WCC Men’s Season Preview – Yahoo Sports

The West Coast Conference has been one of the most predictable mid-major conferences of the last quarter century. Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s have ruled with an ironclad thrown, and things aren’t going to change this season. The conference adds a 12th member in Seattle U. This will be the last year for Gonzaga in the conference. Let’s break down how things will go down in the WCC.

2025-26 West Coast Conference Men’s Basketball Preseason Poll

Gonzaga (9 first place votes) – 119
Saint Mary’s (2) – 109

The Favorites

Gonzaga

To nobody’s surprise, Gonzaga is the favorite to win the West Coast Conference in its culminating season. The Zags are coming off a season where they finished three games behind Saint Mary’s in the regular season standings. Do we move the Zags back to mid-major status?

The Zags have overwhelmingly the most talented roster in the conference, but are they talented enough to make a deep run in March? That’s the new standard in Spokane. It helps, they have one of the country’s best front court duo in veteran Graham Ike and Braden Huff. Gonzaga should be able to control the boards. Do they have enough shooting to space the floor?

Gonzaga brought in Tyon Grant-Foster from Grand Canyon. Grant-Foster was granted eligibility for this season from a judge after the NCAA initially ruled him ineligible. He is more of a slasher and driver than he is a shooter. Former Illinois/LSU guard Adam Miller should provide some shooting. Gonzaga is going to have to rely on Colgate transfer Braeden Smith to play point guard. Replacing the likes of Ryan Nembhard is a difficult task. Watch out for Steele Venters, who is coming off a season-ending injury. He should provide explosive scoring off the wing if he is completely healthy.

We get to enjoy Gonzaga in the WCC for one last season. It should be a good one.

Saint Mary’s

The Gaels are the defending regular-season champions. They lose point guard Augustas Marčiulionis and star center Mitchell Saxen.

WCC first-team member Paulius Murauskas comes back after averaging 12 points and nearly eight rebounds per game. The versatile forward is going to be the center of the Gaels’ offense. SMC will need a breakthrough season from sophomore Mikey Lewis. Lewis was a member of the conference’s all-freshmen team after averaging eight points per game. Formerly a top 100 recruit, Lewis has to live up to his star potential.

Saint Mary’s has a couple of strong newcomers — Tony Duckett comes from San Diego after averaging 10 ppg, and Mantas Juzenas is a talented wing from Lithuania. Randy Bennett is one of those coaches who squeezes all the potential from his teams. The Gaels should be a Tournament team again and could challenge Gonzaga for the regular season championship once again.

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Contenders

San Francisco

The Dons are entering year four of the Chris Gerlufsen era. The Dons have been successful, winning 66% of his games, but they haven’t sniffed the NCAA Tournament. USF has the talent this year to change that.

San Francisco has a talented offensive duo of Ryan Beasley and Tyrone Riley IV. Both of these guys could have jumped in the portal to pursue opportunities at power-conference schools but they decided to stay. Riley (9.6 points, 6.0 rebounds) is a 6-foot-6 sophomore who earned all-freshman honors a year ago. He started 34 games for the Dons and had double-digit scoring performances 16 times. Beasley is a junior guard who averaged nine points a game as well.

The Dons got two power conference transfers — former McDonalds All-American Mookie Cook transferred in from Oregon, and Guillermo Diaz Graham is 7-footer who was a multi-year starter at Pitt. San Francisco has key non-conference matchups against Memphis, Ole Miss, Colorado and Minnesota. A competitive conference season combined with a couple key non-conference wins can put USF on the right side of the bubble.

Santa Clara

Herb Sendek always puts a compelling product on the ﬂoor. This season, Sendek will have his work cut out for him. The Broncos lost ﬁve out of their six top scorers. The X-Factor will be Thierry Darlan, who comes to Santa Clara by way of the G-League, where he averaged 11 points per game for the Delaware Blue Hens. Darlan just received clearance to play from the NCAA two weeks before the season.

