Former Gonzaga All-American Dan Dickau recaps the biggest storylines from the WCC Media Day, including the ongoing talks between Gonzaga and the Big 12
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00:00 Gonzaga Nation, I'm your host Dan Dickow.
00:02 As we continue on with our preseason coverage,
00:05 the games are right around the corner.
00:07 Obviously we had a big weekend last weekend
00:10 with craziness in the kennel where players were able
00:13 to get some of those initial early season jitters
00:17 and nerves out in front of a tremendous sellout crowd.
00:21 Fans are able to see the newcomers
00:24 and where they may bolster the Gonzaga attack
00:28 and then see the improvements of some of the returners,
00:31 whether it be skill-wise, physically,
00:35 or just preparedness to take on an enhanced role.
00:38 So we covered craziness in the kennel in depth,
00:42 both on the article side with our writer, Cole Forsman,
00:46 as well as myself and Adam Morrison
00:48 on what is now going to be our weekly
00:50 Gonzaga Nation Talkin' Zag show.
00:53 But that happens now this past couple days,
00:58 we've had WCC Media Day.
01:00 And so we're able to now take a look at,
01:02 a closer look at the coaches and the media members
01:07 who strictly cover the WCC, what they're thinking,
01:10 where Gonzaga's gonna lie.
01:13 And the biggest storylines out of WCC Media Day
01:16 is that St. Mary's is picked to win the league.
01:19 First time in six years that someone other than Gonzaga
01:22 has been chosen to win the league,
01:24 but it was as close a vote and tally as you could get.
01:27 St. Mary's ended up with 61 total vote,
01:31 excuse me, 61 total points in the vote.
01:33 Gonzaga with 60, St. Mary's with five first place votes,
01:38 Gonzaga with four.
01:39 So it was extremely close.
01:41 Now the caveat is you cannot vote for your own team.
01:45 So that being said, there are more coaches,
01:49 non-Gonzaga, non-St. Mary's, that feel St. Mary's
01:52 is going to win the league as compared to the Zag.
01:55 So really interesting, again,
01:56 first time in the last six years that that has been the case.
01:59 I would imagine is because of all the newcomers
02:02 on Gonzaga's roster and for St. Mary's,
02:06 all the experience and the production that is coming back.
02:09 But the uniqueness about it is when you look
02:11 at the overall general landscape of college basketball
02:13 and the national analysts, the national pundits,
02:16 so whether it's sportsillustrated.com,
02:19 whether it's CBS Sports, ESPN, Blue Ribbon, Fox,
02:24 the Almanac, every publication that I have seen
02:27 up to this point has Gonzaga ranked higher in the top 25
02:31 than they do St. Mary's.
02:33 Interesting?
02:33 Yes.
02:34 So most of them have Gonzaga,
02:36 I believe the highest I've seen the Zags is at nine
02:39 and the lowest I've seen them at,
02:41 I wanna say it's 18 or 19, where for St. Mary's,
02:45 the highest I have seen them is I believe 14 or 15
02:50 and most have them around that 23, 24, 25 mark.
02:53 So really interesting, I think it says two things.
02:57 It says, the league's coaches really value
03:02 what St. Mary's is doing in the league
03:05 and especially how good they're going to be this year.
03:08 But I also do think it slightly is a knock
03:11 on the national media landscape
03:13 and not understanding just how good St. Mary's is
03:16 because I think they're a tremendous program.
03:18 I think they're a tremendous basketball team.
03:20 Their coach, Randy Bennett is one of the hidden gems
03:24 across the country.
03:25 For anybody who really knows basketball
03:27 knows how good of a coach he is,
03:29 but it's not out there in front of you daily
03:34 in the national media.
03:35 But the predicted order of finish for the WCC,
03:38 St. Mary's first, Gonzaga comes in at second,
03:43 followed by San Francisco, LMU, Santa Clara, Portland,
03:47 Pepperdine, Pacific and USD.
03:50 I, this is kind of right about where I had them slotted.
03:54 For me, that three, four, five with USF, LMU
03:57 and Santa Clara, you know, is the biggest picture
04:02 to figure out.
04:03 Obviously I think Gonzaga and St. Mary's
04:05 are going to battle it out for one and two.
