# 2018–19 West Coast Conference men's basketball season

The 2018–19 West Coast Conference men's basketball season began with practices in September 2018 and will end with the 2019 West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament March 2019. This is the 68th season for WCC men's basketball, and the 30th under its current name of "West Coast Conference". The conference was founded in 1952 as the California Basketball Association, became the West Coast Athletic Conference in 1956, and dropped the word "Athletic" in 1989.

## Head coaches
### Coaching changes

On February 13, 2018, Pepperdine announced that head coach Marty Wilson would not return following the end of the season. He finished at Pepperdine with a seven-year record of 88–129 (91–139 when including his 3–10 record as interim head coach in 1995–96). On March 12, the school hired Lorenzo Romar as head coach. Romar returned to Pepperdine where he started his coaching career in 1996.
On March 8, 2018, San Diego head coach Lamont Smith, who had been placed on administrative leave following an arrest for domestic violence 10 days earlier, resigned as head coach. Assistant coach Sam Scholl took over as interim head coach for the Toreros during the WCC Tournament and the CIT. On April 2, the school announced Scholl would remain the head coach.

### Coaches

| Team | Head coach | Previous job | Years at school | Overall record | WCC record | WCC Tournament record | NCAA Tournaments | Sweet Sixteens |
| BYU | Dave Rose | Dixie State | 14 | 329–122 (.729) | 84–38 (.689) | 9–7 (.563) | 8 | 1 |
| Gonzaga | Mark Few | Gonzaga (asst.) | 20 | 535–118 (.819) | 260–30 (.897) | 42–4 (.913) | 19 | 8 |
| Loyola Marymount | Mike Dunlap | Charlotte Bobcats | 5 | 48–75 (.390) | 23–49 (.319) | 2–4 (.333) | 0 | 0 |
| Pacific | Damon Stoudamire | Memphis Grizzlies (asst.) | 3 | 25–40 (.385) | 13–23 (.361) | 1–2 (.333) | 0 | 0 |
| Pepperdine | Lorenzo Romar | Arizona (asst.) | 1 | 42–44 (.488) | 22–20 (.524) | 1–3 (.250) | 7 | 3 |
| Portland | Terry Porter | Minnesota Timberwolves (asst.) | 3 | 21–44 (.323) | 6–30 (.167) | 1–2 (.333) | 0 | 0 |
| Saint Mary's | Randy Bennett | Saint Louis (asst.) | 18 | 392–162 (.708) | 188–74 (.718) | 20–15 (.571) | 6 | 1 |
| San Diego | Sam Scholl | San Diego (asst.) | 1 | 2–1 (.667) | 0–0 (–) | 0–0 (–) | 0 | 0 |
| San Francisco | Kyle Smith | Columbia | 3 | 42–30 (.583) | 19–17 (.528) | 1–2 (.333) | 0 | 0 |
| Santa Clara | Herb Sendek | Arizona State | 3 | 28–36 (.438) | 18–18 (.500) | 1–2 (.333) | 8 | 1 |
Notes:
* Year at school includes 2018–19 season.
* Overall and WCC records are from time at current school and are through the beginning of the 2018–19 season.

## Preseason
### Preseason poll

Source
| Rank | Team |
| 1. | Gonzaga (9) |
| 2. | Saint Mary's |
| 3. | BYU (1) |
| 4. | San Francisco |
| 5. | San Diego |
| 6. | Pacific |
| 7. | Loyola Marymount |
| 8. | Pepperdine |
| 9. | Santa Clara |
| 10. | Portland |
| (first place votes) ||

### All-WCC Preseason Men's Basketball team

| Honor | Recipient |
| Preseason All-WCC Team |
| Preseason All-WCC Team | James Batemon, Loyola Marymount |
| Preseason All-WCC Team | Yoeli Childs, BYU |
| Preseason All-WCC Team | KJ Feagin, Santa Clara |
| Preseason All-WCC Team | Frankie Ferrari, San Francisco |
| Preseason All-WCC Team | Jordan Ford, Saint Mary's |
| Preseason All-WCC Team | Rui Hachimura, Gonzaga |
| Preseason All-WCC Team | Zach Norvell Jr., Gonzaga |
| Preseason All-WCC Team | Josh Perkins, Gonzaga |
| Preseason All-WCC Team | Isaiah Piñeiro, San Diego |
| Preseason All-WCC Team | Killian Tillie, Gonzaga |
Source

