2023–24 West Coast Conference men's basketball season

2023–24 West Coast Conference men's basketball season
2023–24 West Coast Conference men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Men's basketball
Number of teams	9
Regular season
Season champions	Saint Mary’s
Season MVP	Augustas Marčiulionis, Saint Mary's
Tournament
Basketball seasons
	← 2022–23 2024–25 →

2023–24 West Coast Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 21 Saint Mary's †	15	–	1	.938	26	–	8	.765
No. 15 Gonzaga	14	–	2	.875	27	–	8	.771
San Francisco	11	–	5	.688	23	–	11	.676
Santa Clara	10	–	6	.625	20	–	13	.606
San Diego	7	–	9	.438	18	–	15	.545
Portland	5	–	11	.313	12	–	21	.364
Loyola Marymount	5	–	11	.313	12	–	19	.387
Pepperdine	5	–	11	.313	13	–	20	.394
Pacific	0	–	16	.000	6	–	26	.188

† 2024 WCC tournament winner Rankings from AP Poll

The 2023–24 West Coast Conference men's basketball season began with practices in September 2023 and will end with the 2024 West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament in March 2024. This will be the 73rd season for WCC men's basketball, and the 35th 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.

Head coaches

Coaches

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Years at school	Overall record	WCC record	WCC Tournament record	NCAA Tournaments	Sweet Sixteens
Gonzaga	Mark Few	Gonzaga (asst.)	25	689–135 (.836)	332–34 (.907)	49–5 (.907)	23	12
Loyola Marymount	Stan Johnson	Marquette (asst.)	4	43–39 (.524)	19–24 (.442)	2–3 (.400)	0	0
Pacific	Leonard Perry	Pacific (asst.)	3	22–39 (.361)	10–20 (.333)	1–2 (.333)	0	0
Pepperdine	Lorenzo Romar	Arizona (asst.)	6	105–136 (.436)	24-53 (.312)	5–5 (.500)	7	3
Portland	Shantay Legans	Eastern Washington	3	32–33 (.492)	12–18 (.400)	2–2 (.500)	1	0
Saint Mary's	Randy Bennett	Saint Louis (asst.)	23	507–208 (.709)	256–95 (.729)	27–19 (.587)	9	1
San Diego	Steve Lavin	St. John's	2	11–20 (.355)	4–12 (.250)	0–1 (.000)	8	4
San Francisco	Chris Gerlufsen	San Francisco (asst.)	2	20–14 (.588)	7–9 (.438)	2–1 (.667)	0	0
Santa Clara	Herb Sendek	Arizona State	7	120–94 (.561)	57–50 (.533)	5–7 (.417)	8	1

Notes:

Year at school includes 2023–24 season.
Overall and WCC records are from time at current school and are through the beginning of the 2023–24 season.

Preseason

Conference realignment

On September 10, 2021, BYU was one of four schools (the others being Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF) that accepted invitations to join the Big 12 Conference beginning with the 2023-24 athletic season.^[1] Therefore, the WCC dropped to 9 teams for the current season.^[2]

Preseason poll

2023-24 WCC Preseason Men's Basketball Coaches Poll^[3]
Rank	Team (First Place Votes)	Points
1.	Saint Mary's (5)	61
2.	Gonzaga (4)	60
3.	San Francisco	45
4.	Loyola Marymount	42
5.	Santa Clara	41
6.	Portland	27
7.	Pepperdine	22
8.	Pacific	16
9.	San Diego	10

All-WCC Preseason Men's Basketball team

Honor	Recipient
Preseason All-WCC Team	Alex Ducas, Saint Mary's
	Graham Ike, Gonzaga
	Keli Leaupepe, LMU
	Aidan Mahaney, Saint Mary's
	Houston Mallette, Pepperdine
	Ryan Nembhard, Gonzaga
	Jevon Porter, Pepperdine
	Tyler Robertson, Portland
	Mitchell Saxen, Saint Mary's
	Anton Watson, Gonzaga

Rankings

*AP does not release post-NCAA tournament rankings

		Improvement in ranking
		Drop in ranking
RV		Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25
NV		No votes received

		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
Gonzaga	AP	11	11	11	11	7	10	15	13	24	23	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	23	19
Gonzaga	C	12	12	10	10	8	13	16	16	25	21	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	22	18
Loyola Marymount	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Loyola Marymount	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Pacific	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Pacific	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Pepperdine	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Pepperdine	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Portland	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Portland	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Saint Mary's	AP	23	RV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	RV	RV	RV	18	18	17	23
Saint Mary's	C	23	24	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	RV	RV	19	18	17	21
San Diego	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
San Diego	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
San Francisco	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	RV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
San Francisco	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Santa Clara	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Santa Clara	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

