BYU has made impact, but Gonzaga is clearly WCC's kingpin

Published February 5, 2013 12:33 pm

Men's basketball • Cougars coach Dave Rose says, "They have a lot of depth and a lot of skill."




Regarding BYU's impact, it is also clear that the Cougars are not going to overtake Gonzaga as the league's premier basketball program anytime soon, if at all.


"Gonzaga is still undefeated [in conference games], so someone is going to have to knock them off, and they are really, really good," BYU coach Dave Rose said recently. "They've got a lot of depth, a lot of skill. There's a lot of basketball to be played, though, and I am sure everybody in this league has got their eyes on the Zags. Hopefully when they come to our place, we can play a little bit better than we did the last time we faced them."

To say the league is Gonzaga and the Eight Dwarfs is a stretch, because Saint Mary's and BYU are borderline NCAA Tournament teams this season. But Gonzaga is simply head and shoulders above everyone else.

Sure, the Zags got a good test last Saturday at San Diego, which got to .500 on the season (12-12) Monday night courtesy of point guard Chris Anderson's coast-to-coast drive and reverse layup that beat Loyola Marymount at the buzzer.

Against 21-2 Gonzaga, now ranked No. 6 in both polls, the Toreros had a chance to tie or win in the final eight seconds, but couldn't get off a decent shot.





"It is everybody's Super Bowl [when Gonzaga visits]," Zags coach Mark Few told ESPN's Andy Katz and Seth Greenberg on a podcast Monday. "It is everybody's biggest game. â¦ It is pretty much a heckuva atmosphere whenever we are on the road."

Funny, that's how BYU felt when it visited most places in the Mountain West Conference.

In the WCC?

That's Gonzaga's role.


Twitter: @drewjay