2018–19 West Coast Conference men's basketball season

2018–19 West Coast Conference men's basketball season
2018–19 West Coast Conference men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Men's basketball
Number of teams	10
Regular season
Season champions	Gonzaga
Season MVP	Rui Hachimura, Gonzaga
Tournament
Champions	Saint Mary's
Runners-up	Gonzaga
Finals MVP	Jordan Hunter - Saint Mary's
Basketball seasons
	← 2017–18 2019–20 →

The 2018–19 West Coast Conference men's basketball season began with practices in September 2018 and will end with the 2019 West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament March 2019. This is the 68th season for WCC men's basketball, and the 30th under its current name of "West Coast Conference". The conference was founded in 1952 as the California Basketball Association, became the West Coast Athletic Conference in 1956, and dropped the word "Athletic" in 1989.

2018–19 West Coast Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 4 Gonzaga	16	–	0	1.000	33	–	4	.892
Saint Mary's †	11	–	5	.688	22	–	12	.647
BYU	11	–	5	.688	19	–	13	.594
San Francisco	9	–	7	.563	21	–	10	.677
Loyola Marymount	8	–	8	.500	22	–	12	.647
Santa Clara	8	–	8	.500	16	–	15	.516
San Diego	7	–	9	.438	21	–	15	.583
Pepperdine	6	–	10	.375	16	–	18	.471
Pacific	4	–	12	.250	14	–	18	.438
Portland	0	–	16	.000	7	–	25	.219

† 2019 WCC tournament winner Rankings from AP Poll

Head coaches

Coaching changes

On February 13, 2018, Pepperdine announced that head coach Marty Wilson would not return following the end of the season.^[1] He finished at Pepperdine with a seven-year record of 88–129 (91–139 when including his 3–10 record as interim head coach in 1995–96). On March 12, the school hired Lorenzo Romar as head coach.^[2] Romar returned to Pepperdine where he started his coaching career in 1996.^[3]

On March 8, 2018, San Diego head coach Lamont Smith, who had been placed on administrative leave following an arrest for domestic violence 10 days earlier, resigned as head coach.^[4] Assistant coach Sam Scholl took over as interim head coach for the Toreros during the WCC Tournament and the CIT.^[5] On April 2, the school announced Scholl would remain the head coach.^[6]

Coaches

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Years at school	Overall record	WCC record	WCC Tournament record	NCAA Tournaments	Sweet Sixteens
BYU	Dave Rose	Dixie State	14	329–122 (.729)	84–38 (.689)	9–7 (.563)	8	1
Gonzaga	Mark Few	Gonzaga (asst.)	20	535–118 (.819)	260–30 (.897)	42–4 (.913)	19	8
Loyola Marymount	Mike Dunlap	Charlotte Bobcats	5	48–75 (.390)	23–49 (.319)	2–4 (.333)	0	0
Pacific	Damon Stoudamire	Memphis Grizzlies (asst.)	3	25–40 (.385)	13–23 (.361)	1–2 (.333)	0	0
Pepperdine	Lorenzo Romar	Arizona (asst.)	1	42–44 (.488)	22–20 (.524)	1–3 (.250)	7	3
Portland	Terry Porter	Minnesota Timberwolves (asst.)	3	21–44 (.323)	6–30 (.167)	1–2 (.333)	0	0
Saint Mary's	Randy Bennett	Saint Louis (asst.)	18	392–162 (.708)	188–74 (.718)	20–15 (.571)	6	1
San Diego	Sam Scholl	San Diego (asst.)	1	2–1 (.667)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0	0
San Francisco	Kyle Smith	Columbia	3	42–30 (.583)	19–17 (.528)	1–2 (.333)	0	0
Santa Clara	Herb Sendek	Arizona State	3	28–36 (.438)	18–18 (.500)	1–2 (.333)	8	1

Notes:

Year at school includes 2018–19 season.
Overall and WCC records are from time at current school and are through the beginning of the 2018–19 season.

Preseason

Preseason poll

Source^[7]

Rank	Team
1.	Gonzaga (9)
2.	Saint Mary's
3.	BYU (1)
4.	San Francisco
5.	San Diego
6.	Pacific
7.	Loyola Marymount
8.	Pepperdine
9.	Santa Clara
10.	Portland
(first place votes)

All-WCC Preseason Men's Basketball team

Honor	Recipient
Preseason All-WCC Team
	James Batemon, Loyola Marymount
	Yoeli Childs, BYU
	KJ Feagin, Santa Clara
	Frankie Ferrari, San Francisco
	Jordan Ford, Saint Mary's
	Rui Hachimura, Gonzaga
	Zach Norvell Jr., Gonzaga
	Josh Perkins, Gonzaga
	Isaiah Piñeiro, San Diego
	Killian Tillie, Gonzaga

Source^[7]

Rankings

**Legend**
		Improvement in ranking
		Drop in ranking
		Not ranked previous week
RV		Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll
(Italics)		Number of first place votes

		Pre/ Wk 1	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Wk 14	Wk 15	Wk 16	Wk 17	Wk 18	Wk 19	Post
BYU	AP
BYU	C
Gonzaga	AP	3 (1)	3	3	1 (32)	1 (43)	4 (1)	8	7	7	5	5	4	4	4	3	2 (6)	1 (44)	1 (42)	1 (41)	4 (1)
Gonzaga	C	4 (1)	4 (1)	3	1 (17)	1 (21)	6 (1)	9	8	8	6	5	4	4	4	3	2 (4)	1 (26)	1 (27)	1 (28)	3 (3)
Loyola Marymount	AP			RV
Loyola Marymount	C
Pacific	AP
Pacific	C
Pepperdine	AP
Pepperdine	C
Portland	AP
Portland	C
Saint Mary's	AP
Saint Mary's	C			RV
San Diego	AP
San Diego	C
San Francisco	AP						RV	RV	RV				RV
San Francisco	C								RV
Santa Clara	AP
Santa Clara	C

WCC regular season

Conference matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play.

