2014 WCC Tournament Promises Excitement

Dec 21, 2013; Las Vegas, NV, USA; General view of the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign on Las Vegas Blvd. before the Las Vegas Bowl between the Fresno State Bulldogs and the Southern California Trojans. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

“The Reg season champs from so-so leagues have missed NCAAs on numerous occasions. Especially the ones who did nothing in noncon.”

This Tweet, from an East Coast ESPN sports pundit about the West Coast Conference were fighting words to a dedicated WCC fan like me.

Twitter has the unique ability to allow a person to reach out and touch someone seemingly invincible like those ESPN sports guys are.

So I did.

My reply: “you guys ought to stay up past your EST bedtimes and watch 1 game from all the teams in the WCC this year.” The point being that the WCC is not a so-so conference.”

I’ve been following two WCC teams very closely these past four years – Gonzaga (because I live in Spokane) and the University of Portland (because my daughter is a Senior there.) Four games per week from November through March. And I watch the NCAA tourn to keep my bracketologist credentials up-to-date.

The 2013-2014 WCC season has been one of the most exciting ever. Every single team, even the newest team to the league, Pacific, has been capable of winning on any given night, with some interesting and unpredictable results. Perennial favorites Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s and BYU have had a few games handed to them by dark horse teams like the University of Portland (the first conference loss for Gonzaga in 2014.) USF beat Saint Mary’s Feb. 20, the first time USF has won a game against Saint Mary’s since 2006.

On the eve of the start of the WCC Conference Championship games, the championship is anything but wrapped up in favor of Gonzaga, which has been the case for many years. Saint Mary’s has been the most viable contender in years past, BYU added an interesting dynamic to the mix when they joined the league but it is anybody’s guess who will win the WCC this year. The 2013 WCC tourn saw LMU make a dazzling run from the play-in game against Portland to the semi-finals against Gonzaga after a less than stellar regular season record which was 1-15. Yes, you read that right. 1 win, 15 losses.

Every 2014 WCC tourn game will be hotly contested, which means the EST coast guys better resist the urge to multi-task by playing Candy Crush Saga while watching games that become less interesting. Their NCAA brackets will depend on it, especially with the 1 billion dollar Warren Buffet cash prize for the person who correctly picks all the teams in the 2014 NCAA tournament brackets.