Regular season

Conference matrix

	Gonzaga	Loyola Marymount	Pacific	Pepperdine	Portland	Saint Mary's	San Diego	San Francisco	Santa Clara
vs. Gonzaga	–	0–2	0–2	0–2	0–2	1–1	0–2	0–2	1–1
vs. Loyola Marymount	2–0	–	0-2	1–1	1–1	2–0	1–1	2–0	2–0
vs. Pacific	2–0	2–0	–	2–0	2–0	2–0	2–0	2–0	2–0
vs. Pepperdine	2–0	1–1	0–2	–	1–1	2–0	1–1	2–0	2–0
vs. Portland	2–0	1–1	0–2	1–1	–	2-0	2–0	2–0	1–1
vs. Saint Mary's	1–1	0–2	0–2	0–2	0–2	–	0-2	0–2	0–2
vs. San Diego	2–0	1–1	0–2	1–1	0–2	2–0	–	2–0	1–1
vs. San Francisco	2–0	0–2	0–2	0–2	0–2	2–0	0–2	–	1-1
vs. Santa Clara	1–1	0–2	0–2	0–2	1–1	2–0	1–1	1–1	–
Total	14–2	5–11	0–16	5–11	5–11	15–1	7–9	11–5	10–6

Early season tournaments

The following table summarizes the multiple-team events (MTE) or early season tournaments in which teams from the West Coast Conference will participate.


Team	Tournament	Dates	Result
Gonzaga	Maui Invitational	November 20–22	5th
Loyola Marymount	Cayman Islands Classic	November 19–21	7th
Pacific	Pacific MTE^[4]	November 24–29	–
Pepperdine	Ball Dawgs Classic	November 21–24	–
Portland	Diamond Head Classic	December 21–24	8th
Saint Mary's	Continental Tire Main Event	November 17–19	4th
San Diego	Acrisure Invitational	November 24–25	2nd
San Francisco	Arizona Tip-Off^[5]	November 17–19	3rd
Santa Clara	Emerald Coast Classic	November 18–25	2nd

WCC Player/Freshman of the Week

Throughout the year, the West Coast Conference names a player of the week and a freshman of the week as follows:


Week	Date	Player of the Week	Freshman of the Week
1	November 13, 2023	Carlos Marshall Jr., Santa Clara	Tyler Harris, Portland
2	November 20, 2023	Justice Hill, LMU	Tyler Harris (2), Portland
3	November 27, 2023	Anton Watson, Gonzaga	Ryan Beasley, San Francisco
4	December 4, 2023	Ryan Nembhard, Gonzaga	Braden Huff, Gonzaga
5	December 11, 2023	Dominick Harris, LMU	Nils Cooper, Pepperdine
6	December 18, 2023	Mitchell Saxen, Saint Mary's	Kevin Patton Jr., San Diego
7	December 26, 2023	Malik Thomas, San Francisco	Braden Huff (2), Gonzaga
8	January 2, 2024	Luke Barrett, Saint Mary's	Dragos Lungu, San Diego
9	January 8, 2024	Jonathan Mogbo, San Francisco	Tyler Harris (3), Portland
10	January 15, 2024	Jonathan Mogbo (2), San Francisco	Kevin Patton Jr. (2), San Diego
11	January 24, 2024	Joshua Jefferson, Saint Mary's	Braden Huff (3), Gonzaga
12	January 29, 2024	Graham Ike, Gonzaga	Kevin Patton Jr. (3), San Diego
13	February 5, 2024	Jonathan Mogbo (3), San Francisco	Bol Dengdit, Portland
14	February 12, 2024	Wayne McKinney III, San Diego	Braden Huff (4), Gonzaga
15	February 19, 2024	Ryan Nembhard (2), Gonzaga	Kevin Patton Jr. (4), San Diego
16	February 26, 2024	Michael Ajayi, Pepperdine	Ryan Beasley (2), San Francisco
17	March 4, 2024	Graham Ike (2), Gonzaga	Ryan Beasley (3), San Francisco

Postseason

WCC Tournament


First round Thursday, March 7			Second round Friday, March 8			Third round Saturday, March 9			Semifinals Monday, March 11			Championship Tuesday, March 12