Oregon State

Wayne Tinkle enters his 14th season in Corvallis. Oregon State lost its top ﬁve scorers. Tinkle used the transfer portal to ﬁll out the roster and brought in nine new faces. Oregon State brought in two stars from the Missouri Valley Conference. Dez White from Missouri State will carry the guard position. He averaged 14 points per game. To man the front court, Tinkle brought in center Stephen Olowoniyi, an eﬃcient PF who averaged 14 points and seven rebounds last season at Southern Illinois. A name to keep track of is Australian center Yaak Yaak, who blocked 50 shots at Colorado Mesa last season. The Beavers have six guys on the roster 6-foot-11 or taller making them one of the biggest teams in the country.

Washington State

Tell me if you heard this before, the Cougars are coming into the season after losing their top six scorers. Losing top players to the portal is an epidemic for mid-majors. Instead of investing in the portal, head coach David Riley is looking for younger players to take drastic steps forward. Look out for Tomas Thrastarson and Rihards Vavers to be breakout candidates.

Rest of the Pack

Loyola Marymount

Stan Johnson is entering his seventh season. LMU had a versatile offensive attack last season with four starters averaging double ﬁgures. Their stars Jevon Porter and Will Johnston left for the portal, and now Johnston has to construct his starting lineup from scratch. This team has plenty of talent. UCLA transfer Jan Vide returns for his second of year. MJ Amey Jr. returns after averaging 8.6 points off the bench this season. Nakyel Shelton is their star transfer, who averaged 17 points per game last season at Eastern Illinois. LMU might have a potential star in USC transfer Jalen Shelley, a 6-foot-8 sophomore wing who was a top-100 prospect in the 2024 recruiting class. Tanner Thomas was a second team All-MAAC selection who averaged 14 points per game at Sacred Heart.

This is a do-or-die season for the Lions. Johnson has a team that’s talented enough to compete in the conference this year.

Seattle U

The Redhawks enter their first year in the WCC conference. Last season, Seattle U had a fourth place finish in the WAC but it’s going to be a tougher road this season. The Redhawks have a tight-knit core. John Christoﬁlis is a sharp shooter, who averaged 11 points per game last season. Maleek Arington is a pass-ﬁrst point guard who has 362 career assists. Brayden Maldonado is an explosive guard, who nearly shot 40% from three. Seattle added Gonzaga transfer Junseok Yeo to play the four. The Redhawks are a well-coached, scrappy team who may surprise some people this season.

The Cellar

San Diego

The Steve Lavin experience has not been successful. The Toreros are nearly 30 games under .500 during Lavin’s tenure. They bring 16 new faces into the program. The most notable transfer is Ty Johnson out of Louisville.

Pacific

Like many others in the group, Paciﬁc only returns one player from last year’s roster, but it happens to be its best player. Elias Ralph returns after averaging 14 points per game last season. Paciﬁc has some under-rated transfers. TJ Wainwright is tough and physical and averaged 13.2 points per game at Long Beach State. Justin Rochehlin was sixth man of the year at UC San Diego last season, and Alexis Marmolejos averaged 14 points at Lamar. Expect Paciﬁc to take a big leap in year two of Dave Smart’s tenure.

Pepperdine

Last season was hectic for Pepperdine since it couldn’t practice in their own gym during a part of conference play due California ﬁres. Ed Schilling lost his top six scorers from last season. Danilo Dozic (5.8 points) returns for his sophomore season. Former Wake Forest transfer Aaron Cook returns after redshirting from injury. Graduate transfer Javon Cooley provides much needed experience. The wildcard for the Waves is they bring six international players to the roster.

Portland

It’s going to be tough for Portland to complete. The Pilots brought in Riley Parker from Saint Francis. This team doesn’t have a lot of high-end talent. Jermaine Ballisager Webb is a 7-footer that gives them size. They have a couple of juco transfers who will need to pop. A single-digit ﬁnish in the standings would be a successful season for the Pilots.

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