Pacific will become the 10th member of the WCC in 2013, the conference announced this morning.

I checked in with league sources and Gonzaga's Mike Roth, who is pleased that the WCC will have an even-numbered membership, which alleviates some of scheduling issues that came into play with a nine-team conference. Much of the footwork on the expansion front was done over the past few years by the conference's expansion task force. The addition of Pacific may have snuck up on some folks, including Gonzaga, but mainly because the school's attention the last 3-4 weeks has been on conference and NCAA tournaments.

Pacific has similar enrollment to GU (roughly 7,000). The private school became financially independent from the Methodist Church in 1969. Roth told me the WCC expansion task force decided several years ago it was only interested in private institutions. In the west, that narrowed the WCC's options to BYU, Denver and Seattle (both WAC bound), Pacific, Stanford and USC. I'll go out on a limb and guess Stanford and USC weren't knocking on the WCC's door.

Here's my article on the WCC's latest expansion that will run in Thursday's S-R.

Also, it's been rumored for weeks/months that Gonzaga's Mathis Keita will transfer and I fully expect that will be the case. Keita appears on Cbssports.com's Jeff Goodman's list of D-I transfers. I checked with a Gonzaga source who said “it isn't completely done, (Keita) is looking at some options.”

Gonzaga's Mathis Monninghoff, who, like Keita,saw his playing time dwindle at the '3' position, is said to be 50-50 on returning to the program.

Numerous reports this morning that Pacific will leave the Big West Conference to become the 10th member of the WCC, effective in the 2013-14 season. The move could become official as early as this afternoon. 

The WCC's membership was stable for three decades before BYU joined the conference last season. With BYU, the nine-team conference had unavoidable scheduling issues (split home-away weeks, Monday games, etc.). Conferences with even-numbered membership typically have smoother scheduling models.

Pacific was a member of the West Coast Athletic Conference (which changed its name to the WCC in 1989) from 1952-71.

More here.

Local NCAA Division I women's basketball teams had a successful Saturday - with the exception of Washington State, which lost at UCLA. 

We were at Gonzaga today, where the Bulldogs turned up the heat in the second half and beat a defensive San Diego team. John Blanchette wrote this column on the Zag women in the post-Courtney Vandersloot era, Jesse Tinsley told the game story through his photo lens, and here's the link to my game story.

The Eastern Washington women continued their quest for a Big Sky Conference title with a win at Sacramento State and the Idaho women picked up their second Western Athletic Conference win in a late game at San Jose State.

It was a pretty fantastic day for area women’s basketball teams.

The No. 22 Gonzaga Bulldogs avenged a rare West Coast Conference loss with a win over Saint Mary’s, Washington State pulled together for a Pac-12 victory over Arizona and the Eastern Washington women defeated Montana State to complete their first sweep of the Montana schools on the road. The Idaho women didn’t fare as well, falling to Utah State.

Stephanie Golden had a career-high 15 points and the No. 22 Gonzaga women's basketball team earned a 79-61 win over Loyola Marymount at the McCarthey Athletic Center on Thursday night. As you'll see in my story, I overheard a fan throw out a horrendously obvious pun after the game. I'd like to thank that fan. After he said it, I couldn't get it out of my head. Hence, the first couple paragraphs.

Oh well.

Keep reading for more on area women's basketball teams.

A GRIP ON SPORTS

It was a perfect night for Inland Northwest men's college basketball teams, despite the weather. Gonzaga handled USF rather easily at home and Washington State rallied from 13 down in the second half to top Pac-12 front-runner Stanford. It wasn't as perfect for me as we spent the last part of both games away from the television set and computer snowblowing a two-block long path to allow my wife to make it home. Read on.

Three of the four area Division I women's basketball teams start conference play on Thursday. That is the topic for this week's notebook, leading off with Gonzaga's quest for an eighth-straight WCC title. I also realize I neglected to link to last week's story on Eastern Washington mighty mite Chene Cooper, who leads the Big Sky in assists and is about to set the Eagle record for steals.

An early post today because 16 hungry people are about to arrive and I've got an appointment with a deep fryer. Gonzaga isn't done with non-conference play (at Xavier on Dec. 31), but its next ball game will begin the WCC slate. Struggling Portland visits the MAC on Wednesday.