									2	Gonzaga	89

						3	San Francisco	72	3	San Francisco	77

			6	Portland	78	6	Portland	51				2	Gonzaga	60

			7	Loyola Marymount	70							1	Saint Mary’s	69

									1	Saint Mary’s	79

						4	Santa Clara	104	4	Santa Clara	65

			5	San Diego	57	5	San Diego	79

8	Pepperdine	102	8	Pepperdine	52

9	Pacific	43

NCAA Tournament

Seed	Region	School	First round	Second round	Sweet 16	Elite Eight	Final Four	Championship
5	Midwest	Gonzaga	Defeated (12) McNeese, 86–65	Defeated (4) Kansas, 89–68	Lost to (1) Purdue, 68–80	DNP
5	West	Saint Mary's	Lost to (12) Grand Canyon, 66–75	DNP
	Bids	W-L (%):	1–1 (.500)	1–0 (1.000)	0–1 (.000)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	TOTAL: 2–2 (.500)

NIT

Seed	School	First round	Second round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final
–	San Francisco	Lost to (2) Cincinnati, 72–73 (OT)	DNP
	W-L (%):	0–1 (.000)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	TOTAL: 0–1 (.000)

All-WCC Awards and Teams

On March 5, 2024, the West Coast Conference announced the following awards:^[6]


Honor	Recipient	School
Player of the Year	Augustas Marčiulionis	Saint Mary’s
Coach of the Year	Randy Bennett	Saint Mary’s
Defensive Player of the Year	Mitchell Saxen	Saint Mary’s
Newcomer of the Year	Jonathan Mogbo	San Francisco
Sixth Player of the Year	Deuce Turner	San Diego
All-WCC First Team	Michael Ajayi	Pepperdine
	Adama-Alpha Bal	Santa Clara
	Graham Ike	Gonzaga
	Aidan Mahaney	Saint Mary’s
	Augustas Marčiulionis	Saint Mary’s
	Jonathan Mogbo	San Francisco
	Ryan Nembhard	Gonzaga
	Mitchell Saxen	Saint Mary’s
	Anton Watson	Gonzaga
	Marcus Williams	San Francisco
All-WCC Second Team	Alex Ducas	Saint Mary’s
	Nolan Hickman	Gonzaga
	Wayne McKinney III	San Diego
	Tyler Robertson	Portland
	Deuce Turner	San Diego
All-WCC Freshman Team	Ryan Beasley	San Francisco
	Jake Ensminger	Santa Clara
	Tyler Harris	Portland
	Braden Huff	Gonzaga
	Kevin Patton Jr.	San Diego
WCC Honorable Mention	Joshua Jefferson	Saint Mary’s
	Houston Mallette	Pepperdine
	Carlos Marshall Jr.	Santa Clara
	Alex Merkviladze	LMU
	Jevon Porter	Pepperdine
	Ndewedo Newbury	San Francisco
	Malik Thomas	San Francisco
	Christoph Tilly	Santa Clara

References

^ Lundquist, Casey (September 10, 2021). "BYU Athletics to Join the Big 12 in 2023". BYU Cougars on Sports Illustrated: News, Analysis, and More. Retrieved February 12, 2024.
^ Greene, Brenna (September 10, 2021). "What BYU leaving the WCC means for both the conference and Gonzaga". krem.com. Retrieved February 12, 2024.
^ "Saint Mary's Picked to Win 2023-24 WCC Men's Basketball Championship". wccsports.com. Retrieved February 12, 2024.
^ CDobbertean (April 4, 2023). "2023-24 Men's College Basketball Early Season Tournaments and Exempt Multi-Team Events (MTEs)". Blogging the Bracket. Retrieved February 12, 2024.
^ RMiller (June 6, 2023). "The Inaugural Arizona Tip-Off". The Bracketeer. Retrieved February 12, 2024.
^ "WCC Announces 2023-24 Men's Basketball All-Conference Awards".

[1] Lundquist, Casey (September 10, 2021). "BYU Athletics to Join the Big 12 in 2023". BYU Cougars on Sports Illustrated: News, Analysis, and More. Retrieved February 12, 2024.

[2] Greene, Brenna (September 10, 2021). "What BYU leaving the WCC means for both the conference and Gonzaga". krem.com. Retrieved February 12, 2024.

[3] "Saint Mary's Picked to Win 2023-24 WCC Men's Basketball Championship". wccsports.com. Retrieved February 12, 2024.

[4] CDobbertean (April 4, 2023). "2023-24 Men's College Basketball Early Season Tournaments and Exempt Multi-Team Events (MTEs)". Blogging the Bracket. Retrieved February 12, 2024.

[5] RMiller (June 6, 2023). "The Inaugural Arizona Tip-Off". The Bracketeer. Retrieved February 12, 2024.

[6] "WCC Announces 2023-24 Men's Basketball All-Conference Awards".

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