The West Coast Conference is one of college basketball’s better mid-major conferences year-in and year-out. This is largely thanks to the dominance of Gonzaga, who has been a perennial title contender since before I was born. (2006) However, this year’s WCC has a chance to contend for multiple NCAA tournament bids , which creates an interesting picture for the conference tournament. Even with the dominance of the Zags, an upset is definitely possible. 

This article is going to preview the West Coast Conference Men’s tournament, looking at which teams have a realistic shot at winning it all, along with the potential bracket busters. For this preview, I took inspiration from Nick Wright’s “Mahomes Mountain” bit for ranking quarterbacks. Welcome to WCC Mountain!

No-Chance Canyon: Pepperdine

Pepperdine has nine total wins on the season and possesses no semblance of identity. With only two players standing above 6’10”, Pepperdine lacks any type of paint presence. The backcourt play has been surprisingly solid, led by a strong duo of transfer guards, and could lead to a close contest in round one. However, the talent and size deficit will simply be too much to overcome for the Waves.

First Round Foothill: San Diego, LMU, Washington State, Portland

These three teams are all middling squads in the WCC. All three teams have won less than eight conference games a-piece. San Diego has five wins, LMU and Portland both have six and Washington State has seven. These teams simply lack the talent and coaching of the teams above them. I have yet to write them off because of how volatile playoff basketball can be, but I do not have much faith in these teams. 

If I had to pick one team from this group to make a run, it would be Wazzu because of their elite freshman guard Ace Glass. Glass went off for 40 points against Arizona State in the Southwest Maui Invitational, and seems poised to go off in the conference tourney. 

Portland would also be a solid choice, since they were able to steal a game from Gonzaga earlier in the year. However, they also lost to Pepperdine twice, and have been manhandled by most of the upper-level teams in this conference. 

Surprise Slope: Seattle U, San Francisco, Oregon State, Pacific

These are the four teams that can cause some real upsets in the later rounds of the tournament. These four teams all play a brand of well rounded basketball that will warrant respect from the top three teams in the tournament should they face off. 

The best of the bunch is Oregon State. They currently sit at .500 in conference play and play a style of basketball that relies on physicality and controlling the paint, but are more than capable of beating teams on the outside. If I had to choose a  favorite for this tier, it would be Oregon State. 

However, I think San Francisco will be the real dark horse of this tournament. They have the best win of any team in this tier, beating Mississippi State on Dec 7, and this team feels like one that can go far this year. San Francisco has enough individual talent to compete, and they have a system built around scoring in the half-court, which bodes well for playoff basketball. Keep an eye out for the Dons to potentially make a run. 

Contender Cliffs: Saint Mary’s, Santa Clara

I mentioned in the introduction that the WCC could be a multi-bid conference. That is thanks to these two teams, who both find themselves on Contender Cliffs. Saint Mary’s and Santa Clara sit as the two and three seeds this year respectively.

Saint Mary’s makes their living on the glass, being one of the best rebounding teams, both offensively and defensively, in the entire country. Combine elite offensive rebounding with multiple deep-ball snipers and strong ballhandling, and the Gaels have arguably the best half-court offense in the conference. Defensively, they do nothing to wow opposing teams, but can hold the line well enough for the offense to pick up the slack. 

For Santa Clara, they exist on the opposite end of the basketball spectrum. Santa Clara is at its best forcing turnovers and scoring in transition. They want to speed opponents up and harass them defensively. The top-end talent is not at the level of Saint Mary’s or Gonzaga, but the Santa Clara philosophy puts them in legitimate contender status. 

Bulldog Peak: Gonzaga

Despite some very stiff competition, the Zags hold firm at the top of WCC mountain. Unlike past iterations of the Bulldogs, this year’s team is arguably college basketball’s best defense. Graham Ike, the WCC Player of The Year, is the two-way engine that drives this team, but Mark Few has finally complemented his star with athletic perimeter defenders. The starting lineup for the Zags is massive and every one of them can defend extremely well while providing the elite offense the program is known for.. 

Not having Braden Huff will make things harder for the Bulldogs. Huff went down in the middle of January with a knee injury, and could very likely miss the WCC tournament. This is a noticeably worse team without Huff, as Gonzaga’s only two conference losses came after his injury. Even so, Gonzaga is still my favorite to win the WCC tournament, but it will not be easy. 

This is my preview of the West Coast Conference Men’s Tournament. A lot of great basketball will be played in the later rounds of this tournament, with the potential for a Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s rematch, which is absolutely must watch basketball. With that possible matchup, along with the high upset potential in this conference, the WCC will have one of the most entertaining Mid-Major conference tournaments this year, and I cannot wait to watch it.