Men's Basketball WCC Columnist Jeff Faraudo

Putting A Bow On The 2022-23 WCC Hoops Regular Season

The No. 12 Gonzaga men secured a share of the West Coast Conference regular season title with their 77-68 victory over No. 15 Saint Mary’s, which left Spokane, Wash., as co-champions.

The good news for WCC basketball fans is there is a very good chance we will get to see the two teams square off once more — a week from Tuesday in the championship game of the University Credit Union WCC Tournament at Las Vegas.

The Zags and Gaels have met 12 times in March over the past 14 seasons and have squared off a total of 40 times since 2009. Projecting another potential clash a week from now is hardly a reach. This one lived up to expectations, as has been the case with so many recent matchups between the two.

“Big weekend, incredible day,” Zags head coach Mark Few told the Spokesman Review afterward. “I was happy that our performance matched the moment. As I told them after the game, I’m proud of them.”

But Few also saluted the Zags’ Bay Area rival, who clinched at least a piece of the WCC title two days earlier. “Hey, it’s a worthy program and team to share one with this year,” he said. “Saint Mary’s has had a heck of a year and it was a heck of a game. We could not put them away. It seemed like there were three or four opportunities, but it just shows what a tough champion they are.”

Gonzaga (25-5, 14-2 WCC) kept alive its streak of winning or sharing the conference crown for the 11th consecutive season. The Zags’ streak of 25-win seasons has now reached 16 years, the longest in NCAA Division I history.

To make all that happen the Zags needed to square the season series with the Gaels (25-6, 14-2), who beat them, 78-70, in overtime three weeks earlier at Moraga. “It was the whole nation watching and we made sure that we backed our name and made everybody respect us,” said senior forward Anton Watson, who had a splendid game with 17 points, eight rebounds, four steals, three assists, one blocked shot and zero turnovers in 37 minutes.

All-American Drew Timme scored 19 points, to boost his career total to 2,158, pulling him within 11 points of former LMU star Anthony Ireland (2010-14), who ranks No. 7 on the all-time WCC scoring list.

The nation’s highest-scoring team, the Zags put up the highest point total Saint Mary’s has allowed in a regulation game this season. They did it by efficiently cashing in 11 turnovers for 21 points.

Senior guard Logan Johnson did all he could to give the Gaels a shot, scoring 27 points, most of them on a series of daring attacks into the paint. Johnson has scored 27 points or more in five of the past six games.

Because Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s completed the WCC schedule with identical resumes, the No. 1 seed into the conference tournament was decided by which teams held a higher NET ranking this morning: The Gaels remained No. 7, the Zags improved one spot to No. 9.

So Saint Mary’s is the top seed, which means its semifinal game at 6 p.m. a week from Monday could be against No. 4 seed LMU — the only other WCC team to beat either the Gaels or the Zags.

Gonzaga, as the No. 2 seed, will play in the 8:30 p.m. semifinal the same night, possibly against No. 3 Santa Clara (23-8, 11-5), which will take a seven-game win streak into its quarterfinal game on Saturday.

ESPN APPLAUDS THE DAY: For the first time since 2009, ESPN brought its GameDay program to Spokane to set up the showdown between the Zags and Gaels, and the reception from the campus left host Rece Davis impressed. After watching students camp out overnight in sub-freezing temperatures to get access to the best seats when the doors opened at 6 a.m., Davis credited the McCarthey Center as creating “the best environment of the year.”

“Really, I’d be hard pressed to think of one that was better in the last few years,” Davis said. “They wanted to show off their passion for their team and their school and their city, and they did this as well as any crowd I can remember in my now 19 years on the show.”

GONZAGA WOMEN CLOSE THE DEAL: The No. 18 Zags trailed, 31-27, at halftime in their final WCC matchup at BYU, their chief rival the past decade. But Gonzaga (27-3, 17-1) regrouped and went on to a 58-51 victory, clinching their seventh regular-season title in coach Lisa Fortier’s nine seasons. “I’m really proud of our team, the way we battled,” Fortier told the Spokesman-Review after BYU held the Zags to their season-low point total. “It was not a pretty game, and they still found a way to win.”

