This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Brigham Young University's men's basketball team has been picked to finish second in its second season in the West Coast Conference.
In a preseason poll of the WCC's nine head coaches, Gonzaga received seven first-place votes and 63 of 64 possible points. The Cougars received one first-place vote and 55 points, followed by defending champion Saint Mary's College, with 52 points.
Senior center Brandon Davies is the only BYU player on the WCC preseason all-conference team, also selected by the coaches. Davies averaged more than 15 ppg last season.
After Gonzaga, BYU and Saint Mary's, the coaches picked the league to finish in this order: Loyola Marymount, San Diego, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Portland, Pepperdine.
Gonzaga, which is ranked No. 22 in the USA Today/ESPN Top 25, placed four players on the preseason all-conference team: Elias Harris, Sam Dower, Gary Bell and Kevin Pangos. Matthew Dellavedova and Stephen Holt of SMC also made the first team, along with Loyola Marymount's Anthony Ireland, San Diego's Johnny Dee and Santa Clara's Kevin Foster.