04:08 I like San Francisco and the pieces
04:12 that they've put together.
04:13 Mike Shravjamps, you know, is a tremendous transfer
04:16 from Dayton.
04:18 They've also got a number of other transfers.
04:21 Marcus Williams showed some great flashes
04:24 at the end of last season on the perimeter.
04:27 So I think USF to me does get that nod
04:31 over LMU in the fourth spot.
04:33 Although LMU, we saw last year,
04:36 Stan Johnson has those guys believing in the system.
04:40 They weren't as consistent last year as he would have hoped.
04:43 But the fact is they're the only team in quite some time
04:47 to come into Spokane and beat Gonzaga
04:50 at the McCarthy Athletic Center.
04:51 Yes, the star of their team from a season ago
04:54 in the backcourt, Cam Shelton is gone,
04:57 hit the big game winner in Spokane
05:00 to propel the Lions to that victory.
05:01 He is gone, but they were very active
05:04 in the transfer portal as well.
05:06 Former Gonzaga Bulldog, Dom Harris is now there.
05:09 Justice Hill, a guard who spent some time at LSU
05:11 in the SEC is now there.
05:14 Kelly Lea Pepe is back.
05:15 Alex Merk-Veladze is back.
05:17 Their interior with Issa is back to anchor them defensively.
05:22 So that 3-4 is unique.
05:25 And I definitely think Santa Clara
05:29 positioned correctly at five.
05:31 Now, they could jump up to four or three
05:34 if they have a transfer that is under the radar that
05:37 explodes onto the scene like a Brandon Pajimski a season ago.
05:42 Herb Sendik is such a good coach,
05:43 he gets the most out of all of his teams.
05:47 And you look at the last two years,
05:48 they've really been on the doorstep of the NCAA tournament.
05:51 Two years ago, they had injuries at inopportune times.
05:56 Last year, they just couldn't quite get over the hump
05:59 and get a couple of those signature wins
06:02 that they would have needed to really bolster their net.
06:05 But they were right there on the doorstep as well.
06:08 But I do believe they are slotted correctly at fifth
06:13 with if they have that emergent player,
06:16 could challenge for third or fourth.
06:19 And then when you go down the rest of the list,
06:21 I think it's slotted correctly.
06:22 Portland lost a lot, but they also
06:25 got back a lot when Tyler Robertson and Chris Austin
06:28 returned this year.
06:29 They were banged up with injuries last year.
06:31 So you never really got a chance to see their full roster.
06:34 This year, Shante Leggans is extremely
06:37 excited about the talent, the versatility that they have.
06:40 And if they can stay healthy, maybe they
06:42 can bump themselves up in the upper half of the league.
06:47 Pepperdine had talent last year, could never put it together.
06:50 Simply, a lot of the fact was they did have injuries,
06:54 but they didn't have experience.
06:56 Maxwell Lewis is now off to the NBA.
07:00 A lot is going to be put on Javon Porter as well as Houston
07:04 Millette's shoulders.
07:05 Those two guys are as talented a duo as there is in the league.
07:10 But it's a tall ask to elevate them
07:14 into the upper half of the league.
07:15 We'll see how that works out.
07:17 And then for Pacific, I think Leonard Perry
07:19 has done a really good job of tweaking the way
07:24 that they play.
07:26 They rely on the three-point shot as much as anybody,
07:28 not just in the conference, but maybe in the country.
07:32 They hit a nice stretch in the second half of the year
07:36 where they were playing essentially five guards at times
07:40 and really spacing the floor, putting pressure on you
07:43 to dribble, attack, get the defense in rotation,
07:46 and then spray it out to shooters on the perimeter.
07:49 So it'll be interesting to see with the way
07:51 the roster is continuing to be built in Pacific
07:53 is that if that is the way that they're going to play
07:56 or if they'll have a little bit more of a traditional attack.
07:58 But Pacific and then USD, based on experience
08:04 and based on what they've got returning,
08:07 I think are put in the right positions.
08:09 USD with Steve Lavin, he decided to stay away
08:14 from the transfer portal rat race.
08:17 He did it a season ago when he was new as a first year
08:21 coach for San Diego.