Below, you'll find my unedited WCC preview that will run on Christmas Day. Merry Christmas to all!

Idaho and San Jose State tip in about 15 minutes in the WCC men's tournament quarterfinals. In-game updates at Twitter.com/SRjimm. (Same goes for the Idaho women vs. Nevada tonight at 6).

I'll post a game story here about two hours after the final horn.

I figured those of you who read this women's basketball blog were up on the news of yesterday, Gonzaga's shocking upset to win the WCC Tournament and senior guard Courtney Vandersloot someone winning a national award … OK, maybe we weren't completely sure Vandersloot would win the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Awad but there was no way the Bulldogs weren't winning. Anyway, those stories were handled by the A team in Las Vegas, including Christopher Anderson's slide show, but I was waiting to give you my last women's basketball notebook, but alas it's not posted yet and I have somethings to take care of before a hockey game tonight. Check back tonight before 7 for the notebook, in the meantime there is some news for you, so read on.

LAS VEGAS – Courtney Vandersloot scored 18 points and handed out a WCC Tournament-record 16 assists, breaking the record of 14 she set 24 hours earlier, and Gonzaga overcame a sluggish first half to throttle Saint Mary’s 72-46 in the championship game Monday at the Orleans Arena. Read more.

OK, I'm running a little late, but you should see the progress made on the boss' remodel project … crown molding is up. (It pays to have talented friends.)

Anyway, as promised, here's a real story on Washington State's inability to Washington. The bracket for the WCC Tournament. Angie Bjorklund (U-Hi) had a big day for Tennessee on her Senior Day (I happened to see the start on ESPNU before the work started and saw the little ceremony, someone please tell Jim Bjorklund that was one ugly, not-even-Tennessee, orange sweater!)

This week's Top 25 is below..

A little later than usual (I drove home while waiting for the link to be posted), here's my game story and a nice photo by S-R's Jesse Tinsley of Steven Gray shooting a 3-pointer in Gonzaga's 74-61 win over Portland.

Check back tomorrow for a day-after post.

Gonzaga and Portland are about 10 minutes from tipping off at the Kennel.

Live updates at Twitter.com/SRjimm, check back here at the final buzzer for a quick recap and then about two hours later for my game story..

GU starters: Gray, Goodson, Sacre, Harris and Keita.

We took a closer look at Gonzaga's up-and-down-and-up preconference season as the Bulldogs enter WCC play. Here's a link to my story that will run in Saturday's S-R.

The start of the WCC season means a wider selection of stories around the conference. My WCC preview ran in today's S-R (uncut version is in the previous post).

Elsewhere, Portland, Gonzaga's opponent on Saturday, won 12 pre-conference games; Saint Mary's, which ranks in the top 10 nationally in seven offensive categories, has found another scoring option, Santa Clara lost a scoring option (it's a couple of items down); a ranking of Bay Area teams, and San Diego needs a boost of confidence.

With Gonzaga a few days away from its conference opener against Portland, I put together a look at the WCC for the debut of the Four Corners page that will run every Thursday in the S-R.

Gonzaga has won 10 straight WCC titles, tied for the second longest streak in NCAA history behind UCLA's 13-year run (1967-79), but the Zags don't expect an easy path to No. 11.

Read on for more.

Much of this has already been published, but the WCC released its complete television schedule today. More here.

I wrote this article a few days ago, but I forgot to post it because it was held until this morning. Anyway, the addition of BYU to the WCC, beginning next season, will create a nine-team league and a bit of a scheduling quandry.

We looked at the scheduling issue here.

The conference shuffle reached the WCC on Tuesday with BYU announcing it will join the conference in basketball and many of its other sports. Gonzaga applauded the addition of BYU, a traditional power in basketball. The Cougars will become independent in football.

More on GU’s reaction to BYU’s decision here and here. There’s much more on BYU from the Deseret News here and here. The Salt Lake Tribune surely has a number of articles, but I can’t access the site (it’s probably being deluged by visitors).

Meanwhile, Gonzaga’s Kelly Olynyk came off the bench to score 13 points, but Canada lost to France at the FIBA world championships. Robert Sacre had two rebounds in eight minutes for Canada.