Erick Doxey photo
Julian Strawther and co. won't be able to breeze through WCC play without a care this year.
Another Bay Area rebuild that is ahead of schedule is taking place in San Francisco. The Dons enter league play on a high, coming off a 37-point beatdown of a ranked Arizona State squad. The team is led by first-year head coach Chris Gerlufsen (with former Gonzaga guard Kyle Bankhead on the staff as an assistant) and a pair of graduate student guards in Seattle’s Khalil Shabazz (14.7 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 3.8 apg) and Washington State transfer Tyrell Roberts (14.5 ppg). Those two form yet another high-level backcourt in the WCC. It’s a different story down low. The Dons lost both starting big men from last season, and this year instead of trying to replace them have shifted away from the post altogether. Over half of San Francisco’s shots this season have come from three-point range. Games versus Gonzaga: Jan. 5 & Feb. 9 SAINT MARY’S GAELS (10-4) Gonzaga’s arch-rival looks sharp enough to be a thorn in the Zags side once again. Randy Bennett’s squad has spent most of the season ranked inside the KenPom's analytics-based Top 25. As usual, the Gaels play slow, prodding offense and elite, lock-down defense. Senior guard Logan Johnson (11.6 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 3.6 apg) has an all-around game and leads the team with poise. Freshman phenom Aidan Mahaney (13.6 ppg) is the team’s leading scorer, and a great story as he played his high school basketball just three miles down the road from campus. Big men Mitchell Saxen (12.9 ppg, 8.5 rpg) and Kyle Bowen (5.9 ppg, 7.1 rpg) give the Gaels the second-best front court in the West Coast Conference, behind only the one up here in Spokane. During non-conference play, SMC did take a bad loss against Washington, but they also knocked off a ranked San Diego State team and hung with Houston when the Cougars were still ranked No. 1.
Games versus Gonzaga: Feb. 4 & 25 LMU LIONS (10-4) After a pair of strange seasons impacted by the pandemic, third-year head coach Stan Johnson is finally able to mold this program according to his vision. Senior guard Cam Shelton (18.9 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 3.9 apg) is the team’s leader in points and assists. Fellow senior Keli Leaupepe (14.4 ppg, 7.1 rpg) rocks a mustache and a mullet, with a game tough enough to pull them off. An undersized but strong power forward, Leaupepe is a beast on the block with the ability to stretch the floor beyond the arc line as well. He and Shelton form a dynamic inside-outside duo. The Lions won the Jamaica Classic early-season tournament by taking down power conference teams in Georgetown and Wake Forest. Games versus Gonzaga: Jan. 19 & Feb. 16 BYU COUGARS (10-5) Traditionally a power in the WCC, the Cougars are anything but that in their final season before moving to the Big 12 Conference. Hampered by injuries, BYU's offense is hard to watch. Sharpshooters Trevin Knell has yet to play this season, and Spencer Johnson (11 ppg) has missed the past nine games. Sophomore big Fousseyni Traore (13.1 ppg, 8.4 rpg) is easily the team’s best player, but it’s been a struggle to get Fouss the ball. The Cougars rank in the bottom 50 nationally in turnover percentage per KenPom. The Cougars playing to the level of their competition this season has only added to the frustrations in Provo: they’ve looked good against some strong teams (beating Creighton), but they’ve also looked awful against some bad teams (losing to an awful South Dakota squad). Games versus Gonzaga: Jan. 12 & Feb. 11 PORTLAND PILOTS (8-7) The Pilots are playing as hard as anybody under second-year head coach Shantay Legans, who came over from Eastern Washington last year. In the PK85 tournament over Thanksgiving, the Pilots put up impressive performances against North Carolina and Michigan State, but ultimately came up short. Between those two games, though, they managed to pull an upset against Villanova. They’re a balanced team, with five players averaging over 9+ points per game and a handful of others capable of big nights. Another former EWU Eagle, senior guard Tyler Robertson (15.3 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 6.1 apg), is the team’s on-court leader. The 6-foot-6 Aussie is listed as a guard, but he does everything. For the first time since the WCC went to an unbalanced schedule in 2018-19, Portland will play Gonzaga twice this season — league cellar-dwellers typically are given just one shot at the Zags per season, so Portland getting two chances to pull off a shocker this season is a testament to Legans’ work in just over a year in the Rose City. Games versus Gonzaga: Jan. 14 & 28 PEPPERDINE WAVES (7-7) Lorenzo Romar always had a knack for acquiring talent. The Waves swept the league’s most recent weekly awards, with sophomore Maxwell Lewis (19.4 ppg , 5.9 rpg) named WCC Player of the Week and Jevon Porter (10.5 ppg, 7.5 rpg) named Freshman of the Week. They’re a very young team with just one upperclassman, senior forward Jan Zidek (6.5 ppg), in the rotation. They were green a year ago, too, with then-freshmen in Lewis, Houston Mallette (13.4 ppg, 4 rpg, 3.2 apg) and Mike Mitchell (10.9 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 4.6 apg) all playing major roles. They may be young, but they’ve had plenty of experience against high-quality opposition. If the Waves can play with composure, those matchups could be visual treats as Pepperdine plays the most up-tempo style of any team in the WCC. Games versus Gonzaga: Jan. 31 & Feb. 18 SAN DIEGO TOREROS (7-7) After seven years away from the sidelines, former UCLA and St. John's head coach Steve Lavin left the broadcasting world for the second time in his career to return to the sideline. His first year at San Diego looked promising as Lavin pounded the transfer portal, landing multiple players from power conference programs. Oregon’s Eric Williams (15.4 ppg, 10.5 rpg) and Stanford’s Jaiden Delaire (9.5 ppg, 5.2 rpg) were splashy signings, and they’ve contributed (though Delaire has missed three straight games due to injury). They’re two of the many weapons powering the Toreros’ high-octane offense. Unfortunately, San Diego’s porous defense allows any opponent to look like a high-octane offense themselves. Game versus Gonzaga: Feb. 23 PACIFIC TIGERS (7-8) The Tigers got off to a tough start without head coach Leonard Perry, who missed the first three games of the season with pneumonia. Things haven’t improved much since Perry returned to the sidelines, though. The Tigers did the unthinkable by losing a home game to a team from outside of Division I (Cal State East Bay). On a positive note, this looks to be the best offense the Tigers have had since coming back to the WCC in 2013. According to the analytics at KenPom, senior forward Luke Avdalovic (10.7 ppg) rates as the third most efficient offensive player in the country, and his 59.2% shooting from three-point range ranks fifth nationally. He’s part of what is overall a strong offensive squad, though their sieve-like defense undermines their effort on the other end. Game versus Gonzaga: Jan. 21 NEXT UP Gonzaga vs. Pepperdine • Sat, Dec. 31 at 2 pm • KHQ/Root Sports
