It was a productive inaugural week for newcomers to West Coast Conference basketball.
The WCC welcomes five new coaches — Pacific’s Dave Smart, Pepperdine’s Ed Schilling and Washington State’s David Riley on the men’s side, and Pepperdine’s Katie Faulkner and Santa Clara interim coach Michael Floyd with the women — and all of them pocketed victories in their debut games.
Perhaps no player made a bigger splash in his first game than Pacific junior point guard and Texas Tech transfer Lamar Washington in the Tigers’ 92-65 win over Jessup. The Portland native dished out a program record 15 assists in his debut, eclipsing Pacific’s 34-year-old mark of 14 by Dell Demps.
Washington’s assists fed 35 points and, together with the seven points he scored, he had a direct hand in 42 points. Washington’s best assist total in 62 games at his previous stop was five.
At the Rainbow Classic in Hawaii, Washington had 14 points and 10 assists in an 80-67 win over San Jose State 80-67, then dished eight more assists in a 94-41 victory over Life Pacific on Sunday. Washington is averaging 11.0 assists per game.
Fellow newcomer Elias Ralph, a senior transfer from the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, connected on 13 of 15 shots and scored 30 points, the most by any Pacific player in a season-opening game in at least 20 years. That helped to give Smart the biggest margin of victory by a Tigers coach in his inaugural game since Stan Morrison led the Tigers to a 102-68 win over Cal State Hayward in 1972-73.
A few other notable first-game performances by WCC rookies:
— Saint Mary’s forward Paulius Murauskas, a native of Lithuania and transfer from Arizona, posted 14 points and 13 rebounds in the Gaels’ 76-69 victory over Towson. He had another double-double three days later, with 23 points and 11 rebounds in an 86-74 win over Chattanooga.
— Oregon State senior guard Damarco Minor, a transfer from SIU-Edwardsville, had 23 points and four steals in the Beavers’ 80-57 win over Utah Tech.
— LMU’s Myron Amey Jr., who came from San Jose State, scored 20 points to augment the 23 from returnee Alex Merkviladze in the Lions’ 99-56 win over Life Pacific.
— An entirely first-year starting lineup for Washington State teamed up to provide the Cougars with 79 points and 28 rebounds in their 100-92 win over Portland State. Leading the way: Cedric Coward (Eastern Washington) with 23 points and 12 rebounds and Nate Calmese (Washington) with 17 points and five assists.
— Pepperdine senior forward Stefan Todorovic, a native of Serbia who played last season at USF, scored 25 points and Pacific transfer Moe Odum provided 18 points and eight assists in Schilling’s debut, a 77-64 win over Western Illinois. Todorovic came back to score 24 points in a loss to UC Santa Barbara.
— Portland junior guard Max Mackinnon, a native of Australia and transfer from Elon, scored 20 points to spark the Pilots’ 83-70 win over Lewis & Clark.
— San Diego junior guard Kjay Bradley, an arrival from San Diego CC, scored 24 points in the Toreros’ 68-67 loss to Rider. He returned several nights later to put up 28 points, five rebounds, seven assists and four steals in a 74-60 win over Boston U.
— Arkansas transfer Khalif Battle had 12 points and former Pepperdine star Michael Ajayi contributed nine points and eight rebounds off the bench as No. 6 Gonzaga smoked No. 8 Baylor 101-63. (More on this game later)
— The Gonzaga women also got help from reinforcements, with freshman Allie Turner of St. Louis posting 18 points (including five 3-pointers) along with six rebounds and six assists to an 82-69 win over Montana. Junior guard Ines Bettencourt, a native of Portugal and transfer from UConn, had 16 points.
ONE MORE IMPRESSIVE DEBUT: No, we didn’t forget San Francisco freshman Tyrone Riley IV. The 6-foot-6 guard from Los Angeles put up 26 points in his first collegiate game as the Dons posted an 86-78 win over Cal Poly.
Riley got off to a shaky start, shooting 1 for 6 and scoring just two points in the first half. “He looked a little bit nervous, a little bit off-kilter,” USF coach Chris Gerlufsen said. “He did a really good job of trying to figure out how to impact the game late.”
No kidding. Riley scored 24 points in the second half, shooting 9 for 12. “He’s extremely talented, easy to coach,” Gerlufsen said. “Hoping he has a lot of nights like this.”
Riley follows the footsteps of his father, Tyrone Riley Sr., who averaged 13.6 points in two seasons at the Hilltop two decades ago. “When I came on my visit, they put up his stats and everything he accomplished here,” Riley said of his father. “I put that as my goal to come here and do better than he did. Hopefully, that’s what I’m able to do.”
LAST WEEK’S BIG THING: The No. 6 Gonzaga men sent a warning to the nation’s best with their 101-63 dismantling of No. 8 Baylor at the Spokane Arena. The Zags shot 57 percent and held the Bears to 37 percent on the way to their biggest margin of victory over a top-10 opponent. Gonzaga’s bench contributed 42 points on 18-for-27 shooting.
“Ton of respect for Gonzaga because if you’re not on point, they make you look really bad,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “Coach (Mark) Few had them ready to go. . . . I think they’re going to have a special year, and I always cheer for them when we’re not playing them.”
Few sounded impressed by what his team showed in its first game. “We put up a 100 on a great team and kind of a scary team,” he said. Well, it was the Zags who were scary in this one.
THIS WEEK’S BIG THING: The Santa Clara women face a great opportunity — and great challenge — on Friday afternoon when they visit No. 3 USC. The Trojans opened with a 68-66 win over No. 20 Ole Miss in which sophomore star JuJu Watkins, one of the nation’s top players, had 27 points, 10 rebounds, five blocked shots, four assists and three steals.
The Broncos are 2-0 after their 67-61 win at Fresno State in which senior forward Olivia Pollerd scored a career-high 31 points, including 6-for-9 accuracy from 3-point range.
WAVES COME CRASHING LATE: The Pepperdine women needed a fourth-quarter surge to secure a victory for Katie Faulkner in her first game. The Waves trailed by 10 points with just over four minutes left against Cal State Fullerton before rallying for a 59-57 victory. Ella Brubaker scored the go-ahead basket with 51 seconds left.
"I'm immensely proud of the character of this group," Faulkner said. "We talk a lot about staying process focused, so to keep our nerve and chip away little by little and then step up and make plays when we needed to show what's possible for this group. Lots to grow and learn from, but it's a great start."
WOODEN AWARD NOMINEES: Four WCC players — three men and one woman — were included in the preseason top-50 watch lists for the John R. Wooden Award, given each year to the nation’s best players.
The Gonzaga duo of forward Graham Ike and point guard Ryan Nembhard and Saint Mary’s point guard Augustas Marciulionis, the reigning WCC Player of the Year, landed spots on the men’s list. Gonzaga’s Yvonne Ejim, the 2024 WCC Player of the Year, is the conference’s only representative on the women’s list of candidates.
AN EARLY GLIMPSE AT NCAA BRACKETOLOGY: ESPN resident bracketologist Joe Lunardi projects Gonzaga’s men as a No. 1 seed and Saint Mary’s at No. 9 in his first look ahead to the NCAA Tournament. Charlie Creme, his counterpart on the women’s side, has Gonzaga as a No. 12 seed. A whole season still to play.