LAS VEGAS — Change is everywhere in college athletics right now, and teams in the West Coast Conference are experiencing it just like programs across the country. In particular, the personnel comings and goings via the transfer portal come at a frantic pace.
One name that surfaced on the preseason all-conference men’s basketball team, determined by a vote of the coaches, did not arrive in college through the transfer portal. He is not a returning college player, a junior college transfer or a high school prospect.
Thierry Darlan, a 6-foot-8 guard out of the Central African Republic, comes to Santa Clara from the G League. Yes, the NBA’s professional development league.
Santa Clara head coach Herb Sendek, who recruited Darlan while he played his high school career with NBA Academy Africa and got him on campus for a recruiting visit at the time, acknowledged the way this unfolded would have been unimaginable a decade ago.
“What part of today’s college athletics landscape could you have imagined 10 years ago?” Sendek said during Thursday’s West Coast Conference Men's Basketball Media Day at Resorts World in Las Vegas.
Darlan played two seasons ago with the G League Ignite and last year with two teams, including the Delaware Blue Coats, for whom he averaged 11 points and six rebounds.
After two seasons in the G League, Darlan expressed an interest in attending college. He petitioned the NCAA and received an eligibility ruling that makes him a junior with two seasons to play. He is not the only former G League player on a college roster this season, but he is believed to be the first.
Sendek stressed that Darlan’s case is not the start of something but the latest chapter in the evolution by the NCAA, which now allows schools to pay direct cash stipends to Division I athletes after decades of clinging to rigid amateur rules.
“Theirry’s case is just a natural evolution and extension of this sea of change,” Sendek said. “The NCAA didn’t treat him any differently than they were treating a whole bunch of other professional athletes. International players for years have been coming to play in college, not just in basketball but in other sports.”
West Coast Conference Commissioner Stu Jackson said he welcomes the change “if it provides student-athletes an opportunity to compete,” and Darlan’s teammates have welcomed him.
“Great teammate, good player, he played in the G League, so he’s bringing all that experience with him,” Broncos junior forward Jake Ensminger said.
“He’s a hustler, somebody who will do the little things,” senior guard Brenton Knapper added. “We know he can score. He will rebound, he can shoot, he’s athletic. Somebody who does the things that needed to win.”
GRAHAM IKE’S EASY DECISION: Although he played as a senior last season while earning all-conference honors for a second straight year, Gonzaga power forward Graham Ike had another year of eligibility to use, if he opted to do so. The 6-foot-9 native of Overland, Wyoming, said it was an easy call to come back, as long as teammate Braden Huff did the same.
Both remain in Spokane, Wash., and both landed spots on the preseason all-conference team while the Zags were picked by the league’s coaches as favorites to win the conference title this season.
“Honestly, I’m in a great place, great community, great staff and great players around me,” Ike said. “That was the only thing I wanted, for B-Huff to come back. I couldn’t leave this place.”
Graham, who wants to continue developing his full game in order to make himself a more attractive pro prospect, said the Zags have unfinished business after finishing second to Saint Mary’s each of the past two seasons. Gonzaga hadn’t gone two years without a regular-season conference title since Pepperdine did it in 1992 and ‘93
“Extremely motivated because we haven’t won an in-conference championship,” Ike said of his two years since transferring from Wyoming. “We won a conference (tournament) championship in Vegas. We’d like to do both this year. We’re definitely eager to go out and play our best basketball each and every night.”
ELIAS GETS SOME HELP: Second-year Pacific head coach Dave Smart, a legendary figure in the sport in Canada, said the Tigers’ roster is deeper and more talented than than a year ago when he had limited time to assemble a new team after being hired.
Pacific finished with a 4-14 conference record last season and was picked 10th this year. But if things come together as Smart expects and the team becomes more consistent “we’ll be scary to play against.”
“The biggest difference is 90 percent of our guys love being in the gym as many hours as people will let them be in the gym,” Smart said. “That is a huge asset to us getting better. It’s portal world. We’re so fortunate that we retained our best player.”
That constant is senior forward Elias Ralph, also a Canadian, who averaged 14.8 points and 7.3 rebounds in his first year with the program. Ralph was named Thursday to the preseason all-conference team.
“Elias, everybody likes him. It’s hard not to like him. He’s as good a person as you’re going to meet,” Smart said. “He’s not super-vocal as a leader and he wouldn’t pretend that he is.
“But as an example and as someone to follow . . . who competes in practice the way he competes in games, everybody came in with the understanding that we didn’t want them if they weren’t going to be like that.”
SALUTING THE CHAMPS: Stu Jackson, meeting with reporters at media day, used the occasion to celebrate the WCC alums help fuel the Oklahoma City Thunder’s drive to the NBA champonship.
Santa Clara’s Jalen Williams averaged 21.4 points during the NBA playoffs and Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren provided 15.2 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.9 blocked shots. Another Gonzaga product, point guard Andrew Nembhard, gave NBA finalist Indiana 12.5 points and 4.7 assists per game.
“It’s a testament to the fact that we have very good coaches in this league who do a good job of player development, oftentimes in the case of someone like Jalen Williams, under the radar,” the commissioner said.
“We have as a conference become a destination for professional scouts. They don’t all spend their time at the power conference tournaments. We’re a place that they frequent because you don’t want to miss a gem like Jalen Williams.”
Williams delivered three 30-point performances in the 2025 postseason, including a 40-point outburst in the Finals that matches the second-highest point total by a WCC alum in NBA playoff history. Only Steve Nash, another ex-Santa Clara star, has topped that with 48 points for the Phoenix Suns in the 2005 playoffs.
FRED ASTAIRE VISITS MEDIA DAY: San Diego coach Steve Lavin, while expressing appreciation to the university for opening the new $35 million, 28,000-square foot performance center and providing funds for recruiting, also took time to talk about his many of his new players.
Lavin, who has worked successfully as a TV analyst, often regales his players with references to sports, history and popular culture.
“They have to follow the riffs on occasion. Then I say, `Thread me. Where was I?’ “ he explained. “That comes in the family. It’s in the DNA, I can’t help it.”
While describing the skill set of Wake Forest transfer point guard Ty-Laur Johnson, Lavin painted a colorful picture. “He diminutive in size,” he said of the 6-foot, 155-pound native of Brooklyn. “He’s built more like a Fred Astaire, a Michael Jackson, Steph Curry.”
Asked if he was confident the players alongside at the interview podium were familiar with Fred Astaire, the late dancer/actor, Lavin laughed. “They’re going to know by the end of tonight.”