC Tournament, set to start on Thursday, March 2, at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

The No. 17 Saint Mary’s (24-5, 13-1) and No. 13 Gonzaga (23-5, 12-2) men collide Saturday night in Spokane, Wash. Presuming both teams win Thursday, the Gaels can clinch the outright WCC title with a win at The Kennel. If the Zags prevail, they would earn a co-title, but with the teams’ conference resumes identical, the No. 1 seed to the UCU WCC Tournament would be decided by which team has the higher NET computer ranking.

Gonzaga has won the past six WCC regular-season crowns outright and has at least shared the title every year since 2011-12, when the Gaels held the spot alone. Given that both teams already have clinched byes into the semifinal round, bragging rights here are much more significant than seeding.

On the women’s side, No. 20 Gonzaga (25-3, 15-1) continues to hold a one-game lead over Portland (20-7, 14-2). A single Gonzaga victory or Portland defeat would clinch at least a tie for the title for the Zags, who own the tiebreaker for conference tournament seeding based on their regular-season sweep of the Pilots.

There are too many potential scenarios positioned to unfold this week to detail all of them, with much of the seeding in both brackets still undetermined. These games matter because the third- and fourth-place finishers in the regular season earn byes into the Saturday quarterfinals, and the fifth- and sixth-place teams gets byes into Friday’s second round. 

Teams 7 through 10 must play on Thursday, meaning they would have to win five games in six days to capture the WCC title and automatic NCAA Tournament bid. And no, that has never happened.

A couple scenarios worth keeping an eye on:

— On the men’s side, USF (6-8), Pacific (6-8), BYU (6-9) and Portland (5-9) are competing for two spots to avoid playing on Thursday. There isn’t an easy path for any of them. USF plays at home vs. Portland and at BYU; Pacific is at Saint Mary’s, at home vs. Portland; BYU has just one game left, at home Saturday vs. USF; Portland is on the road twice, at USF and Pacific.

— On the women’s side, San Diego (10-6) and BYU (9-7) have a leg up on USF (8-8) for the No. 3 and 4 seeds. But it’s not that simple. The Toreros and Cougars both play home games vs. Gonzaga and Portland (the WCC’s top two teams), while USF is on the road vs. Pepperdine and LMU (who occupy ninth and 10th place). 

Stay tuned. Gonna be fun.

LAST WEEK’S BIG THING: The Gonzaga women (25-3, 15-1) haven’t yet clinched the WCC title or the No. 1 seed into the conference tournament, but their prospects for doing both in 2023-24 have significantly improved. The big news prior to the Zags’ home finale against Saint Mary’s on Saturday was the announcement from twin sisters Kaylynne and Kayleigh Truong that they plan to use the extra year of eligibility provided due to COVID-19 and return next season. Fellow seniors Brynna Maxwell and Eliza Hollingsworth already had stated their intention to come back, meaning coach Lisa Fortier’s team will remain essentially intact.

Kaylynne Truong said the twins’ decision was born out of a desire to play together one more season. Kayleigh, an All-WCC guard last season, has missed almost the entirety of this season due to injury. “For me personally, I was working so hard to start alongside Leigh, to be able to share the court with her,” said Kaylynne, who has become a team leader and rates as a legitimate contender to be named WCC Player of the Year.

THIS WEEK’S BIG THING: You know it’s a big game when ESPN brings its College GameDay crew to town you know. The program will visit Spokane, Wash., on Saturday morning prior to No. 13 Gonzaga hosting No. 17 Saint Mary’s, with the WCC men’s regular season championship on the line. The show, which runs from 7 to 9 a.m. PT at the McCarthey Center, features host Rece Davis, and analysts Jay Bilas, Seth Greenberg and LaPhonso Ellis. Bilas will join Dan Shulman and reporter Holly Rowe on the game call at 7 p.m. 

Game Day is returning to Spokane for the first time since Feb. 7, 2009, when Memphis beat them, 68-50. This will be the second time GameDay sets up shop in advance of the Zags and Gaels squaring off. ESPN made a day of it on Feb. 11, 2017, prior to No. 1 Gonzaga knocking off No. 18 Saint Mary’s, 74-64.

