The West Coast Conference tournament operates on a staggered scale that more and more conferences are moving towards. There are only eight teams in the WCC, but rather than having a straight up single elimination tournament, the lowest four seeds play in the first round today. The two winners face off against the #3 and #4 seeds tomorrow. Those two winners play the top two seeds on Sunday, and obviously the two winners battle for the conference title. So Gonzaga and St. Mary's, as the top two teams during the regular season, don't even have to play until the semifinals. It guarantees a smaller conference that their biggest teams won't get eliminated early, before the national TV cameras of ESPN arrrive for Championship Week festivities, and gives the actual top teams a better format for showing themselves off on a grand scale (although in previous years, especially with San Diego, a lower seed has snuck further into the tournament than WCC officials would probably be stoked about). Here are the 14 dudes returning on the active rosters of teams to this year's West Coast Conference tournament, being held in Paradise, Nevada, which sounds like the type of place you accidentally sell your soul to the devil...
#1: Brandon Johnson (San Diego guard; 134 previous points in the WCC tournament) - San Diego is only a 6th seed, meaning they will have to fight their way through from opening day until they lose. But they've done that in the past all the way to the championship game, like in 2008 when they won the title. They are not a top-tier team this year though, and Brandon Johnson is the best player on a lackluster team, but one that has surprised in WCC March play before.
#2: De'Jon Jackson (San Diego guard; 81 previous points in the WCC tournament) - My man De'Jon is on their roster, but in spirit only, as he tore his knee up in the middle of February and his basketball career is done. He will be sitting at the end of the bench, watching his dreams fade to black.
#3: Dior Lowhorn (San Francisco forward; 68 previous points in the WCC tournament) - From the San Francisco area, he originally played for Texas Tech for a year before transferring home where he hit his stride last year, averaging 20-plus points a game. He's a great player on a not-so-great team, although San Francisco actually won national titles twice way back in the day. San Francisco actually played well enough to be seeded 4th, meaning they don't have to play until tomorrow, and hopefully get to take a shot at Gonzaga on Sunday afternoon's early game. Their success in doing such a thing will depend heavily on a kid called Dior.
#4: Matt Bouldin (Gonzaga guard; 62 previous points in the WCC tournament) - Every year, when it comes time for college basketball talking heads to announce non-major conference teams you have to beware of, they pick Gonzaga, and whatever flavor of the year shaggy-haired pseudo-whiteboy is their star. Since it his Senior year, it is Matt Bouldin's turn. You know how shaggy-haired and awesome Matt Bouldin is (way more than Adam Morrison was with his metalhead molester mustache)? He has consistently been rumored to be dating Taylor Swift. That is a far stronger career move, bankwise, than fucking around with basketball.
#5: Omar Samhan (Saint Mary's center; 47 previous points in the WCC tournament) - An All-WCC player last year, Samhan is the solid force inside for the second-best team in the conference this year, who hope to fuck up Gonzaga in the conference tournament for grudge style points going into the NCAA tournament. Samhan is also Egyptian, and I now work with an Egyptian dude, who talks soccer and tries to get me to watch the friendlies between North African countries and European teams online during work. I have mostly worked with underclass foreigners, so it's fairly interesting working with a post-doctoral Egyptian dude, and learning, once again, that people are people, regardless, as well as irregardless, of where they come from and where they are going.
#6: Nik Raivio (Portland guard; 43 previous points in the WCC tournament) - An All-WCC team player last year, he strained his Achilles tendon during practice in January, so is a bench coach ever since. But the Pilots have been winning (10 of their last 12), and come into the WCC tournament the 3rd seed.
#7: Kevin Foster (Santa Clara guard; 38 previous points in the WCC tournament) - Last year was Foster's freshman year in the WCC, and he was crowned Co-Newcomer of the Year to the league. This year has not been so great, with Foster breaking his foot in December.
#8: Mychel Thompson (Pepperdine forward; 34 previous points in the WCC tournament) - Thompson, a Junior, is the best and only consistent player on a Pepperdine Waves team that finished last in the WCC regular season.
#9: Keion Bell (Pepperdine guard; 33 previous points in the WCC tournament) - But perhaps their future is not so ugly, as Keion Bell was a starter in his freshman year last year, and he's averaging nearly 20 points per game. Next year could be Pepperdine's turn to be the WCC second fiddle to the always-hyped Gonzaga Zagdogs.
#10: Steven Gray (Gonzaga guard; 33 previous points in the WCC tournament) - Junior counterpart to Bouldin's Gonzaga superstardom status, who will be next year's Zag star as they pummel West Coast Conference competition yet again, and then underachieve, at least according to their hype, in the NCAA tournament. Like I said, they must have a crazy good sports information director at Gonzaga.
#11: Chris Lewis (San Diego guard/forward; 28 previous points in the WCC tournament) - Lewis is the most contributable bench player for the sixth best team in an eight-team conference that few people know about beyond Gonzaga.
#12: Roberto Mafra (San Diego forward/center; 27 previous points in the WCC tournament) - One of two Brazilians on the San Diego roster, continuing their international tradition of hodgepodginess.
#13: Marc Trasolini (Santa Clara forward; 23 previous points in the WCC tournament) - Also on last year's All-Freshman team for the WCC, meaning Santa Clara is loading up to take a shot at Gonzaga's inherent superiority. Just not this year.
#14: Ben Dowdell (Santa Clara forward; 22 previous points in the WCC tournament) - A decorated Aussie player before coming to America, he is biding his time in America before going home to clock his down under grip. Santa Clara plays the nightcap on the opening day today, and against an always tough San Diego Toreros team, so it may be an early return to Australia for big Ben (unless they actually make him take classes).
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