ONE-MAN’S ALL-WCC SELECTIONS: The coaches will have their say later this week with the official All-WCC teams, but, for the fun of it, here's my own picks. I'll identify five-player first and second teams, along with special individual for each gender.

ALL-WCC MEN

First Team: Logan Johnson, Saint Mary’s; Brandin Podziemski, Santa Clara; Cam Shelton, LMU; Julian Strawther, Gonzaga; Drew Timme, Gonzaga

Second Team: Maxwell Lewis, Pepperdine; Aidan Mahaney, Saint Mary’s; Moses Wood, Portland; Khalil Shabazz, USF; Fousseyni Traore, BYU

Player of the Year: Drew Timme, Gonzaga. Any questions? Didn’t think so. 

Freshman of the Year: Aidan Mahaney, Saint Mary’s. Pepperdine’s Jevon Porter had a terrific freshman season, but Mahaney did more still and did it for the WCC’s co-champion.

Non-freshman Newcomer of the Year: Brandin Podziemski, Santa Clara. A transfer from Illinois, where he averaged 1.4 points a year ago, Podziemski finished the regular season as the WCC’s No. 3 scorer (19.9) and No. 2 rebounder (8.8) as a 6-foot-5 guard.

Coach of the Year: Mark Few, Gonzaga & Randy Bennett, Saint Mary’s. You wanna call this a copout, fine. But I see little separation here. Either Few or Bennett could win this award almost every year. This season, their teams finished with identical WCC records and split their two matchups, each winning at home, to share the conference title. You tell me which one did a better job.

ALL-WCC WOMEN

First Team: Yvonne Ejim, Gonzaga; Alex Fowler, Portland; Lauren Gustin, BYU; Ioanna Krimili, USF; Kaylynne Truong, Gonzaga

Second Team: Ali Bamberger, Saint Mary’s; Nina Falatea, BYU; Tess Heal, Santa Clara; Ayanna Khalfani, San Diego; Brynna Maxwell, Gonzaga

Player of the Year: Kaylynne Truong, Gonzaga. Truthfully, you can make an argument for any of the five women on my first team. But Truong, playing almost all season without injured twin sister Kayleigh alongside her in the backcourt, was the most indispensable player on the best team in the WCC. She averages 16.1 points and a conference-leading 4.9 assists.

Freshman of the Year: Tess Heal, Santa Clara. She was third in the WCC in scoring (17.2) and won the league’s Freshman of the Week award 11 times. Easy call.

Non-freshman Newcomer of the Year: Brynna Maxwell, Gonzaga. A transfer from Utah, Maxwell averages 13.9 points for a 27-3 team, has converted nearly 95 percent of her free throws and leads the NCAA in 3-point accuracy at 50 percent.

Coach of the Year: Lisa Fortier, Gonzaga. The Zags lost four starters from a  year ago and the fifth one, All-WCC point guard Kayleigh Truong, played just seven games this season due to a foot injury. And Fortier’s team was arguably better than a year ago, alone at the top of the WCC with a 17-1 record.

LAST WEEK’S BIG THING: Sophomore Brandin Podziemski celebrated his 20th birthday Saturday by contributing 26 points, 10 rebounds and five assists to Santa Clara’s 81-63 victory at San Diego. The Broncos’ 23 regular-season wins are their most since 1968-69 and their seven-game conference winning streak is their longest since 1994-95. “Three left to go to make the (NCAA) tournament. That’s what our focus is on,” said Podziemski, referring to the WCC Tournament and the automatic NCAA bid that goes to the winner. Podziemski’s WCC-leading 12th double-double is the most by a Santa Clara player since John Bryant had 15 in 2008-09.

THIS WEEK’S BIG THING: The University Credit Union WCC Basketball Tournament gets under way Thursday at noon at the Orleans Arena with the first of 18 games over five days (Sunday is an off day), culminating with the women’s and men’s championship games on Tuesday at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m., respectively.