2017-2018 WCC MBB Conference Results

Sure, #3 Purdue is at #4 Michigan State today, but the game of the day for most of us has to be in Moraga, where #12 Gonzaga rumbles with #11 St. Mary's.

SMC (24-2/13-0) is on a 20 game winning streak after inexplicably losing to WSU and Georgia at Thanksgiving, but GU (22-4/12-1) has won 22 WCC road games in a row....their last conference road loss being to SMC two years ago.

Just over three weeks ago the Gaels beat the Zags in Spokane, 74-71, after overcoming a 9-point Zag halftime lead on the back of Jock Landale's 26 points and 12 rebounds.

Tonight on ESPN2 the home team is favored by 1.5 points...

(Another TV game that should be good this afternoon is USF at BYU, especially if Coach Rose is yelling at the refs and the Coked-up Cougar fans are yelling at the refs! )

USD had a 9 point lead at SCU at half. SCU tied it up by the 10 minute to go mark, and made free throws to close out a 70-64 win.

DoubleDipper wrote:(Another TV game that should be good this afternoon is USF at BYU, especially if Coach Rose is yelling at the refs and the Coked-up Cougar fans are yelling at the refs! )

USF was up 7 with one minute to go at BYU. DD's little friend Boum led the way for them.   But BYU came back with a couple 3P plays.  Down 3 with 11 seconds, USF let them get off a shot to tie the game.  Then with the game tied in OT, Boum tried to force a drive late, and turned it over.  Then he was called on a cheap foul with 4 seconds left.  Hawes made the FTs, and USF missed the last second shot.  BYU wins.  USF chokes?

I’m starting to get the feeling that we might upset the Cougar faithful in Chiles later this season.

SouthCarolinaPilot wrote:I’m starting to get the feeling that we might upset the Cougar faithful in Chiles later this season.

Haha, yeah I've felt the same way over the last couple of weeks, but being superstitious, I didn't want to say it or write it....so I won't!

DoubleDipper wrote:Sure, #3 Purdue is at #4 Michigan State today, but the game of the day for most of us has to be in Moraga, where #12 Gonzaga rumbles with #11 St. Mary's.

I was wrong, the Purdue/MSU game was far better than the GU/SMC game....in fact I watched parts of eight other games today that were far better.

GU won, 78-65. The Zags double-teamed Landale and he finished with 4 points on 4 shots, while Hachimura scored 23 for GU.

The chances of UP playing LMU on Friday night in Las Vegas (again) increased with UP's two losses and LMU's victory over PU tonight, 78-65.

The Pilots are in 8th place 2 games behind USF and SCU, 1 game ahead of LMU, and 3 games ahead of PU...

Lots of missed opportunities tonight.
SMC failed to defend home court, and to lock in a top 10 ranking.
USD and USF failed to move into position for challenging for a 4th or even 3rd place finish.

https://www.midmajormadness.com/2018/2/13/west-coast-conference-power-rankings

Pilots stuck in 8th.

Portland (10-17, 4-10): When Terry Porter and his staff hit the recruiting trail and grad transfer market this summer, you’d have to imagine that their top priority will be finding size and physicality down low. Portland is one of the worst rebounding teams in the country, ranking 336th out of 351 teams in rebounding percentage and 339th in offensive rebounding percentage as well. That lack of paint presence hurt them in a two-point loss Saturday to Pacific, where the Pilots were outrebounded 38-28 and gave up 15 offensive rebounds to the Tigers.

https://theathletic.com/238412/2018/02/13/wcc-notebook-gonzaga-saint-marys-pacific-stoudamire/

Hmmmm. Outrebounded? Definitely. But that wasn’t nearly the deciding factor in the game (second-chance points were actually 11-9 in favour of the Pilots).

Dean Murdoch wrote:Hmmmm. Outrebounded? Definitely. But that wasn’t nearly the deciding factor in the game (second-chance points were actually 11-9 in favour of the Pilots).

When you lose by 2, a lot of things are "the" deciding factor. That being said... Pacific scored .6  second-chance points per offensive rebound. I don't know what the average would be, but that doesn't strike me as a particularly high right of converting offensive rebounds to second-chance points. At that rate, if the Pilots had limited Pacific to "only" 10 offensive rebounds, rather than 15, they would have won the game.

Rest of the WCC:

#9 Gonzaga 76, Loyola Marymount 46
BYU 75, Pepperdine 70 OT
Pacific 67, San Diego 55
San Francisco 70, #15 Saint Mary's 63

Obviously USF with the big upset tonight. Pepperdine almost had it but couldn't hang on in OT and thus ends BYU's strange streak of losing to lower-tier Pepperdine in their "high school gym" on the road.

