2016–17 West Coast Conference men's basketball season

The 2016–17 West Coast Conference men's basketball season began with practices on September 30, 2016 and ended with the 2017 West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament March 2–7, 2017.^[1] The regular season began on November 11, 2016, with the conference schedule starting December 29, 2016.^[2][3] This was the 66th season for WCC men's basketball, and the 28th 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.

2016–17 West Coast Conference men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Men's basketball
Number of teams	10
Regular season
Season champions	Gonzaga
Runners-up	Saint Mary's
Season MVP	Nigel Williams-Goss
Tournament
Champions	Gonzaga
Runners-up	Saint Mary's
Basketball seasons
← 2015–16 2017–18 →

2016–17 West Coast Conference men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 2 Gonzaga †	17	–	1		.944			37	–	2		.949
No. 22 Saint Mary's	16	–	2		.889			29	–	5		.853
BYU	12	–	6		.667			22	–	12		.647
San Francisco	10	–	8		.556			20	–	13		.606
Santa Clara	10	–	8		.556			17	–	16		.515
Loyola Marymount	8	–	10		.444			15	–	15		.500
San Diego	6	–	12		.333			13	–	18		.419
Pepperdine	5	–	13		.278			9	–	22		.290
Pacific	4	–	14		.222			11	–	22		.333
Portland	2	–	16		.111			11	–	22		.333
† Conference tournament winner Rankings from AP poll

On February 18, 2017, Gonzaga clinched a share of the regular season title with win over Pacific. The title was Gonzaga's 16th title in the prior 17 years.^[4] Gonzaga clinched the outright regular season conference title on February 24 by beating San Diego.^[5]

For the ninth consecutive year, the West Coast Conference tournament was held at the Orleans Arena in Paradise, Nevada from March 3 through March 7, 2017. Gonzaga, appearing in the conference final for the 20th consecutive year,^[6] defeated Saint Mary's to win the conference championship.^[7] As a result, they received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Gonzaga's Nigel Williams-Goss was awarded Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year by the conference.^[8] Gonzaga's Mark Few was named coach of the year for the 11th time.^[8]

Two WCC schools received bids to the NCAA tournament: Gonzaga and Saint Mary's. Gonzaga received the No. 1 seed in the West region.^[9] Gonzaga advanced to the National Championship for the first time in school history, losing to North Carolina.^[10] The conference's record in the Tournament was 6–2. BYU also received a postseason bid to the National Invitation Tournament while San Francisco received an invitation to the College Basketball Invitational tournament.

Head coaches

Coaching changes

• On March 3, 2016, it was announced that Pacific head coach Ron Verlin was no longer employed by the university.^[11] Interim coach Mike Burns was also released from his employment with the school.^[11] On March 16, the school announced that Damon Stoudamire would be the new head coach.^[12]
• On March 7, 2016, head coach Kerry Keating was fired by Santa Clara.^[13] On March 29, the school hired Herb Sendek as head coach.^[14]
• On March 9, 2016, San Francisco head coach Rex Walters was fired.^[15] On March 30, the school hired Kyle Smith as head coach.^[16]
• On March 15, 2016, Portland fired head coach Eric Reveno.^[17] He finished at Portland with a 10-year record of 140–178. On April 1, the school announced that Terry Porter had been hired as head coach.^[18][19]

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	12	283–99 (.741)	61–25 (.709)	6–5 (.545)	8	1
Gonzaga	Mark Few	Gonzaga (asst.)	18	466–111 (.808)	226–28 (.890)	36–4 (.900)	17	6
Loyola Marymount	Mike Dunlap	Charlotte Bobcats	3	22–40 (.355)	10–26 (.278)	1–2 (.333)	0	0
Pacific	Damon Stoudamire	Memphis Grizzlies (asst.)	1	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0	0
Pepperdine	Marty Wilson	Pepperdine (assoc.)	7	76–91 (.455)	39–61 (.390)	3–6 (.333)	0	0
Portland	Terry Porter	N/A	1	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0	0
Saint Mary's	Randy Bennett	Saint Louis (asst.)	16	333–131 (.718)	154–68 (.694)	17–13 (.567)	5	1
San Diego	Lamont Smith	New Mexico (asst.)	2	9–21 (.300)	4–14 (.222)	0–1 (.000)	0	0
San Francisco	Kyle Smith	Columbia	1	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0	0
Santa Clara	Herb Sendek	Arizona State	1	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	8	1

Notes:

• Year at school includes 2016–17 season.
• Overall and WCC records are from time at current school and are through the beginning of the 2016–17 season.