BASKETBALL MATH: How important are the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings to the NCAA Tournament selection committee? Clearly, as the committee routinely reminds us, they are not the be-all, end-all. Case in point: The committee released its first Top-16 rankings barely two weeks before Selection Sunday and Gonzaga sits at No. 15 while Saint Mary’s is nowhere on the list. This is curious because the Gaels reside at No. 7 nationally in the NET rankings with the Zags at No.  10. ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi on Friday projected Gonzaga as a No. 3 seed, Saint Mary’s as a No. 5.

NAISMITH COACHING HONORS: Randy Bennett of the Saint Mary’s men and Lisa Fortier of the Gonzaga women have been recognized for their coaching performances this season, both named to the late-season watch list of 15 for the Naismith College Coach of the Year awards. Bennett joins UCLA’s Mick Cronin as the only men’s coaches included from the West region while Fortier is keeping company with Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer, Utah’s Lynne Roberts and Colorado’s JR Payne. 

BIG GAMES, DIFFERENT OUTCOMES: LMU senior Cam Shelton, a near lock for All-WCC honors, scored a career-high 40 points, including 11 points in the final 2 minutes, 53 seconds and the go-ahead basket with 7 seconds left, in the Lions’ 90-88 come-from-behind win over Pacific. Shelton, now averaging 20.9 points per game to rank second in the WCC, is the first Lion to reach 40 points in a game in 32 seasons. Elsewhere on Saturday, Portland’s Mike Meadows dropped in a career-best 39 points, but the Pilots could not hold off Santa Clara, which won, 103-84, for its fifth straight victory.

On the women’s side, Santa Clara freshman Tess Heal fired in 39 points in a loss to BYU on Thursday, tied for the second most in program history. Only Nici Gilday, who scored 40 vs. LMU in 2014, has topped that. After scoring 17 more points on Saturday. Heal is at 511 for the season, making her just the 11th Bronco to reach 500 for a season, the first freshman to do so.

PASSING BIG BILL: Gonzaga’s Drew Timme scored 34 points Saturday against Pepperdine, pushing his career total to 2,117 — one more point than USF’s Bill Cartwright compiled from 1975-79. Timme sits at No. 8 on the WCC career list. Next up at No. 7: LMU’s Anthony Ireland (2010-14) with 2,169 points.

CLOSING IN ON 400: Saint Mary’s senior guard Taycee Wedin made six more 3-point baskets in two games last week, pushing her WCC record to 396 for her career. That leaves her just four 3-pointers shy of becoming the 13th women in Division I history to reach 400 for her career. Just as impressive, she’s knocked down nearly 42 percent of her attempts.

STILL LEADING THE LAND: BYU’s Lauren Gustin and Gonzaga’s Brynna Maxwell continue to reside at the top of a couple NCAA statistical leaders lists. Gustin grabbed 29 more rebounds in two games last week and is averaging 16.3 for the season, well ahead of No. 2 Angel Reese of LSU at 15.5. Gustin’s career-high 30 points Thursday in a win at Santa Clara gave her 1,022 for her career, lifting her into a tie with her mother, Scarlett Overly, on BYU’s all-time scoring list. Gustin broke that tie with more nine points Saturday and has become just the second BYU women’s player with 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in her career.

Maxwell continues to lead the NCAA in 3-point accuracy, making 50.63 percent of her attempts from deep. She is at 94.3 percent in free-throw percentage (66 for 70), which would rank No. 2 in the country if she had enough attempts.

STREAKS AND SUCH: A few more notes worth mentioning . . .

— With their 81-74 victory on Thursday, the Santa Clara men beat BYU in Provo for the first time since Dec. 2, 1972, and have reached 20 victories two years in a row for the first time since the days of Steve Nash in 1995 and ’96. The Broncos are now 21-8, 9-5 in the WCC.

— The Portland women, at 20-7 overall, 14-2 in the WCC, have equaled their most conference wins in program history.

— Gonzaga’s women finished their home schedule 15-0, extending their streak to 20 straight victories on their own floor. That is the second-longest streak in the country, trailing only South Carolina at 39 in a row.

— The Saint Mary’s men have won 16 consecutive conference home games after their 71-65 win over BYU on Saturday night. That drops BYU to 3-11 in games played at Moraga before leaving the WCC after this season.

— The Gonzaga men now have beaten Pepperdine 45 straight times, but the last-place Waves have the respect of coach Mark Few after the Zags' 97-88 win at Malibu that was in question until the final 2 minutes. "I talked ad nauseum about how talented they are and how dangerous they are and they showed it tonight," Few said. "They have five guys out there that can really score. They’re a handful.”