08:23 But I think he had to because of when he got the job, what
08:26 they needed, how you had to structure a roster quickly.
08:31 He decided to go the high school route.
08:32 So he has got a ton of freshmen on the roster.
08:36 And so he's going to build it in the traditional way
08:39 from the ground up, find your program guys,
08:41 your foundational guys, see if any of those guys
08:43 can become a star, and then kind of piece things
08:47 around those guys.
08:48 But that's how you wrap up the bottom half of the league
08:52 with UP, Pepperdine, Pacific, and USD.
08:55 Now, I do think, again, UP has a chance to move up.
08:59 I think Pepperdine has the talent where
09:01 they could definitely challenge for the upper half.
09:05 As of now, based on the inexperience and youth of USD,
09:10 that would be a tall challenge.
09:11 And then based on the experience and the returners
09:17 for Pacific-- now, they have a decent amount of transfers.
09:20 They're not as young as USD.
09:22 And not knowing how those parts are going to fit together yet,
09:25 it's hard to go out on a limb and say
09:27 that Pacific is going to challenge
09:29 to be in the upper tier.
09:30 But you never know.
09:31 I mean, Damon Stoudemire had them
09:33 in the top half of the league for a couple of years.
09:36 They were right there on the cusp a season
09:38 ago with Leonard Perry.
09:39 And he's a tremendous coach.
09:40 And I think he'll figure it out.
09:42 So all in all, I think the league is in good hands.
09:44 I think it's very talented from top to bottom this year.
09:50 But when you look at some of the other big picture storylines
09:53 that come out of media day, everybody
09:56 wanted to know what was going on with Gonzaga
09:58 and if they were moving to the Big 12.
10:00 And Coach Few essentially said, look, right now, it
10:03 is what it is.
10:03 It's a story.
10:05 We don't know much more than what is
10:07 being talked about out there.
10:09 We're going to give everything we've got while we're in the WCC.
10:12 And if by chance it happens that we go to the Big 12,
10:16 or if there's another conference that pops up in due time,
10:20 we'll attack that challenge head on.
10:21 But a lot of that's coach speak.
10:24 A lot of the comments in there have truth to it.
10:28 You can't look ahead and worry about things
10:31 that you can't control.
10:33 And so they have to be focused in on the here and now
10:36 and preparing themselves to have another heck of a WCC run.
10:40 Because what they've done in the league over the last 25 years
10:43 is absolutely incredible.
10:45 And you would hate to be looking ahead to the future
10:51 and take your eyes off the current and the present
10:54 and not maximize what's in front of you.
10:56 So short bit on that.
10:58 When you look at the media day in regards
11:00 to sharing the players that are on the preseason All-WCC list,
11:08 I don't see any mistakes.
11:10 When you look at it, you got Alex Dukas from St. Mary's,
11:12 Graham Eke, obviously Gonzaga, Kelly Leapepe from LMU,
11:18 Aiden Mahaney, St. Mary's, Houston Millette from Pepperdine,
11:21 Javon Porter from Pepperdine, Ryan Nemhart from Gonzaga,
11:25 Tyler Robertson from Portland, Mitchell Saxon, St. Mary's,
11:28 and Anton Watson from Gonzaga.
11:31 When you look at it, there's only two newcomers
11:35 that weren't in the league last year.
11:37 So that shows you how much talent
11:38 is coming back in those two newcomers or Gonzaga players.
11:42 That's Graham Eke and that's Ryan Nemhart.
11:44 But when you look at St. Mary's has three players
11:47 on that first team as well.
11:48 And I think when you look at, well,
11:50 why is St. Mary's chosen first in the league as opposed
11:55 to Gonzaga?
11:56 Well, Gonzaga and St. Mary's, the only teams in the league
11:58 with three players on the preseason all WCC.
12:00 Two of those are unknowns in regards at least to the WCC.
12:05 And that's Eke and Nemhart.
12:06 Nemhart from Creighton, 12, 5, and 5
12:10 essentially were his numbers last year.
12:12 Eke didn't play a season ago as we've talked about many times.
12:15 But he nearly averaged 20 and 10 for an NCAA tournament
12:19 Wyoming team two years ago.
