Men’s Basketball WCC Matchups Realeased

CONFERENCE MATCHUPS RELEASED FOR 2020-21 MEN’S BASKETBALL SEASON

The West Coast Conference officially announced the 16 conference matchups for each of its 10 men’s basketball teams for the 2020-21 season Monday morning.

Pacific, who enjoyed one of their most successful seasons in over a decade this past year, looks to continue their ascension in the WCC after notching a 23-10 overall record in 2019-20, which included tying Saint Mary’s for third place in the final regular season standings with an 11-5 mark in conference play.

This is the third season the WCC will play a 16-game schedule after changes adopted by the WCC Presidents’ Council as part of the Conference’s Men’s Basketball Enhancement Plan prior to the start of the 2018-19 season. These schedule initiatives demonstrate the league-wide commitment by West Coast Conference Presidents and Athletic Directors to adopt an innovative approach to advance men’s basketball on the national stage as a multiple NCAA bid Conference.

For the WCC, conference play will begin on Thursday, December 31, 2020. The 2021 West Coast Conference Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament will take place March 4-9 at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. Specific dates and times for each game will be announced later this summer after the conference’s league schedule is finalized.

The matchups detailed below designate the 16-game home and away opponents for the upcoming season based on a Conference formula including the 2018-19 & 2019-20 team NET rankings, last year’s WCC tournament seedings, and a spring survey of the league’s 10 head coaches. The regular-season WCC matchups for the 2020-21 season are as followed:

Pacific
Home/Road: BYU, Gonzaga, LMU, Portland, Saint Mary’s, San Diego, Santa Clara
Home: San Francisco
Road: Pepperdine

BYU
Home/Road: Gonzaga, Pacific, Pepperdine, Portland, Saint Mary’s, San Diego, San Francisco
Home: Santa Clara
Road: LMU

Gonzaga
Home/Road: BYU, Pacific, Pepperdine, Saint Mary’s, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara
Home: LMU
Road: Portland

Loyola Marymount
Home/Road: Pacific, Pepperdine, Portland, Saint Mary’s, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara
Home: BYU
Road: Gonzaga

Pepperdine
Home/Road: BYU, Gonzaga, LMU, Portland, Saint Mary’s, San Diego, San Francisco
Home: Pacific
Road: Santa Clara

Portland
Home/Road: BYU, LMU, Pacific, Pepperdine, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara
Home: Gonzaga
Road: Saint Mary’s

Saint Mary’s
Home/Road: BYU, Gonzaga, LMU, Pacific, Pepperdine, San Francisco, Santa Clara
Home: Portland
Road: San Diego

San Diego
Home/Road: BYU, Gonzaga, LMU, Pacific, Pepperdine, Portland, Santa Clara
Home: Saint Mary’s
Road: San Francisco

San Francisco
Home/Road: BYU, Gonzaga, LMU, Pepperdine, Portland, Saint Mary’s, Santa Clara
Home: San Diego
Road: Pacific

Santa Clara
Home/Road: Gonzaga, LMU, Pacific, Portland, Saint Mary’s, San Diego, San Francisco
Home: Pepperdine
Road: BYU

2019-20 SEASON IN REVIEW:

AS A TEAM-

• 23-10 overall record: best record since 23-12 finish in 2009-10
• 13^th season in program history with at least 20 wins
• 15 wins at the Alex G. Spanos Center, most in program history (previous high was 13 in 1997-98)
• First season with 7+ wins and winning record on the road since 2009-10 (finished 12-7)
• 11 wins in WCC play, most conference wins since 12-4 finish in Big West in 2009-10, most WCC wins since 12-2 finish in 1970-71
• Finished tied with Saint Mary’s for third place in final conference standings (11-5)
• earned top-four seed for WCC Tournament for first time since rejoining conference in 2013-14
• Spent time in Mid-Major Top 25 for first time since 2009-10
• Highest overall win percentage (.697, 23-10) since 2005-06 (.750, 24-8)
• 1^st in WCC in scoring defense (64.5 pgg), 45^th nationally
• 1^st in WCC in field goal percentage defense (41.6%), 97^th nationally
• 1^st in WCC blocked shots per game (3.9 bpg), 78^th nationally
• 1^st in WCC total blocks (129), 70^th nationally

INDIVIDUAL HONORS-

• Head coach Damon Stoudamire was named the 2019-20 WCC Coach of the Year, becoming the first Tiger head coach to bring home the honor since Dick Edwards won his third award in 1970-71.
• Stoudamire enters his fifth year with Pacific after directing a stout defensive unit which led the conference and ranked No. 42 nationally in scoring defense (64.3 ppg) last season.
• Senior Jahlil Tripp became the second Tiger in three years to win WCC Defensive Player of the Year, earning All-First Team honors along the way. The Brooklyn, N.Y. native averaged a career-best 16.2 points while also leading the WCC with 8.9 rebounds per game. Dangerous on both ends of the floor, the 6-5″ guard also added 2.0 assists and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 51 percent overall from the floor.
• Impacting the game plan from the jump, Daniss Jenkins earned a spot on the All-WCC Freshmen team after starting in 23 of the Tigers’ 33 games. Evolving into one of the team’s top defenders, Jenkins averaged 6.2 points per game and shot 82 percent from the free throw line in his first year in Stockton.

AS A CONFERENCE…

• Gonzaga – finished the 2019-20 campaign ranked No. 2 and spent five weeks at No. 1 and spent 14 weeks in the top-three
• BYU returned to the top-25 on Feb. 17 and surged up to No. 14
• Saint Mary’s entered the season in the top-20 and received votes in every weekly poll
• Three WCC teams were in Joe Lunardi’s final 2020 Bracketology report: BYU (No. 6 West), Gonzaga (No. 1 West) & Saint Mary’s (No. 8 South)
• Three WCC teams received votes in both the AP and USA Today Coaches polls – Zags, Cougars & Gaels
• For the third time in four seasons, two #WCChoops programs earned a top-25 ranking in the final regular season poll (Gonzaga & BYU)
• Four WCC teams rated in the top-100 of the NET, led by two in the top-10 –Gonzaga (No. 1) & BYU (No. 9)
• A record seven WCC programs finished the season in the top-150 of the final NET rankings
• Seven WCC programs were in contention for postseason play, which would have established a new conference record
• WCC led all Division I conferences in both field goal (45.93) and 3-point field goal (35.61) accuracy

**Notable: The scheduling matchups for West Coast Conference men’s basketball do not impact the women’s basketball schedule which will continue the traditional 18-game, double round-robin league slate in 2020-21.