## Rankings

Legend :
| | Improvement in ranking |
| | Drop in ranking |
| | Not ranked previous week |
| RV | Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll |
| (Italics) | Number of first place votes |
| | | Pre/ Wk 1 | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | Wk 5 | Wk 6 | Wk 7 | Wk 8 | Wk 9 | Wk 10 | Wk 11 | Wk 12 | Wk 13 | Wk 14 | Wk 15 | Wk 16 | Wk 17 | Wk 18 | Wk 19 | Post |
| BYU | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| BYU | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Gonzaga | AP | 3 (1) | 3 | 3 | 1 (32) | 1 (43) | 4 (1) | 8 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 (6) | 1 (44) | 1 (42) | 1 (41) | 4 (1) |
| Gonzaga | C | 4 (1) | 4 (1) | 3 | 1 (17) | 1 (21) | 6 (1) | 9 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 (4) | 1 (26) | 1 (27) | 1 (28) | 3 (3) |
| Loyola Marymount | AP | | | RV | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Loyola Marymount | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Pacific | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Pacific | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Pepperdine | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Pepperdine | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Portland | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Portland | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Saint Mary's | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Saint Mary's | C | | | RV | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| San Diego | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| San Diego | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| San Francisco | AP | | | | | | RV | RV | RV | | | | RV | | | | | | | | |
| San Francisco | C | | | | | | | | RV | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Santa Clara | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Santa Clara | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

## WCC regular season
### Conference matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play.
| | BYU | Gonzaga | LMU | Pacific | Pepperdine | Portland | Saint Mary's | San Diego | San Francisco | Santa Clara |
| vs. Brigham Young | – | 2–0 | 0–2 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 2–0 | 0–1 |
| vs. Gonzaga | 0–2 | – | 0–2 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 0–2 | 0–2 | 0–2 |
| vs. Loyola Marymount | 2–0 | 2–0 | – | 0–2 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 0–2 |
| vs. Pacific | 2–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 | – | 0–2 | 0–2 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 |
| vs. Pepperdine | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–0 | – | 0–2 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 2–0 | 2–0 |
| vs. Portland | 2–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 | – | 1–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 |
| vs. Saint Mary's | 1–1 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 1–1 | 0–1 | – | 0–2 | 1–1 | 0–2 |
| vs. San Diego | 2–0 | 2–0 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 0–2 | 2–0 | – | 0–2 | 1–0 |
| vs. San Francisco | 0–2 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 0–2 | 1–1 | 2–0 | – | 1–1 |
| vs. Santa Clara | 1–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 0–2 | 0–2 | 0–2 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 1–1 | – |
| Total | 11–5 | 16–0 | 8–8 | 4–12 | 6–10 | 0–16 | 11–5 | 7–9 | 9–7 | 8–8 |

## All-WCC awards and teams

| Honor | Recipient |
| All-WCC First Team |
| All-WCC First Team | James Batemon, Loyola Marymount |
| All-WCC First Team | Yoeli Childs, BYU |
| All-WCC First Team | Brandon Clarke, Gonzaga |
| All-WCC First Team | Frankie Ferrari, San Francisco |
| All-WCC First Team | Jordan Ford, Saint Mary's |
| All-WCC First Team | Rui Hachimura, Gonzaga |
| All-WCC First Team | Zach Norvell Jr., Gonzaga |
| All-WCC First Team | Josh Perkins, Gonzaga |
| All-WCC First Team | Isaiah Piñeiro, San Diego |
| All-WCC First Team | Colbey Ross, Pepperdine |
| Honor | Recipient |
| All-WCC Second Team |
| All-WCC Second Team | Tahj Eaddy, Santa Clara |
| All-WCC Second Team | Malik Fitts, Saint Mary's |
| All-WCC Second Team | T.J. Haws, BYU |
| All-WCC Second Team | Charles Minlend, San Francisco |
| All-WCC Second Team | Olin Carter III, San Diego |
| Honor | Recipient |
| All-WCC Freshman Team |
| All-WCC Freshman Team | Gavin Baxter, BYU |
| All-WCC Freshman Team | Dameane Douglas, Loyola Marymount |
| All-WCC Freshman Team | Kessler Edwards, Pepperdine |
| All-WCC Freshman Team | Filip Petrušev, Gonzaga |
| All-WCC Freshman Team | Trey Wertz, Santa Clara |
Source