Nash, Russell, and Gyno

With the signing period recently ending for college basketball, it is time to take a look at the West Coast Conference and who will compete for the league title next year. For those of you unaware of how awesome the WCC really is, let me tell you.

NBA greats Bill Russell, Steve Nash, and John Stockton all came from the WCC. So did quality players such as KC Jones, Bill Cartwright, Kurt Rambis, and Dennis Johnson. The league came together in 1952 with original members Santa Clara, Saint Mary's, San Francisco, San Jose State, and Pacific. It added Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine in 1955 and came to full eight team status, as is today, in 1979.

With that said, Gonzaga owns the conference currently and it sucks. Everyone hates them. The list of annoying players who dominated at Gonzaga includes Richie Frahm, Casey Calvary, Dan Dickau, Blake Stepp, Ronny Turiaf, Derek Raivio, and of course Adam Morrison. Who likes any of those players really?

Nevertheless the domination cannot be denied. The Bulldogs appeared in the NCAA Tournament the past nine seasons and played in the WCC Championship ten straight years posting a 8-2 mark during that time. Of course they never appeared in the Final Four like Santa Clara did in 1952, but who keeps track of these things?

Next year Gonzaga will be the favorite once again. They lose emaciated guard Derek Raivio and 45 year old forward Sean Mallon to graduation while sullen guard Pierre Altidor-Cespedes will transfer. Of course they bring in the 28th best recruit in the country in 6-9 foward Austin Daye to go along with the 81st best recruit in shooting guard Steven Gray. They will roll out a pretty formidable line up with Jeremy Pargo and Matt Bouldin at guards, Josh Heytvelt (expected to return despite mushrooms hanging off his lips), David Pendergraft and Micah Downs on the front line and a bench featuring Daye, Gray, Larry Gurganious, and Abudallah Kuso. That will be tough to beat. Really tough.

So the fight will once again be for second place, unless Heytvelt gets more of his teammates arrested or Downs transfers (a definite possibility considering he attended seven high schools and two colleges already). Santa Clara, Saint Mary's, San Diego, and San Francisco should all be in the hunt for the second spot.

The Broncos lose a lot in all-conferences players Sean Denison (co-player of the year), Scott Dougherty (would rather be a dentist than play a fourth year), and Danny Pariseau (good, he whines too much). They do return a good point guard in Brody Angley and big man John Bryant (cut your hair please). Mitch Henke also returns and he holds the distinction of being my most hated Bronco. I do not like that guy. He blew the championship game against Gonzaga. I can't really remember why (which is the primary reason why I would never be a good sportswriter), but I just hate him (the other reason why I would never be a good sportswriter, I don't think you are supposed to say you hate people). The Broncos also return seven footer Josh Higgins and guard Calvin Johnson. While Higgins still looks like a project, Johnson should play a lot of minutes next year.

Santa Clara's recruiting class proved to be one of the better one's in recent memory. Scott Thompson, a 6-11 center from Idaho, should be able to play right away and was ranked as the 40th best center in the country. 6-9 forward Andrew Zimmerman will help as well and junior college transfer guard Zac Tiedeman comes in with a reputation as a shooter who should log minutes at both guard spots. 6-7 forward Ben Dowdell rounds out the class as the first Australian to commit to the Broncos. For whatever that is worth.

San Francisco loses all-conference forward Alan Wiggins Jr as well as contributers Armando Surratt and Johnny Dukes. Yet they return a talented guard tandem of Antonio Kellogg and Manny Quezada as well as a talented freshmen in forward Jay Watkins. Too bad their mascot is a fat orange basketball with a Zorro mask. Seriously, how stupid is that? The Dons do bring in a good class led by 6-4 wing Wendell McKines. He should contribute right away, as should Texas Tech transfer Dior Lowhorn who sat out last season.

The baby sister school, Saint Mary's, still calls themselves the Gaels. And they still want our attention at Santa Clara so they pretend there is a rivalry. It doesn't count as a rivalry when you beat a team three times. Oh snap. Eat it Gaels.

I have to enjoy that while I can considering Saint Mary's returns almost their entire roster including superstar wanna-be Diamon Simpson and foreigner of the year Omar Samhan. They bring in a couple point guards with no recognition, but should help the backcourt depth.

Meanwhile the San Diego Toreros still count Jenny Craig as their most famous alumna. Now they have Bill Grier as their head coach (former top assistant at Gonzaga) which should help recruiting. With 6-6 forward Rob Jones and 6-2 guard Sammy Yeager Bombs as their top recruits, the Toreros will be looking to the current roster for much of the production. Gyno (what profession should he go into?) Pomare leads the boys as a returning all-conference player after averaging 14.9 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. Guard Brandon Johnson also returns after putting up 12.8 points per game last year. They return five other contributors to a team that underachieved last season.

Loyola Marymount, Portland, and Pepperdine will all be fighting to get out of the six through eight spots and count on a number of recruits to help achieve said goal. Rodney Tention leads the Lions as he brings in Bishop O'Dowd graduate Brandon Walker (you thought maybe David Dunch?) and Snohomish product Tim Diedrichs. The issue is that Loyola loses their top four scorers and six out of the top seven from last season including Matthew Knight and Adoyah Miller. Those names mean nothing to you, I understand.

P-Town, home of Brewfest and the Beavs, returns a couple decent forwards in Jamie Jones and Sherrard Watson to go along with Asian Sensation guard Taishi Ito. Despite the fear of this three-0, the Pilots and coach Eric Reveno will be looking for recruits Nik Raivio (JC transfer and yes, the brother of the emaciated one), Kramer Knutson, Jared Stohl (local kid who shoots really well), and Luke Sikma (son of Jack and dominated by the Prep Panthers last season) to contribute greatly.

Pepperdine coach Vance Wahlberg brought a new style of basketball to the beach last season and promptly scared all the players away. But he brings in a bunch of new recruits, some of which are highly touted. 6-7 forward Tyrone Shelley leads the group closely followed by 6-8 Malcolm Thomas and 6-6 Jon Reed. They will be pretty good in a few years, but may not be ready next season.

Wow. More than you ever wanted to know about WCC basketball. Since we got this far, let's rank the top recruiting classes in the conference this season.

1. Gonzaga

2. Pepperdine

3. San Francisco
4. Santa Clara

5. San Diego

6. Portland

7. Loyola Marymount

8. Saint Mary's

And an early prediction at the conference standings:

1. Gonzaga

2. Saint Mary's

3. Santa Clara

4. San Diego

5. San Francisco

6. Portland

7. Pepperdine

8. Loyola Marymount