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Partly because league kingpins Gonzaga and BYU are suffering through subpar seasons — for them, anyway — West Coast Conference men's basketball is a bit down this year.
After rising as high as eighth in conference RPI last year and sending Gonzaga and BYU to the NCAA Tournament, the league is ranked 15th in the latest CBSSports.com tabulations, behind the Big West (14th) and the Mountain West (11th).
If the WCC is far from the national spotlight, it still can gain a measure of notoriety on Thursday when the league's top two teams — Gonzaga and Saint Mary's — square off in Moraga, Calif.
Unfortunately for BYU fans, tipoff is at 9 p.m., the exact time as the BYU-Loyola Marymount tipoff in Los Angeles. ESPNU will televise the Zags-Gaels game, and the Time Warner Cable network has the Cougars-Lions game.
As of now, Saint Mary's (15-2, 6-1 WCC) and Gonzaga (14-4, 6-1 WCC) are safely in the NCAA tourney. BYU (13-6, 4-2) moved closer to after Thursday's 69-68 win over the Zags, then dropped out of consideration with Saturday's 84-81 loss at Portland, one of the Cougars' worst losses in the Dave Rose era.
In ESPN.com's latest bracketology projections, Saint Mary's has actually moved ahead of Gonzaga. The Gaels are an eight seed, while the Zags are a nine. SMC was a nine seed prior to last week's win over Pacific, while the Zags were a seven seed before falling at home to BYU for the second-straight year.
Saint Mary's is the surprise of the league this year.
"Do I think we'd be doing what we're doing?" coach Randy Bennett asked WCCsports.com, rhetorically. "Not exactly."
Zags get HBO treatment
Gonzaga basketball will be the subject of a five-episode series to be aired on HBO next month entitled "Gonzaga: The March to Madness." The series will debut on Feb. 16 and end on March 15, the first day of the NCAA Tournament.
It is billed as a "behind-the-scenes" look at coach Mark Few's program and will be narrated by actor Liev Schreiber. The Zags are trying to reach the tournament for the 18th straight time.
Looking ahead
Saint Mary's doesn't have a single senior on its roster, so the Gaels are presumably going to be good the next several years.
But help is on the way for BYU and Gonzaga, both of which have top-40 recruiting classes coming in next year, according to ESPN.com.
BYU's incoming class is ranked 29th, although Timpview's Gavin Baxter and Pocatello Highland's Connor Harding will go on church missions before enrolling. Bingham's 6-foot-6 Yoeli Child, who signed in November, moved into ESPN's top 50 on Tuesday, landing at No. 50 and boosting BYU's overall class to No. 29.
Childs is having a monster season for the Miners, averaging 19.6 points and 10.3 rebounds per game.
Of course, blue-chip recruits Eric Mika, T.J. Haws and Payton Dastrup will return from church missions before the 2016-17 season for BYU to offset the losses of Chase Fischer, Kyle Collinsworth and Nate Austin.
Gonzaga loses phenomenal scorer Kyle Wiltjer, but transfers Nigel Williams-Goss (Washington) and Johnathan Williams III (Missouri) become eligible and ESPN 100 recruits Zach Collins (No. 37) and Zach Norvell (No. 81) also join the Zags. Gonzaga's incoming class is ranked 19th by ESPN.com.
Twitter: @drewjay