WCC Basketball Fans

Scores

Thursday, February 2

Saint Mary’s 84 San Diego 73

Portland 84 Santa Clara 78

Loyola Marymount 67 Pepperdine 57

BYU 83, Gonzaga 73

Saturday, February 4

San Diego 70 Santa Clara 65

Loyola Marymount 90 San Francisco 88

Gonzaga 72 Pepperdine 60

BYU 79 Portland 60

In the West Coast Conference, an important process of revival took place this past week. The Brigham Young Cougars, who looked down for the count and were trending toward the National Invitation Tournament, made a strong plea to the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, a full-throated announcement that they want to be considered for inclusion into the field of 68.

BYU got whacked at home by Saint Mary’s a week earlier, leading most basketball pundits to conclude that the NIT was in the Cougars’ future. BYU’s home court – the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah – has been a distinct stronghold in recent seasons, so when Saint Mary’s waltzed into town and put a beatdown on Brigham Young, coach Dave Rose’s team wasn’t just scrambling for answers. It was put into a must-win position when it hosted longtime West Coast Conference powerhouse Gonzaga on Thursday night. It was really rather simple: BYU had to win if it wanted any chance at a tourney ticket, and given its face-plant against Saint Mary’s, the smart money seemed to reside with the Zags, a team that lost at Saint Mary’s earlier this season and had something to prove in its own right. This was the first BYU-Gonzaga game since the Cougars’ move to the WCC, so Gonzaga wanted to answer the call just as much as BYU did. The newbie in the league obviously wanted to tell the Zags that its presence in the league was something to fear, but Gonzaga harbored the desire to tell BYU that getting a foothold in the new-look WCC would not be very easy at all.

When the smoke cleared, though, BYU gained that foothold and made it look fairly easy indeed.

Gonzaga simply could not handle BYU’s defensive pressure. The Cougars used quick hands to produce a boatload of steals – 14 in all – and generate stacks of cheap fast-break buckets which inflated the Cougars’ shooting clip to 49 percent. BYU forced 19 Gonzaga turnovers on a night when the Zags simply didn’t exhibit much of any composure or toughness in their halfcourt sets. Gonzaga appeared flustered by BYU and rattled by the raucous Marriott Center crowd. The Cougars were the ones throwing all the punches and making all the forward movements in this contest; the visitors from Spokane, Washington, were the ones on their heels throughout the evening.

Gonzaga is still more likely than not to make the NCAAs, but the loss gives Saint Mary’s – the winner of two games this past week – a firm grip on first place in the conference. Moreover, this loss means that the Zags can’t give away a bad loss if they want to shore up their NCAA candidacy… unless they take care of Saint Mary’s and BYU at home. Gonzaga has to make sure that it wins the big home games on its slate and creates the kind of resume that will satisfy the selection committee. BYU has played itself back into the conversation, but the Cougars just might have to beat Gonzaga again – this time, in Eastern Washington – if they want to feel good about their NCAA hopes.

It’s getting mighty interesting in the new West Coast Conference. BYU wasn’t making much of its debut season in the league, but a Thursday success story against Gonzaga has clearly changed the trajectory of the Cougars’ season…. and of the next four weeks.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer