2021–22 West Coast Conference men's basketball season

The 2021–22 West Coast Conference men's basketball season began with practices in September 2021 and ended with the 2022 West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament in March 2022.^[1] This will be the 71st season for WCC men's basketball, and the 33rd 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.

2021–22 West Coast Conference men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Men's basketball
Number of teams	10
Regular season
Season champions	Gonzaga
Runners-up	Saint Mary's
Season MVP	Drew Timme, Gonzaga
Tournament

2021–22 West Coast Conference men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 1 Gonzaga †	13	–	1		.929			28	–	4		.875
No. 18 Saint Mary's	12	–	3		.800			26	–	8		.765
Santa Clara	10	–	5		.667			21	–	12		.636
San Francisco	10	–	6		.625			24	–	10		.706
BYU	9	–	6		.600			24	–	11		.686
Portland	7	–	7		.500			19	–	15		.559
San Diego	7	–	9		.438			15	–	16		.484
Pacific	3	–	11		.214			8	–	22		.267
Loyola Marymount	3	–	12		.200			11	–	18		.379
Pepperdine	1	–	15		.063			7	–	25		.219
† 2022 WCC tournament winner Rankings from AP poll

Head coaches

Coaching changes

Two new head coaches will lead their team in the WCC during the 2021–22 season. On March 22, 2021, Shantay Legans, the then coach at Eastern Washington University, revealed via Twitter that he had accepted the position as the head coach at the University of Portland.^[2] Then, on July 7, 2021, the University of the Pacific announced that associate head coach Leonard Perry would become the new head coach of the Tigers.^[3] The former head coach, Damon Stoudamire, accepted a position as an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics under Ime Udoka.^[4] Perry was previously the head basketball coach at the University of Idaho from 2001 to 2006.^[5]

Coaches

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Years at school	Overall record	WCC record	WCC Tournament record	NCAA tournaments	Sweet Sixteens
BYU	Mark Pope	Utah Valley	3	44–15 (.746)	23–6 (.793)	1–2 (.333)	1	0
Gonzaga	Mark Few	Gonzaga (asst.)	23	630–124 (.836)	305–31 (.908)	45–5 (.900)	21	10
Loyola Marymount	Stan Johnson	Marquette (asst.)	2	13–9 (.591)	7–5 (.583)	1–1 (.500)	0	0
Pacific	Leonard Perry	Pacific (asst.)	1	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0	0
Pepperdine	Lorenzo Romar	Arizona (asst.)	4	89–90 (.497)	21–25 (.457)	5–3 (.625)	7	3
Portland	Shantay Legans	Eastern Washington	1	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	1	0
Saint Mary's	Randy Bennett	Saint Louis(asst.)	21	454–192 (.703)	223–98 (.695)	25–17 (.595)	7	1
San Diego	Sam Scholl	San Diego (asst.)	4	35–50 (.412)	11–30 (0.268)	3–3 (0.500)	0	0
San Francisco	Todd Golden	San Francisco (asst.)	3	33–26 (.559)	13–16 (.448)	3–2 (.600)	0	0
Santa Clara	Herb Sendek	Arizona State	6	76–72 (.514)	36–40 (.474)	4–5 (.444)	8	1

Notes:

• Year at school includes 2021–22 season.
• Overall and WCC records are from time at current school and are through the beginning of the 2021–22 season.

Preseason

Conference realignment

On September 10, 2021, BYU was one of four schools (the others being Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF) that accepted invitations to join the Big 12 Conference beginning with the 2023–24 athletic season.^[6] Therefore, BYU remained a member of the WCC for this season and the 2022–23 season, with the WCC potentially dropping to nine teams for the 2023–24 season.^[7] West Coast Conference commissioner Gloria Nevarez indicated that the conference is open to adding additional schools to the conference to ensure "continued success" for the league.^[8]

Preseason poll

2021-22 WCC Preseason Men's Basketball Coaches Poll
Rank	Team (First Place Votes)	Points
1.	Gonzaga (9)	81
2.	BYU (1)	72
3.	Saint Mary's	63
4.	Loyola Marymount	56
5.	San Francisco	49
6.	Santa Clara	45
7.	Pepperdine	31
8.	Pacific	24
8.	San Diego	20
10.	Portland	9

