2017-2018 WCC MBB Conference Results

Dean Murdoch wrote:Wow, that Gonzaga/SMC game was an absolute treat to watch. Two really good basketball teams, that was wild! Never sad to see Gonzaga lose!

Fun game to watch and the better TEAM won.

SMC's win will move them up in the bracketology....that's very good for the WCC come March.

The SD box totaled up 15 steals by the pilots ( and 9 by USD)

Can that be right?

The ESPN box score has 7 steals by each team.

Pacific 92, Pepperdine 78
BYU 82, Loyola Marymount 67
Santa Clara 65, San Francisco 62

Pacific tied for 3rd with BYU but they face St. Mary's next.
Pepperdine the last winless team remaining in the WCC.
San Fransisco heading to the bottom tier of the WCC with third straight loss.

I did not read the Mid-Major Madness WCC Power Rankings earlier this week.  The comment on UP:

The Pilots haven’t won in conference play, but they haven’t really looked awful. Well, except for that 46-point loss to Gonzaga last week.

 Fair assessment.  And now out of date.

Also had SMC #1, which played out well. USD was #5, but trending down after a strong start.

SCU has 4 WCC wins, because they have won all their games against the lower tier teams.  Too bad UP couldn't close the deal in our game down there.

https://www.midmajormadness.com/west-coast-conference-power-rankings

DoubleDipper wrote:
There are no predicted close games in other action in the WCC today:
USD is favored by 13 at home vs. UP
UOP is favored by 10 at home vs. PU
BYU is favored by 15 at home vs. LMU
USF is favored by 10 at home vs. SCU

In addition to the SMC upset at GU, UP's game was obviously an upset, beating the spread by 19 points. The total score was a crazy 32 points under. And SCU beat the spread by 13 points. The three upsets were all underdog road teams with victories.

The standings are:
SMC 1st
GU 2nd
BYU & UOP tied 3rd
USD & SCU tied 5th
USF 7th
UP & LMU tied 8th
PU 10th

2-6 anyone?

The Pilots' quest for a road trip sweep is predicted to be the closest matchup and the highest scoring game in the WCC today:

LMU favored at home by 6.5/144.5 vs. UP
GU favored on the road by 20/143 vs. SCU
BYU favored at home by 10.5/132.5 vs. USD
SMC favored on the road by 10/142.5 vs. UOP
USF favored at home by 9.5/140 vs. PU

LMU is averaging 65.5 ppg in WCC play.  Pilots are averaging 59 ppg. (OTs excluded)  Spread looks reasonable.  Take the under!

Diabate with 8 points early! 11 - 4 lead. I really like the way he's been playing since they put him back in the starting lineup. LMU is going to have to defend inside which should open up the 3 pointer for our shooters. Perhaps we can improve our dismal in conference 3pt % back to something like it was during OOC.

DoubleDipper wrote:The Pilots' quest for a road trip sweep is predicted to be the closest matchup and the highest scoring game in the WCC today:

LMU favored at home by 6.5/144.5 vs. UP
GU favored on the road by 20/143 vs. SCU
BYU favored at home by 10.5/132.5 vs. USD
SMC favored on the road by 10/142.5 vs. UOP
USF favored at home by 9.5/140 vs. PU

Along with UP's upset tonight, GU did not beat the spread, nor did SMC, nor did USF. So BYU was the only favorite to hold form.

Pilots now alone in 8th place, one game behind USF and two games behind SCU and USD. BYU alone in 3rd, one game ahead of UOP.

#13 Gonzaga 75, Santa Clara 60
BYU 74, San Diego 58
Saint Mary's 72, Pacific 69
San Francisco 80, Pepperdine 73

Tough fight by Pacific giving the Gaels a true scare, but couldn't quite close it out.

I know I shared this before, but over in the College Basketball reddit, they have been tracking the imperialism map over the course of the season thus far. Each team at the start of the season controlled the counties closest to them. So, UP had control over most of Northern Oregon and Southern Washington (which we got by way of being closer to the geographic center of Multnomah county than Portland State). Every game is a battle for land, so we immediately lost all of our land to Portland State. The Vikings then lost it to Duke, who lost it to Boston College, who lost it to Virginia.

Currently, our territory is still controlled by Virginia, so we have no chance of winning it back unless we play them in the Tournament (assuming they don't lose it, which they likely will, but it is stuck with an ACC team now). The only WCC school with land currently is Saint Mary's. So, assuming Saint Mary's doesn't lose to BYU on Thursday, our matchup with them could be for control of their land in this fictional game of College Basketball Risk. Their land would only be passed around WCC schools at this point, until the post season tournaments start.

Here is the college basketball land map as of January 21st for the curious. Saint Mary's has UC-Davis' and ECU's territories.

Given the beating the Zags put on the Pilots in Spokane, it's probably no surprise that UP is the only home team in the WCC that is NOT favored in tonight's games.

GU (15) over UP by 22/144.5 (ESPNU @ 8pm)
PU over LMU by 1.5/148 (ROOT @ 7pm)
USD over SCU by 8/129.5
SMC (16) over BYU by 8.5/137.5 (ESPN2 @ 8pm)
USF over UOP by 6/135.5 (seems a bit of surprise given the performance of both  teams lately).

DoubleDipper wrote:Given the beating the Zags put on the Pilots in Spokane, it's probably no surprise that UP is the only home team in the WCC that is NOT favored in tonight's games.

GU (15) over UP by 22/144.5 (ESPNU @ 8pm)
PU over LMU by 1.5/148 (ROOT @ 7pm)
USD over SCU by 8/129.5
SMC (16) over BYU by 8.5/137.5 (ESPN2 @ 8pm)
USF over UOP by 6/135.5 (seems a bit of surprise given the performance of both  teams lately).

