Gonzaga coach Mark Few talks new-look West Coast Conference

June 22—Change seems to be the only constant in college athletics these days, and it’s not just limited to the landscape-altering moves made by football-driven power conferences.

The West Coast Conference has taken significant steps by adding Washington State and Oregon State as affiliate members for the next two years and the Western Athletic Conference’s Grand Canyon and Seattle as full members beginning in the 2025-26 season.

The measures provide stability to the CMI as well as numerical strength should Gonzaga head to another conference in the future. The Zags have had several conversations with the Big 12, but talks have cooled with the conference expanding to 16, with four former Pac-12 schools on board for next season.

The change in the CMI lineup obviously impacts Gonzaga, especially in terms of scheduling.

Eleven WCC teams will play 18 conference games each this season, compared to 16 in recent seasons. Gonzaga will face San Diego (in Spokane) and Pacific (in Stockton, Calif.) once and the other eight teams home and away. It’s unclear how many conference games will be scheduled in 2025-26, when the WCC could have up to 13 teams for a season.

“It certainly changed our non-league game,” Zags coach Mark Few said at a recent media availability. “We have a lot less non-league games, which is really important for us. We will now play 18 league games, which has affected our non-league calendar to some extent.

“It certainly brings some teams from the Northwest, so our trip won’t be too bad.”

The 16-game conference slate was implemented after the 2018 season in hopes of increasing the WCC’s chances of earning multiple NCAA Tournament bids. For the top teams, playing 16 conference games erased some games against lower NET-ranked opponents and opened up some non-conference opportunities.

Gonzaga, which has dominated the WCC for decades, has leaned on challenging nonconference schedules to bolster its tournament credentials and potentially earn a favorable seed.

That remains the case with Gonzaga scheduled to face Kentucky in Seattle, UConn at Madison Square Garden, UCLA at the new Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, San Diego State at SDSU’s Viejas Arena and participate in a Battle 4 Atlantis field that includes likely top-20 teams Arizona and Indiana, as well as Providence, #25 in the CBS Sports Top 25 and #1.

WSU is coming off a 25-10 season and its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2008. The Cougars finished No. 44 in the NET rankings so they would have been a Quad 1 contest in Pullman and a Quad 2 match in Spokane if they had GU and WSU got involved twice last season.

Coach Kyle Smith left for Stanford after guiding the Cougars to five consecutive seasons with a record of at least .500. Several players have transferred to other programs and Isaac Jones and Jaylen Wells are in the NBA draft. New coach David Riley brought in nine new players, including four of his former players at Eastern Washington, and has two holdovers from last year’s team.

Gonzaga and WSU haven’t met since the Zags’ 69-60 win in December 2015 in Pullman. The Zags have won five in a row and seven of the last eight. The Cougars have a 98-52 series lead.

Oregon State made an impressive run to the 2021 Elite Eight, but has gone just 27-68 over the past three seasons. The Beavers finished 165th in the NET last season, last among Pac-12 schools.

Grand Canyon is an emerging power in the West, with three NCAA tournament appearances in four years under coach Bryce Drew, who has guided the Lopes to records of 17-7, 23-8, 24-12 and 30-5.

GCU defeated Saint Mary’s at the Arena in the first round before falling in a close contest to Alabama last March. The Lopes finished 50th in the NET, which would qualify as Quad 1 on the road and Quad 2 at home.

Seattle has posted three consecutive 20-win seasons and a 36-20 WAC mark in head coach Chris Victor’s three years. The Redhawks ranked 119th in the NET, second in the WAC behind Grand Canyon. Seattle is 3-4 against the Lopes over the last three seasons.

The bottom five in the WCC standings last season had NET ratings between 199 and 359, meaning Gonzaga’s wins over Loyola Marymount (199) and Pepperdine (226) counted as Quad 3 and the rest were Quad 4.

Few’s mind was focused on a busy summer ahead with Team USA when asked about the Grand Canyon and Seattle.

“To be honest, I didn’t even think much about it,” he said earlier this week. “I’m just dealing with this year. I’ve got USA Basketball and this (GU) team this year and I’ll cross that bridge when I need to.”

Few were more expansive in a podcast hosted by former Zags great Dan Dickau in early June. Few agreed with Boise State coach and former GU assistant Leon Rice’s assertion that Gonzaga, Grand Canyon and San Diego State have the three best court environments in the West.

Grand Canyon “has the same mentality we have at Gonzaga,” few said. “You go to a Grand Canyon game and it’s a big deal. They want to grow and they’re growth-oriented. I think that’s a positive, and who knows what will happen with the Pac-12 schools all dismantled and everything?” It’s a crapshoot to predict what’s going to happen.”

Few also praised WCC Commissioner Stu Jackson’s leadership in his 15 months in office “during a really turbulent time.”

“It’s a strange landscape now,” said few. “Stu is doing a great job as commissioner.”

Commissioner Stu Jackson: ‘Not a bad place to be at WCC’

Scheduling was one of many topics/issues Jackson discussed in a State of WCC address of sorts earlier this week at the conference tournament in Las Vegas. – See more information