All-WCC Preseason Men's Basketball team

Honor	Recipient
Preseason All-WCC Team	Alex Barcello, BYU
	Jamaree Bouyea, San Francisco
	Logan Johnson, Saint Mary's
	Caleb Lohner, BYU
	Andrew Nembhard, Gonzaga
	Eli Scott, LMU
	Khalil Shabazz, San Francisco
	Drew Timme, Gonzaga
	Josip Vrankic, Santa Clara
	Jalen Williams, Santa Clara

Rankings

Main article: 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's basketball 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	Final
BYU	AP	RV	RV	18	12	24	RV	RV			RV	RV	RV
	C			18	13	23	RV	RV		RV	RV	RV	RV
Gonzaga	AP	1 (55)	1 (55)	1 (55)	3 (1)	5	5	4	4	4	2	1 (25)	2 (15)	2 (12)	2 (13)	1 (56)	1 (61)	1 (46)	1 (52)	1 (54)
	C	1 (29)	1 (29)	1 (30)	3	5	5	4	4	4	2	1 (23)	1 (18)	1 (16)	1 (18)	1 (30)	1 (32)	1 (20)	1 (27)	1 (31)
Loyola Marymount	AP
	C
Pacific	AP
	C
Pepperdine	AP
	C
Portland	AP
	C
Saint Mary's	AP												RV	RV	22	RV	23	19	17	18
	C						RV	RV	RV	RV			RV	RV	22	RV	23	20	17	16
San Diego	AP
	C
San Francisco	AP			RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV				RV	RV			RV	RV
	C			RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV		RV	RV		RV	RV	RV		RV	RV
Santa Clara	AP
	C

Regular season

Conference matrix

	BYU	Gonzaga	Loyola Marymount	Pacific	Pepperdine	Portland	Saint Mary's	San Diego	San Francisco	Santa Clara
vs. BYU	–	2–0	0–2	1–1	0–2	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	1–0
vs. Gonzaga	0–2	–	0–1	0–1	0–2	0–1	1–1	0–1	0–2	0–2
vs. Loyola Marymount	2–0	1–0	–	1–1	0–1	1–1	2–0	2–0	1–0	2–0
vs. Pacific	1–1	1–0	1–1	–	1–1	2–0	0–0	2–0	1–0	2–0
vs. Pepperdine	2–0	2–0	1–0	1–1	–	2–0	2–0	2–0	2–0	1–0
vs. Portland	1–0	1–0	1–1	0–2	0–2	–	1–0	1–1	1–1	1–0
vs. Saint Mary's	1–1	1–1	0–2	0–0	0–2	0–1	–	0–2	0–2	1–1
vs. San Diego	1–0	1–0	0–2	0–2	0–2	1–1	2–0	–	2–0	2–0
vs. San Francisco	1–1	2–0	0–1	0–1	0–2	1–1	2–0	0–2	–	0–2
vs. Santa Clara	0–1	2–0	0–2	0–2	0–1	0–1	1–1	0–2	2–0	–
Total	9–6	13–1	3–12	3–11	1–15	7–7	12–3	7–9	10–6	10–5

Early season tournaments

The following table summarizes the multiple-team events (MTE) or early season tournaments in which teams from the West Coast Conference will participate.

