Gonzaga Dips, but West Coast Conference Is Rising

Filed under: Gonzaga, St. Mary's (CA)

Take a minute and look up the basketball standings in the West Coast Conference and what do you notice right away?

Gonzaga, the conference standard-bearer, the program that has arguably put the WCC on the map, is the third name down, even in league record with San Francisco, who beat the Bulldogs earlier in the year. The first place team in the WCC is No. 23 Saint Mary's.

The guard has changed.

Randy Bennett's team isn't so much an upstart program anymore as an established one. USF, the school with Bill Russell and Bill Cartwright's jerseys hanging in the rafters, is tied with Gonzaga in second place in conference play.

Just below the Zags are Santa Clara and Portland.

Four WCC teams have at least 16 wins heading into the final two weeks before the conference tournament. With an ESPN deal, some of the best small college atmospheres in the nation and No. 7 BYU on the way in next season, these are the salad days in the WCC.

"I think a lot of the credit belongs to the people at Gonzaga," said USF coach Rex Walters, the former Kansas star who is in his third season as the Dons' head coach. "They were firmly committed to raising the bar for their program. What it led to was a team that got into the tournament ever year, and some national buzz. They got the whole conference on ESPN and because of the exposure, now we can raise our own bars."

If the Zags' are the third-place team in the conference, this must be a down year in Spokane. At least, a little. The Bulldogs have a three-point loss to San Diego State in November, wins over Marquette and Baylor and losses to Illinois, Washington State and Notre Dame.

The stretch that has defined the WCC season thus far was Gonzaga's three straight losses, on the road at Santa Clara and USF (in overtime) and at home to St. Mary's, the Gaels first win in Spokane since 1995. It was Gonzaga's first three-game conference losing streak since 1997.

St. Mary's has been able to match Gonzaga's pace over the past few years. The Gaels reached the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history last season, have reached the NCAA Tournament twice in the last three years.

Walters' program at USF is finally sitting on a solid foundation.

"We are getting there," Walters said. "We've gone through some lean years here, but if you get the foundation right, you can really start to build something. Mark and Randy, these guys are seeing the fruits of their labor. We are still in our formative years."

WCC commisioner Jamie Zaninovich credits consistency in coaching. It is the perhaps even the thing that separates the WCC from the Pac-10 at this point.

Few remains at Gonzaga despite overtures from Washington, Indiana and Oregon

Bennett's name has been linked to openings at USC, Oregon, Arizona and Cal.

Both have stayed put.

Walters is in his third season at USF. Eric Reveno is in his fifth season at Portland, Kerry Keating is in his fourth season at Santa Clara.

"I think the leadership at these schools were thoughtful about the people they hired," Zaninovich said. "Our schools did not go for big, splashy, win-the-press-conference hires. They recognize the type of people who will be successful in this conference and they have hired to that."

BYU's addition to the conference next season will add another strong program into the mix. Zaninovich said the expectation is not that the Cougars will dominate, but raise the competitive bar even further.

"They are having a great year, but to be fair, they haven't been a traditional top 10 program, and we have a program that is a traditional top 20 program (in Gonzaga)," Zaninovich said. "That's why they are a good competitive fit."

Zaninovich, meanwhile, said it's a little frustrating that perceptions outside the league seem to equate parity with weakness.

"It's being positioned that Gonzaga is so bad that they lost to USF, and I don't think that's fair. Gonzaga has gone on the road and lost some games that it might have won before, but it's tough to play on the road in this conference," Zaninovich said. "We understand that having parity in the league and turning that into multiple (NCAA) bids are two different things. But I've really enjoying getting out to the venues and seeing the heightened intensity and seeing how great the quality of play is."

 

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