It’s a difficult existence being in a conference with Gonzaga because you’re nearly guaranteed to finish no better than second in the league and be forever overshadowed. That’s not fun. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other high-level programs in the West Coast Conference — and there seems to be more than usual right now.
The WCC has real depth this season.
Sure, the Zags remain the class of the conference — but BYU, San Francisco and Saint Mary’s have also emerged as legitimate at-large candidates to make the 2022 NCAA Tournament . BYU improved to 6-0 late Saturday with a 75-64 win at Utah. San Francisco is 8-0 with wins over Davidson and UAB. And Saint Mary’s is 6-1 with wins over Notre Dame and Oregon (and a lone loss to Wisconsin). The byproduct of that is that the West Coast Conference currently has four top-40 KenPom teams. That’s the same number as the Big East and more than the Pac-12 and American Athletic Conference have at the moment.
Can we get a #FourBidWCC?
That obviously remains to be seen. But we spent some time discussing it on Wednesday’s episode of the Eye On College Basketball Podcast and detailed how and why it’s definitely in play. And if you haven’t been paying attention to BYU specifically, it’s time to right that wrong because Mark Pope is low-key running one of the sport’s best programs. He’s 50-15 since replacing Dave Rose after the 2018-19 season with back-to-back top-20 finishes at KenPom. He just guided the Cougars to a win at Utah for the first time since 2011.
BYU remains No. 10 in Sunday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. The Cougars’ next game is Wednesday at Utah Valley, otherwise known as the place where Pope coached for four seasons before leaving for BYU.
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Top 25 And 1 rankings 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