12:20 Sat out last year with an injury.
12:22 And they're going to bring him along slowly this year
12:25 to make sure that there is nothing going on
12:27 throughout the course of the year.
12:29 So you have two newcomers of the three Gonzaga players
12:33 on the all WCC.
12:34 So you don't really know what you're going to get.
12:36 For St. Mary's, you know exactly what you're going to get.
12:38 Mitchell Saxon interior scorer that can occasionally step out.
12:41 He's going to protect the rim, rebound,
12:44 block some shots here and there, average in double figures.
12:47 Aiden Mahaney, I would imagine he's
12:50 the front runner for conference player of the year,
12:54 just simply for the fact that as a freshman last year,
12:57 he averaged double figures.
12:58 He showed the guts to make big plays down the stretch
13:02 in particular against Gonzaga that game down in Moraga.
13:06 And then they return Alex Dukas, who
13:08 doesn't get the amount of attention
13:10 that the other guys get.
13:12 But when you talk about a versatile, well-blended player,
13:16 does a little bit of everything, that decision
13:20 for him to come back for his fifth year
13:21 was as important to St. Mary's as maybe Drew Timmy coming back
13:26 a season ago for Gonzaga.
13:28 Now, value in regards to stats, et cetera,
13:31 that's not what I'm talking about.
13:33 I'm talking about value to impactfulness
13:37 on winning, on culture, on just making
13:41 the game easier for others.
13:43 That's what Alex Dukas does.
13:45 Again, those are the three players from St. Mary's
13:49 that I think are the reason that they
13:52 are picked to win the league.
13:54 So every team in the WCC is represented
13:57 with a preseason all-conference player,
14:01 except for USF, which is surprising based on the fact
14:05 that they had such a good transfer class that came in
14:08 and based on the fact that they were predicted
14:11 third in the league.
14:13 And then USD and Pacific also do not
14:16 have players that are on the preseason all-conference list.
14:20 So lots of good stuff coming out of media day.
14:24 Cole Forsman, although was not on site,
14:27 did a tremendous job of bringing the storylines.
14:29 And I'm sure he will have a few more in the days that
14:33 are coming out of media day because there's
14:36 so much to unpack with those after they happen.
14:41 But when you look at the calendar,
14:42 we're literally three weeks away from the first Gonzaga
14:48 exhibition game against Lewis and Clark State,
14:50 which will be on KHQ.
14:52 And then shortly thereafter, you've
14:55 got the opener against Yale on November 10th.
14:58 The one interesting thing in regards
15:00 to Gonzaga and the schedule, though,
15:02 is typically Gonzaga plays on that opening night
15:05 of college basketball, which this year
15:08 falls on November 6th.
15:10 Gonzaga doesn't play on the 6th or the 7th, which most teams do.
15:14 And then they don't play the 8th or 9th.
15:16 They wait to play the 10th.
15:18 So it's interesting because they weren't
15:20 able to find a game partner for either of those days,
15:25 the 6th or the 7th.
15:26 So I'm sure a lot of Gonzaga fans are disappointed.
15:29 But what it does, I think it allows
15:31 you to look at the landscape for other college basketball teams
15:37 and really get yourself ready and excited
15:40 for that first opening game on the 10th against Yale, who
15:44 I think is going to surprise some people.
15:45 They've challenged for the Ivy League most times
15:49 over the last 8, 9, 10 years.
15:51 They're a really good program.
15:53 They lost an Ivy League championship game a season ago.
15:56 And if you follow basketball closely in regards
15:59 to the NCAA tournament, Princeton out of the Ivy League
16:04 made the Sweet 16, including knocking off Arizona
16:08 in the first round a season ago.
16:09 So lots of good storylines, lots of good stuff coming out
16:12 of the WCC Media Day.
16:14 Thanks for listening.
16:15 Next week, Gonzaga Nation and Talking Zags,
16:19 we got a couple of guests in studio
16:21 where we'll be recording alongside Adam Morrison and I.
16:25 So the content is just starting.
16:27 We're just starting to put everything out there.
16:31 It should be a great season of providing
16:34 the insight and the coverage for you fans.
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