Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga shared the West Coast Conference men’s
basketball title last year as both teams finished 14-2 in league play. This year’s race for the conference crown might be similarly tight, if the WCC coaches are proven correct, and the Gaels may end up on top. The conference’s preseason coaches’ poll, released Thursday, projected Saint Mary’s to win the league with 61 total poll points and five first-place votes. Gonzaga was immediately behind them with 60 points and four first-place votes among the nine head coaches. The Gaels lost lead guard Logan Johnson and forward Kyle Bowen as key contributors to last year’s team, which lost to eventual champion Connecticut in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Guard Aidan Mahaney, a Campolindo graduate, returns for his sophomore year, alongside 2022-23 rotation players Mitchell Saxen (senior), Alex Ducas (fifth year) and Augustas Marciulionis (junior). Gonzaga added guard Ryan Nembhard in the transfer portal, but lost national player of the year contender Drew Timme, as well as NBA first-round pick Julian Strawther. San Francisco (45 points) and Santa Clara (41 points) were picked to finish third and fifth, respectively. Ducas, Mahaney and Saxen were all picked for the preseason all-WCC team, which did not include any USF or Santa Clara players. The Gaels will play a charity exhibition at
HAWAII for Maui wildfire relief on Oct. 20, then open the regular season Nov. 6 with a home game against Stanislaus State.