USD, USF and SCU now all tied at 7-8 in conference. UOP (9-6) has a two game lead with three to play, and plays SCU and USF at home, finishes with LMU on the road. I think we can safely project UOP in the top four, maybe even overtaking 10-5 BYU.

One of those three teams will have to play PU in the opening round; PU finishes with GU, SMC and us, and is pretty much locked in at #10. USD has the toughest remaining schedule; BYU, GU @USF. USF is LMU, @UOP, USD. and SCU is @UOP, LMU, @SMC.

The rest of the WCC:
San Diego 75, BYU 62
San Francisco 72, Loyola Marymount 63
#9 Gonzaga 81, Pepperdine 67
Santa Clara 72, Pacific 68

Pacific squandered a golden opportunity to move into a third place tie with BYU, with the tiebreaker in Pacific's favor. Too bad.

Huh, USF, USD and SCU all won, and are 8-8. Not what I figured. Agreed, UOP blew it. Guess their lack of depth is showing, with almost losing at home to UP and losing to SCU. USD beating BYU kept them in play for 5/6.

Will Maupin tweeted some numbers:

WillsWCCblog wrote:
Here are some numbers for you: 1,458, 4 and 2.  

That's how many days it's been since Gonzaga, Saint Mary's and BYU  have, respectively, lost a conference game to a team not named in this tweet.

WillsWCCblog wrote:Feb. 22, 2014: Gonzaga 66, San Diego 69.
Feb. 15, 2018: Saint Mary's 63, San Francisco 70.
Feb. 17, 2018: BYU 62, San Diego 75.

Saint Mary's has six such losses since Gonzaga's last.
BYU has 12 such losses since Gonzaga's last.

I checked.  The last non-big 3 loss for GU would of been the Pilots earlier that season, but USD got them 6 weeks later.

The latest Mid-Major Madness power rankings are out:
https://wcc-power-rankings-west-coast-conference

Not sure about these.  UOP at 9-7 with a win @USD last week and a good shot at a tie for 3rd place is ranked #7 behind all three 8-8 teams.  Closer to home, LMU and UP both lose two, with the Pilots' decent showing against SMC, and the positions flip.  3 win LMU is ranked #8 ahead of 4 win (2 against LMU) #9 UP.  Doesn't matter, as we'll meet again in Vegas, but some odd placements.

Yeah, these rankings (while always silly and meaningless) are even crazier this week. Pacific at the 7 spot? No way. I think they got #1 and #2 right, though...

The rest of the WCC:

#6 Gonzaga 77, San Diego 72
Loyola Marymount 65, Santa Clara 64
San Francisco 84, Pacific 74
#22 Saint Mary's 75, Pepperdine 61

With LMU's victory at SCU, they tie the Pilots for 8th. We obviously have the tie breaker. They play UOP at home. At stake is the color of the uniforms next Friday at 6PM.

BYU is locked in 3rd place. USF and UOP tied for 4th. USF hosts USD. SCU plays at SMC. Maybe they were looking ahead to their rivalry game when they lost to LMU at home. If SCU loses, I think they are playing Friday even if USD loses, since they split the season games, and USD has the BYU win. Correct me if I'm wrong, since I didn't do research.

Going into the final games:
USF is hot, on a 3 game win streak;
UOP has lost 2 in a row at home, after looking like a top 4 team;
BYU has 6 conference losses, their most since 2012-13;
best win total by a non-big 3 is 17, by USF and UOP;
all other non-big 3 teams will have losing records;
only LMU and PU do not have at least 10 wins;
LMU is on the cusp with 9;
PU only has 4 wins for the season (please let it stop there).

up7587 wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, since I didn't do research.

HaHa, I can think of only a very few who would do that kind of research, and it is Saturday after all, and all our questions will be answered on Sunday morning.

However, I did learn one thing about tiebreakers recently... If two teams are tied and the normal won/loss tie breaker does not make the difference, then it goes to who ever has the highest RPI.

up7587 wrote:With LMU's victory at SCU, they tie the Pilots for 8th.  We obviously have the tie breaker.  They play UOP at home.  At stake is the color of the uniforms next Friday at 6PM.

Meandering between the baseball games and WBB today, but noticed LMU came back from being 16 points down (51-35 in the second half) to beat UOP today.

Pilots must beat PU to avoid ninth place and the road jerseys in Las Vegas.