How is the conference shaping up this year?

I saw sports nation this morning because I don’t have to be to work until Monday. I don’t like what I see for BYU going forward. The wcc has some pretty good teams, many of which have played a lot better than BYU so far this season.

I am not going to predict how it is going to go but I see several teams not named Gonzaga that will give BYU some trouble this season.

Here are the wcc teams and how they stack up. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of them finished ahead of BYU -

Gonzaga - obviously a national power, BYU has no chance vs. Gonzaga this season.
San Francisco - they are deep and well coached, only 2 losses but one was a surprise vs. UC Santa Barbara.
St. Mary’s - Always contends, even in a rebuilding/down year, some strange losses but usually close games. Lost to Miss. St. by 4. Well coached.
San Diego - Has given BYU trouble recently and is experienced and better.
Loyola Marymount - 12 and 2, beat some teams BYU lost to…
Pacific - good team overall, beat BYU last year at home… tonght’s game is there.
Pepperdine - Not sure why but BYU struggles when they play in Malibu.
Santa Clara - not a great team but has a winning record, 5 wins in a row, 2 of those vs. USC and Washington St.
Portland - Not a very good team, probably the worst in the wcc right now.

Looking ahead I am honestly a little nervous about my prediction of BYU finishing 3rd or 4th. I don’t think they are in a position right now to be in the top half of the wcc. If Yoeli has an off game or gets shut down, who other than Haws, can fill in?

I haven’t seen BYU improve much so far and league play starts tonight.

I saw that on DN this morning too. My thought below:

Gonzaga - we have no business beating them because they are the “DARLING of WCC.” - whatever that mean.
San Francisco - we may get a split here
St. Mary’s - 2nd Darling team - sort of. We lost to Miss. State big time but we beat Utah State pretty good & Aggies beat SMC by double digits. We might split them or still lose both because Bennett out coach Dave Rose.
San Diego - we lose both
Loyola Marymount - many times we should have never lost to them but this time we lose twice
Pacific - we lose both. Coach Damon Stoudamire got all his players doing good for him
Pepperdine - Split as always
Santa Clara - Split as above. They are on a role
Portland - Split. We are not a very good team either

I know I am being negative but I pretty much waiting till next year or two. Same typical BYU team since Jimmer moved on and BYU basketball team has gotten worse. No Dave Rice and no Heath Schroyer. If he can get Steve Cleveland back then maybe things will get better.

It certainly looks bad so far. On paper BYU should be good. They have several high school top 100 players and several other highly touted players out of high school. It looks to me that most of them other than Childs have fallen short of expectations. Maybe that is on Rose. I am really discouraged with the direction the program has taken.It looks like other WCC teams are getting more out of talent that was less highly regarded out of high school.

I’m not really nervous about this year-it’s already a downer. It’s the future that worries me. I see things getting worse instead of better. What happens after Childs leaves next year. Currently Lee is the only big man after Childs.