Team	Tournament	Dates	Arena	Arena location	Record	Bracketed	Finish	TV partner
BYU	Diamond Head Classic[9]	December 22–25	Stan Sheriff Center	Honolulu, Hawaii	2–1	Yes	3rd	ESPN
Gonzaga	Empire Classic[10]	November 18–19	Madison Square Garden	New York, New York	2–0	No	N/A	ESPN
Loyola Marymount	Jacksonville Classic[11]	November 17–22	UNF Arena	Jacksonville, Florida	2–1	Yes	3rd	CBS
Pacific	Rainbow Classic[12]	November 10–13	Stan Sheriff Center	Honolulu, Hawaii	1–2	No	N/A	N/A
Pepperdine	SoCal Challenge[13]	November 22–24	Pavilion at JSerra	San Juan Capistrano, California	0–3	No	N/A	CBS/FloHoops
Portland	Incarnate Word Tournament	November 26–28	McDermott Center	San Antonio, Texas	2–1	No	N/A	N/A
Saint Mary's	Maui Invitational[14]	November 22–24	Lahaina Civic Center	Maui, Hawaii	2–1	Yes	2nd	ESPN
San Diego	Las Vegas Classic[15]	November 25–26	Orleans Arena	Paradise, Nevada	2–1	Yes	3rd	N/A
San Francisco	Las Vegas Invitational[16]	November 25–26	Orleans Arena	Las Vegas, Nevada	2–0	Yes	1st	Fox Sports
Santa Clara	SoCal Challenge[13]	November 22–24	Pavilion at JSerra	San Juan Capistrano, California	2–1	No	N/A	CBS/FloHoops

WCC Player/Freshman of the Week

Throughout the year, the West Coast Conference names a player of the week and a freshman of the week as follows:

Week	Date	Player of the Week	Freshman of the Week
1	November 15, 2021	Drew Timme, Gonzaga	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga
2	November 22, 2021	Alex Barcello, BYU	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga
3	November 29, 2021	Dan Fotu, Saint Mary's	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga
4	December 6, 2021	Jamaree Bouyea, San Francisco	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga
5	December 13, 2021	Jamaree Bouyea, San Francisco	Houston Mallette, Pepperdine
6	December 20, 2021	Andrew Nembhard, Gonzaga	Mike Mitchell Jr., Pepperdine
7	December 27, 2021	Fousseyni Traore, BYU	Fousseyni Traore, BYU
8	January 3, 2022	Logan Johnson, Saint Mary's	Nolan Hickman, Gonzaga
9	January 11, 2022	Yauhen Massalski, San Francisco	Fousseyni Traore, BYU
10	January 17, 2022	Drew Timme, Gonzaga	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga
11	January 24, 2022	Alex Ducas, Saint Mary's	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga & Fousseyni Traore, BYU
12	January 31, 2022	Matthias Tass, Saint Mary's	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga
13	February 7, 2022	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga
14	February 14, 2022	Tyler Robertson, Portland	Houston Mallette, Pepperdine
15	February 21, 2022	Tommy Kuhse, Saint Mary's	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga
16	February 28, 2022	Logan Johnson, Saint Mary's	Fousseyni Traore, BYU

National awards and teams

All-Americans

Main article: 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans

The following WCC players were named as national All-Americans as follows:

Player	School	Associated Press	United States Basketball Writers Association	National Association of Basketball Coaches	Sporting News	Consensus Points
Drew Timme	Gonzaga	2	2	2	2	8
Chet Holmgren	Gonzaga	2	3	3	2	6

Other National Awards

The following WCC players were named to national award watch lists and received awards as follows:

Wooden Award – Player of the Year

Main article: John R. Wooden Award

Preseason Top 50	Midseason Top 25	Late Season Top 20	Top 15 Ballot	Wooden 10 All Americans	5 Finalists
Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga	Drew Timme, Gonzaga
Andrew Nembhard, Gonzaga	Drew Timme, Gonzaga	Drew Timme, Gonzaga	Drew Timme, Gonzaga	Drew Timme, Gonzaga
Drew Timme, Gonzaga

Naismith Award – Player of the Year

Main article: Naismith College Player of the Year

Preseason Top 50	Midseason Top 30	10 Semifinalists	4 Finalists
Alex Barcello, BYU	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga	(none)
Andrew Nembhard, Gonzaga	Drew Timme, Gonzaga	Drew Timme, Gonzaga
Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga
Drew Timme, Gonzaga

Lute Olson – Player of the Year

Main article: Lute Olson Award

Preseason Top 40	Midseason Top 30	10 Semifinalists	4 Finalists
Alex Barcello, BYU	Alex Barcello, BYU	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga	(none)
Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga	Drew Timme, Gonzaga
Drew Timme, Gonzaga	Drew Timme, Gonzaga