Preseason

 

Zach Collins at the 2016 McDonald's All-American Game

Preseason poll

Source^[20]

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

All-WCC Preseason Men's Basketball team

Recipient	School
Jared Brownridge	Santa Clara
Nick Emery	BYU
Przemek Karnowski	Gonzaga
Eric Mika	BYU
Lamond Murray Jr.	Pepperdine
Emmett Naar	Saint Mary’s
Josh Perkins	Gonzaga
Dane Pineau	Saint Mary’s
Joe Rahon	Saint Mary’s
Alec Wintering	Portland

Source^[20]

Rankings

Main article: 2016–17 NCAA Division I men's basketball 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
	C
Gonzaga	AP	14	14	11	8	8	8	7	7	5	5	4	3	1 (46)	1 (59)	1 (60)	1 (60)	4 (2)	4 (1)	2 (6)
	C	13	14	11	8	8	8	7	6	4	5	4 (3)	3 (3)	1 (24)	1 (28)	1 (29)	1 (29)	4 (1)	4 (1)	2 (1)	2
Loyola Marymount	AP
	C
Pacific	AP
	C
Pepperdine	AP
	C
Portland	AP
	C
Saint Mary's	AP	17	17	15	12	12	20	19	19	19	21	23	21	18	20	22	20	20	19	22
	C	19	17	15	13	11	20	19	19	19	21	23	21	19	20	21	18	18	19	21	NR
San Diego	AP
	C
San Francisco	AP
	C
Santa Clara	AP
	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	–	1–1	0–0	0–2	1–1	0–2	2–0	1–1	0–2	1–1
vs. Gonzaga	1–1	–	0–0	0–2	0–2	0–2	0–2	0–2	0–2	0–2
vs. Loyola Marymount	2–0	2–0	–	0–2	1–1	0–2	2–0	1–1	1–1	1–1
vs. Pacific	2–0	2–0	0–0	–	1–1	1–1	2–0	0–2	2–0	2–0
vs. Pepperdine	1–1	2–0	0–0	1–1	–	1–1	2–0	1–1	2–0	2–0
vs. Portland	2–0	2–0	0–0	1–1	1–1	–	2–0	2–0	2–0	2–0
vs. Saint Mary's	0–2	2–0	0–0	0–2	0–2	0–2	–	0–2	0–2	0–2
vs. San Diego	1–1	2–0	0–0	2–0	1–1	0–2	2–0	–	2–0	1–1
vs. San Francisco	2–0	2–0	0–0	0–2	0–2	0–2	2–0	0–2	–	1–1
vs. Santa Clara	1–1	2–0	0–0	0–2	0–2	0–2	2–0	1–1	1–1	–
Total	12–6	17–1	8–10	4–14	5–13	2–16	16–2	6–12	10–8	10–8

All-WCC awards and teams

On February 28, the conference announced conference awards.^[21][22]

Honor	Recipient
Player of the Year	Nigel Williams-Goss, Gonzaga
Coach of the Year	Mark Few, Gonzaga
Newcomer of the Year	Joe Rahon, Saint Mary’s
Defensive Player of the Year	Nigel Williams-Goss, Gonzaga
All-WCC First Team	Jared Brownridge, Santa Clara
	T. J. Haws, BYU
	Calvin Hermanson, Saint Mary's
	Przemek Karnowski, Gonzaga
	Jock Landale, Saint Mary's
	Eric Mika, BYU
	Lamond Murray Jr., Pepperdine
	Joe Rahon, Saint Mary's
	Johnathan Williams, Gonzaga
	Nigel Williams-Goss, Gonzaga
All-WCC Second Team	Brett Bailey, San Diego
	Ronnie Boyce III, San Francisco
	Brandon Brown, Loyola Marymount
	Zach Collins, Gonzaga
	K. J. Feagin, Santa Clara
All-WCC Freshman Team	Yoeli Childs, BYU
	Zach Collins, Gonzaga
	T. J. Haws, BYU
	Charles Minlend, San Francisco
	Jordan Ratinho, San Francisco
All-WCC Honorable Mention	Olin Carter III, San Diego
	Jazz Johnson, Portland
	Nate Kratch, Santa Clara
	Jordan Mathews, Gonzaga
	Emmett Naar, Saint Mary’s
	Josh Perkins, Gonzaga
	Chris Reyes, Pepperdine
	Buay Tuach, Loyola Marymount
	T. J. Wallace, Pacific
	Alec Wintering, Portland

Postseason

West Coast Conference tournament

Main article: 2017 West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament

