Provo • From BYU’s perspective, there is good and bad news as the 2017-18 West Coast Conference men’s basketball race begins later this week.
The good news is that the two teams picked to finish ahead of them in the league standings, Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s, might not be as good as they were last year. The Zags (10-3) and Gaels (11-2) still are powerful and likely will battle the next nine weeks for the regular-season title, but they’ve seemingly dropped back to the pack a little bit after outstanding campaigns in 2016-17.
The bad news is that a couple teams outside the WCC’s “Big Three” of GU, SMC and BYU are much better, specifically San Diego and San Francisco.