	BYU	Gonzaga	LMU	Pacific	Pepperdine	Portland	Saint Mary's	San Diego	San Francisco	Santa Clara
vs. Brigham Young	–	2–0	0–2	0–2	0–1	0–2	1–1	0–2	2–0	0–1
vs. Gonzaga	0–2	–	0–2	0–2	0–1	0–1	0–2	0–2	0–2	0–2
vs. Loyola Marymount	2–0	2–0	–	0–2	1–1	0–2	1–0	2–0	0–1	0–2
vs. Pacific	2–0	2–0	2–0	–	0–2	0–2	2–0	1–0	1–0	2–0
vs. Pepperdine	1–0	1–0	1–1	2–0	–	0–2	1–1	0–2	2–0	2–0
vs. Portland	2–0	1–0	2–0	2–0	2–0	–	1–0	2–0	2–0	2–0
vs. Saint Mary's	1–1	2–0	0–1	0–2	1–1	0–1	–	0–2	1–1	0–2
vs. San Diego	2–0	2–0	0–2	0–1	2–0	0–2	2–0	–	0–2	1–0
vs. San Francisco	0–2	2–0	1–0	0–1	0–2	0–2	1–1	2–0	–	1–1
vs. Santa Clara	1–0	2–0	2–0	0–2	0–2	0–2	2–0	0–1	1–1	–
Total	11–5	16–0	8–8	4–12	6–10	0–16	11–5	7–9	9–7	8–8

All-WCC awards and teams

Honor	Recipient
All-WCC First Team
	James Batemon, Loyola Marymount
	Yoeli Childs, BYU
	Brandon Clarke, Gonzaga
	Frankie Ferrari, San Francisco
	Jordan Ford, Saint Mary's
	Rui Hachimura, Gonzaga
	Zach Norvell Jr., Gonzaga
	Josh Perkins, Gonzaga
	Isaiah Piñeiro, San Diego
	Colbey Ross, Pepperdine

Honor	Recipient
All-WCC Second Team
	Tahj Eaddy, Santa Clara
	Malik Fitts, Saint Mary's
	T.J. Haws, BYU
	Charles Minlend, San Francisco
	Olin Carter III, San Diego

Honor	Recipient
All-WCC Freshman Team
	Gavin Baxter, BYU
	Dameane Douglas, Loyola Marymount
	Kessler Edwards, Pepperdine
	Filip Petrušev, Gonzaga
	Trey Wertz, Santa Clara

Source^[8]

Postseason

West Coast Conference tournament

NCAA tournament

References

^ Johnson, Raphielle (February 13, 2018). "Pepperdine to replace Marty Wilson at season's end". nbcsports.com. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
^ Star, Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily. "Pepperdine officially re-hires Arizona's Lorenzo Romar as head coach". Arizona Daily Star. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
^ "Pepperdine expected to hire coach Lorenzo Romar". ajc. Archived from the original on March 13, 2018. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
^ Goodman, Jeff (March 9, 2018). "San Diego's Lamont Smith resigns from basketball post". ESPN.com. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
^ Norcross, Don (March 11, 2018). "Toreros get another chance to play basketball". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
^ Norcross, Don (April 2, 2018). "USD names Sam Scholl new men's basketball coach". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
^ ^a ^b "Gonzaga picked to Win 2018-19 Men's Basketball Championship". West Coast Conference. October 18, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
^ "WCC Announces 2018-19 Men's Basketball All-Conference Team".

[1] Johnson, Raphielle (February 13, 2018). "Pepperdine to replace Marty Wilson at season's end". nbcsports.com. Retrieved February 13, 2018.

[2] Star, Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily. "Pepperdine officially re-hires Arizona's Lorenzo Romar as head coach". Arizona Daily Star. Retrieved March 12, 2018.

[3] "Pepperdine expected to hire coach Lorenzo Romar". ajc. Archived from the original on March 13, 2018. Retrieved March 12, 2018.

[4] Goodman, Jeff (March 9, 2018). "San Diego's Lamont Smith resigns from basketball post". ESPN.com. Retrieved March 9, 2018.

[5] Norcross, Don (March 11, 2018). "Toreros get another chance to play basketball". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved April 2, 2018.

[6] Norcross, Don (April 2, 2018). "USD names Sam Scholl new men's basketball coach". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved April 2, 2018.

[:1-7] "Gonzaga picked to Win 2018-19 Men's Basketball Championship". West Coast Conference. October 18, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2018.

[:8-8] "WCC Announces 2018-19 Men's Basketball All-Conference Team".

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