Session	Game	Time*	Matchup	Score	Television
First round – Friday, March 3
1	1	6:00 PM	No. 8 Pepperdine vs. No. 9 Pacific	84–89	BYUtv
	2	8:00 PM	No. 7 San Diego vs. No. 10 Portland	55–60	BYUtv
Quarterfinals – Saturday, March 4
2	3	1:00 PM	No. 3 BYU vs. No. 6 Loyola Marymount	89–81	BYUtv/RTRM/CSNBA
	4	3:00 PM	No. 4 Santa Clara vs. No. 5 San Francisco	76–69	BYUtv/RTRM/CSNBA
3	5	7:00 PM	No. 1 Gonzaga vs. No. 9 Pacific	82–50	ESPN2
	6	9:00 PM	No. 2 Saint Mary's vs. No. 10 Portland	81–58	ESPN2
Semifinals – Monday, March 6
4	7	6:00 PM	No. 1 Gonzaga vs No. 4 Santa Clara	77–68	ESPN
	8	8:30 PM	No. 2 Saint Mary's vs No. 3 BYU	81–50	ESPN2
Championship – Tuesday, March 7
5	9	6:00 PM	No. 1 Gonzaga vs. No. 2 Saint Mary's	74–56	ESPN
*Game times in PT. Rankings denote tournament seeding.

NCAA tournament

Main article: 2017 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

The winner of the WCC tournament, Gonzaga, received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Saint Mary's received an at-large bid to the Tournament.

Seed	Region	School	First Four	First round	Second round	Sweet Sixteen	Elite Eight	Final Four	Championship
1	West	Gonzaga	N/A	defeated (16) South Dakota State 66–46	defeated (8) Northwestern 79–73	defeated (4) West Virginia 61–58	defeated (11) Xavier 83–59	defeated (7 E) South Carolina 77–73	eliminated by (1 S) North Carolina 65–71
7	West	Saint Mary's	N/A	defeated (10) VCU 85–77	eliminated by (2) Arizona 60–69
		W–L (%):	0–0 (–)	2–0 (1.000)	1–1 (.500)	1–0 (1.000)	1–0 (1.000)	1–0 (1.000)	0–1 (.000) Total: 6–2 (.750)

See also

• 2016–17 NCAA Division I men's basketball season
• West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament
• 2016–17 West Coast Conference women's basketball season
• West Coast Conference women's basketball tournament
• 2017 West Coast Conference women's basketball tournament

References

1. . Archived from the original on April 8, 2015. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
2. "WCC's scheduling experiment will end". January 26, 2016.
3. "Calendar moves forward for Midnight Madness". May 3, 2013.
4. "Gonzaga thumps Pacific, earns another WCC title". Spokesman.com. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
5. "No. 1 Gonzaga moves to 29-0, clinches another WCC title". Sporting News. February 24, 2017. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
6. "Gonzaga men advance to WCC tournament-title game for 20th straight year". The Seattle Times. March 6, 2017. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
7. "No. 4 Gonzaga beats No. 19 Saint Mary's 74-56 in WCC final". chicagotribune.com. Associated Press. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
8. . | Official Athletics Site. Archived from the original on July 31, 2017. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
9. EndPlay (March 12, 2017). "Gonzaga gets No. 1 seed for West Region". KIRO. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
10. Goldberg, Rob. "Gonzaga Advances to National Championship After South Carolina Rally Falls Short". Bleacher Report. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
11. "Suspended coach Verlin no longer at Pacific". Retrieved January 5, 2018.
12. . Houma Today. Archived from the original on March 22, 2016. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
13. "Santa Clara Fires Basketball Coach Kerry Keating". Retrieved March 16, 2016.
14. "Sendek Hired as Men's Basketball Coach". March 29, 2016.^{[permanent dead link]}
15. "San Francisco fires coach Walters after 8 seasons". Retrieved January 5, 2018.
16. FEINBERG, DOUG. "Kyle Smith new San Francisco basketball coach". sandiegouniontribune.com. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
17. "Portland Pilots fire men's basketball coach Eric Reveno". OregonLive.com. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
18. "Kyle Smith Named Head Men's Basketball Coach". April 1, 2016.
19. "Portland Pilots hire Terry Porter as men's basketball coach". OregonLive.com. Retrieved January 23, 2017.
20. . | Official Athletics Site. Archived from the original on August 1, 2017. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
21. Hines, Travis (March 1, 2017). "WCC Tournament Preview and Postseason Awards: Can anyone knock off Gonzaga?". CollegeBasketballTalk. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
22. . | Official Athletics Site. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved July 31, 2017.