Jun. 22—Change appears to be the one fixed in faculty athletics lately and it is not simply restricted to landscape-altering strikes made by football-powered energy conferences.
The West Coast Convention took vital steps by including Washington State and Oregon State as affiliate members for the subsequent two years and the Western Athletic Convention’s Grand Canyon and Seattle as full members starting within the 2025-26 season.
The strikes present the WCC with stability in addition to power in numbers in case Gonzaga had been to depart for an additional convention down the street. The Zags have had a number of conversations with the Huge 12, however talks have cooled off with the convention increasing to 16 with 4 former Pac-12 faculties on board for the upcoming season.
The WCC’s altering roster clearly impacts Gonzaga, significantly when it comes to scheduling.
Eleven WCC groups will every play 18 convention video games this season in comparison with 16 in latest seasons. Gonzaga will face San Diego (in Spokane) and Pacific (in Stockton, California) as soon as and the opposite eight groups dwelling and away. It is unclear what number of convention video games might be on the schedule in 2025-26 when the WCC might have as many as 13 groups for one season.
“It is definitely modified our nonleague,” Zags coach Mark Few stated at a latest media availability. “We now have rather a lot much less nonleague video games, that are essential to us. Now we’ll play 18 league video games, in order that’s impacted our nonleague scheduling to a sure extent.
“It definitely throws some Northwest groups in, so our journey will not be fairly as dangerous.”
The 16-game convention slate was applied following the 2018 season in hopes of elevating the WCC’s possibilities of incomes a number of NCAA Match bids. For the highest groups, taking part in 16 convention video games erased a few video games towards foes with low NET rankings and opened up a pair of nonconference alternatives.
Gonzaga, which has dominated the WCC for many years, has leaned on difficult nonconference schedules to strengthen its event credentials and doubtlessly land a positive seed.
That is still the case with Gonzaga scheduled to face Kentucky in Seattle, UConn at Madison Sq. Backyard, UCLA on the new Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, San Diego State at SDSU’s Viejas Area and take part in a Battle 4 Atlantis discipline that features possible preseason top-20 groups Arizona and Indiana in addition to Windfall, No. 25 in CBS Sports activities’ High 25 and 1.
WSU is coming off a 25-10 season and its first NCAA Match look since 2008. The Cougars completed No. 44 within the NET rankings, so they’d have been a Quad 1 contest in Pullman and a Quad 2 matchup in Spokane had GU and WSU tangled twice final season.
Coach Kyle Smith left for Stanford after guiding the Cougars to 5 consecutive seasons with at the least a .500 report. Quite a few gamers transferred to different packages and Isaac Jones and Jaylen Wells are within the NBA draft. New coach David Riley has introduced in 9 new gamers, together with 4 of his former gamers at Jap Washington, and has two holdovers from final yr’s crew.
Gonzaga and WSU have not met because the Zags’ 69-60 victory in December 2015 in Pullman. The Zags have gained 5 in a row and 7 of the previous eight. The Cougars maintain a 98-52 benefit within the collection.
Oregon State made a powerful run to the 2021 Elite Eight however is simply 27-68 over the previous three seasons. The Beavers completed No. 165 within the NET final season, final amongst Pac-12 faculties.
Grand Canyon is an rising energy within the West with three NCAA Match appearances in 4 years below coach Bryce Drew, who has led the Lopes to information of 17-7, 23-8, 24-12 and 30-5.
GCU beat Saint Mary’s on the Area within the first spherical earlier than falling in an in depth contest to Alabama final March. The Lopes completed fiftieth within the NET, which might qualify as a Quad 1 street sport and a Quad 2 dwelling contest.
Seattle has posted three consecutive 20-win seasons and a 36-20 WAC mark in coach Chris Victor’s three years. The Redhawks had been No. 119 within the NET, second within the WAC behind Grand Canyon. Seattle is 3-4 towards the Lopes previously three seasons.
The underside 5 within the WCC standings final season had NET rankings between 199 and 359, which means Gonzaga’s street wins over Loyola Marymount (199) and Pepperdine (226) counted as Quad 3 and the remaining had been Quad 4.
Few’s thoughts was targeted on a busy summer season forward with Crew USA when requested about Grand Canyon and Seattle.
“I have never actually even thought that a lot about it, to be trustworthy,” he stated earlier this week. “I am simply coping with this yr. I’ve obtained USA Basketball and I’ve obtained this (GU) crew this yr and I am going to cross that bridge once I have to.”
Few was extra expansive on a podcast hosted by former Zags nice Dan Dickau in early June. Few agreed with Boise State coach and former GU assistant Leon Rice’s competition that Gonzaga, Grand Canyon and San Diego State have the three greatest home-court environments within the West.
Grand Canyon “has the identical mindset that we’ve at Gonzaga,” Few stated. “You go to a Grand Canyon sport and it is a big-time deal. They need to get greater and they’re progress oriented. I believe that is a optimistic, and who is aware of what’s going to occur with the Pac-12 faculties all disassembled and all that? It is a crapshoot to foretell what’s going to occur.”
Few additionally lauded WCC Commissioner Stu Jackson’s management in his 15 months on the job “throughout a very turbulent time.
“It is a bizarre panorama proper now,” Few stated. “Stu is doing an incredible job as commissioner.”
Commissioner Stu Jackson: ‘It isn’t a foul place to be within the WCC’
Scheduling was one in all many matters/points that Jackson mentioned in one thing of a state-of-the-WCC handle earlier this week on the convention event in Las Vegas. — Learn extra