Reactions from the WCC Tip-Off Event

Coach Eric Reveno teased at a possible transfer via. twitter on April 29 after freshman Jake Ehlers decides to leave Portland

Fans across the country tuned into http://thew.tv/ today and watched the annual West Coast Conference tip-off event.

The event kicked-off by releasing the preseason coaches team poll and the preseason all-WCC team. In case you missed the release, here they are:

Preseason All-WCC team:

G Kevin Pangos (Gonzaga)

G Gary Bell Jr. (Gonzaga)

G Tyler Haws (BYU)

G Cody Doolin (San Francisco)

G Johnny Dee (San Diego)

G Stephen Holt (Saint Mary’s)

G Anthony Ireland (LMU)

F Cole Dickerson (San Francisco)

F Stacy Davis (Pepperdine)

C Brad Waldow (Saint Mary’s)

Preseason Coaches’ Poll:

1. Gonzaga (8)
2. BYU (1)
3. Saint Mary’s (1)
4. San Francisco
5. San Diego
6. LMU
7. Pacific
8. Santa Clara
9. Portland
10. Pepperdine

The selections are not a big surprise, however this is an interesting question to ask regarding the dispersion of first place votes in the coaches’ pool.

whttps://twitter.com/WestCoastConvo/status/393446540636737536

One thing I noticed is that the Portland Pilots did not get a lot of recognition in the preseason awards. Senior forward Ryan Nicolas did not make the all-WCC team, and Portland was predicted to come in 9^th, despite returning a decent amount of key players. This tweet by West Coast Convo staff writer David Thompson describes the frustration felt among the Portland fanbase about the Pilots lack of recognition.

The interviews were interesting as well. Because of college midterms, I was only able to listen in on a handful of them, but the ones that I did were insightful.

The announcers asked almost every coach about their point guard play, especially to the teams that have a position battle in that spot. The WCC coaches gave very honest answers to these question, giving the fans an insight into which players will be playing significant minutes.

Pepperdine coach Marty Wilson mentioned that two freshman, Jeremy Major and Amadi Udenyi, are strong candidates to see significant minutes at the point guard position. Wilson also said that Major was a part of the TLC, or Team Leadership Council. That is high praise for a freshman.

Ron Verlin, the head coach of Pacific, said that senior Andrew Bock has an inside track to win the starting point guard job. He also mentioned David Taylor and T.J. Wallace as potential candidates.

San Francisco’s Rex Walters had great things to say about transfer Matt Glover. His name popped up all throughout the interview, and Walters raved over his defense and scoring ability.