Yeah, but you posted pretty much the exact same thing on January 9, 2014... https://www.pilotnation.net/t5329-gonzaga-thursday-8-pm

DoubleDipper wrote:Interestingly, #18 GU is only favored by 7.5 by Las Vegas….UP is the only WCC home team not favored Thursday night.

In other WCC games Thursday night:

BYU over PU by 16.5
Pacific over USF by 5
USD over LMU by 4
SMC over SCU by 14

Whoa! Deja Vu all over again?

Let's hope it's an omen....



Good digging, Deaner.

Our win over USD could come in handy as a tie-breaker come seeding time... we should hope they run the table the rest of the way.

PilotNut wrote:Our win over USD could come in handy as a tie-breaker come seeding time... we should hope they run the table the rest of the way.

Amazing what a couple of wins will do for the season outlook. After not looking at the standings all season long, I've actually checked them a couple of times since the two wins to see if there's any hope of jumping up to #6 and out of the 7/10 and 8/9 round. Ton of work left to do, but at least it's not completely outside of the realm of possibility now

Nearing the halfway point in the WCC season, and some starting to look forward to the postseason, it's a good time to look at the RPI of each of the teams, and in parenthesis, each team's strength of schedule (SOS):

36 -- SMC (154)
57 -- GU (160)
73 -- BYU (188)
144 -- UOP (78)
148 -- USD (222)
199 -- USF (161)
232 -- UP (108) UP had an RPI of 253 before the road sweep vs. USD and LMU
253 -- LMU (168)
266 -- SCU (181)
315 -- PU (129)

As UP is playing the top two teams in the WCC this week, we can expect to see some movement in both RPI and SOS...

DoubleDipper wrote:Nearing the halfway point in the WCC season, and some starting to look forward to the postseason, it's a good time to look at the RPI of each of the teams, and in parenthesis, each team's strength of schedule (SOS):

36 -- SMC (154) {17}
57 -- GU (160) {7}
73 -- BYU (188) {52}
144 -- UOP (78) {162}
148 -- USD (222) {121}
199 -- USF (161) {155}
232 -- UP (108) {261} UP had an RPI of 253 before the road sweep vs. USD and LMU
253 -- LMU (168) {235}
266 -- SCU (181) {271}
315 -- PU (129) {290}

As UP is playing the top two teams in the WCC this week, we can expect to see some movement in both RPI and SOS...

I added the KenPom rankings in { } after the SOS. Generally, KenPom ranks WCC schools higher then RPI does, but UP is one of the exceptions.

The rest of the WCC:

Pepperdine 71, Loyola Marymount 70
San Francisco 69, Pacific 67
San Diego 66, Santa Clara 58
#16 Saint Mary's 75, BYU 62

Pepperdine finally gets first conference win by draining a game winning 3 at the end after intentionally missing a FT.

DoubleDipper wrote:Given the beating the Zags put on the Pilots in Spokane, it's probably no surprise that UP is the only home team in the WCC that is NOT favored in tonight's games.

GU (15) over UP by 22/144.5 (ESPNU @ 8pm)
PU over LMU by 1.5/148 (ROOT @ 7pm)
USD over SCU by 8/129.5
SMC (16) over BYU by 8.5/137.5 (ESPN2 @ 8pm)
USF over UOP by 6/135.5 (seems a bit of surprise given the performance of both  teams lately).

GU had the spread beat, but their scrubs let the Pilots back in to beat it.  They combined to blow the over away by 30 points.

Sound Voltex wrote:Pepperdine 71, Loyola Marymount 70
San Francisco 69, Pacific 67
San Diego 66, Santa Clara 58
#16 Saint Mary's 75, BYU 62

Most of the other predictions were very close.

Sound Voltex wrote:The rest of the WCC:

Pepperdine 71, Loyola Marymount 70
San Francisco 69, Pacific 67
San Diego 66, Santa Clara 58
#16 Saint Mary's 75, BYU 62

Pepperdine finally gets first conference win by draining a game winning 3 at the end after intentionally missing a FT.

Just finished watching video of the PU vs. LMU game, and it was close the entire way until that absolutely perfect deliberate missed free-throw off the back iron, and then the batting of the ball beyond the 3-point line for the winning shot with 1.7 seconds left.

Also watched tape of the SMC vs. BYU game, called "Aussie Night" in Moraga.  SMC was generally in control throughout, but BYU did put a scare into the Gaels fans when the roared back at the beginning of the second half.  Reigning WCC Player of the Week, Jock Landale, is unstoppable...32 points (including a 3-pointer) and 14 rebounds.

The conference is separating into strata: the top 2, the bottom 3, and the muddled middle. We know the top 2. BYU (6-3) is below them, and just above USD, UOP, SCU and USF, who are all 5-4 or 4-5. We're in the bottom 3 at 2-7 while LMU and PU are 1-8.

After the SMC game the Pilots have an opportunity to make a move in the standings. First, two home games against the teams behind us, then three more games against the middle teams: @USF, @UOP, and SCU. Out of those five games, three wins are a must, four would be great, five would be awesome.

The finish is tougher, with the SMC and BYU visits to Chiles, then the finale @PU.

7 wins might just be enough to keep us out of Friday night play in Vegas... that would mean beating Pepp twice, LMU here, and then grabbing two out of three in SCU, @USF, @PAC. We would likely also need SCU and/or USF to drop a couple games to LMU/Pepp/PAC/USD. This is a tough task, but not completely out of the question either...

Rest of the WCC:

San Diego 89, Loyola Marymount 82
#15 Gonzaga 82, San Francisco 73
Santa Clara 73, Pepperdine 59
BYU 80, Pacific 65

Pacific and USF kept it close in their games, but could not close it out.