Bob Cousy Award – Point Guard

Main article: Bob Cousy Award

Preseason Top 20	Midseason Top 10	5 Finalists
Andrew Nembhard, Gonzaga	Andrew Nembhard, Gonzaga	Andrew Nembhard, Gonzaga

Jerry West Award – Shooting Guard

Main article: Jerry West Award

Preseason Top 20	Midseason Top 10	5 Finalists
Hunter Sallis, Gonzaga	(none)	(none)

Julius Erving Award – Small Forward

Main article: Julius Erving Award

Preseason Top 20	Midseason Top 10	5 Finalists
(none)	(none)	(none)

Karl Malone Award – Power Forward

Main article: Karl Malone Award

Preseason Top 20	Midseason Top 10	5 Finalists
Drew Timme, Gonzaga	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga	Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award – Center

Main article: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award

Preseason Top 20	Midseason Top 10	5 Finalists
Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga	Drew Timme, Gonzaga	Drew Timme, Gonzaga

All-WCC awards and teams

On March 2, 2022, the West Coast Conference announced the following awards:^[17]

Honor	Recipient	School
Player of the Year	Drew Timme	Gonzaga
Coach of the Year	Randy Bennett	Saint Mary's
Defensive Player of the Year	Chet Holmgren	Gonzaga
Newcomer of the Year	Chet Holmgren	Gonzaga
Sixth Man of the Year	Tommy Kuhse	Saint Mary's
All-WCC First Team	Alex Barcello	BYU
	Jamaree Bouyea	San Francisco
	Chet Holmgren	Gonzaga
	Tommy Kuhse	Saint Mary's
	Yauhen Massalski	San Francisco
	Andrew Nembhard	Gonzaga
	Matthias Tass	Saint Mary's
	Drew Timme	Gonzaga
	Josip Vrankic	Santa Clara
	Jalen Williams	Santa Clara
All-WCC Second Team	Alex Ducas	Saint Mary's
	Logan Johnson	Saint Mary's
	Keshawn Justice	Santa Clara
	Tyler Robertson	Portland
	Eli Scott	LMU
	Khalil Shabazz	San Francisco
All-WCC Freshman Team	Nolan Hickman	Gonzaga
	Chet Holmgren	Gonzaga
	Maxwell Lewis	Pepperdine
	Houston Mallette	Pepperdine
	Wayne McKinney III	San Diego
	Mike Mitchell Jr.	Pepperdine
	Fousseyni Traore	BYU
WCC Honorable Mention	Jeremiah Bailey	Pacific
	Rasir Bolton	Gonzaga
	Marcellus Earlington	San Diego
	Julian Strawther	Gonzaga
	Moses Wood	Portland

Postseason

West Coast Conference tournament

Main article: 2022 West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament

Gonzaga defeated Saint Mary's 82–69 in the championship game to win the tournament on March 8. Mark Few was the winning coach and Andrew Nembhard was named the MVP of the tournament.

NCAA tournament

Main article: 2022 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

Three teams from the WCC participated in the 2022 NCAA tournament. Gonzaga received the automatic bid from the WCC and the #1 overall seed. Gonzaga advanced to the Sweet 16, where they were defeated by Arkansas 74–68. Saint Mary's received a 5 seed as an at-large selection and advanced to the second round where they were defeated by UCLA 72–56. San Francisco received a 10 seed as an at-large selection but was defeated in overtime in the first round, 92–87, by Murray State.

National Invitation Tournament (NIT)

Main article: 2022 National Invitation Tournament

BYU and Santa Clara participated in the 2022 NIT. BYU received a 2 seed and advanced to the quarterfinals where they lost to Washington State 77–58 while Santa Clara lost in the first round to Washington State 63–50.

College Basketball Invitational (CBI) tournament

Main article: 2022 College Basketball Invitational

No teams from the WCC participated in the 2022 CBI Tournament.

The Basketball Classic (TBC)

Main article: 2022 The Basketball Classic

Portland received an invitation to and participated in the 2022 TBC. Portland defeated New Orleans in the first round but lost to Southern Utah in the quarterfinals 77–66.