Lions surprise of WCC
With the exception of perennial power Gonzaga, which has held serve at the top of the regular-season standings for seven of the past eight seasons, the pecking order in the West Coast Conference men’s basketball race has changed dramatically in recent years.
And no team exemplifies that change as much as Loyola Marymount, which invades GU’s McCarthey Athletic Center for tonight’s unlikeliest of showdowns between early season league leaders.
The Lions, who suffered through a dismal 3-11 non-conference campaign under first-year coach Rodney Tention, come into tonight’s game – which tips off at 9 as the nightcap of another ESPN “Big Monday” tripleheader – unbeaten in three WCC outings and tied with the sixth-ranked Bulldogs (13-3, 3-0) atop the league standings.
This is the same LMU program that finished last in the conference last season with a 3-11 record that cost Tention’s successor, Steve Aggers, his job. And it’s the same program that hasn’t climbed out of the WCC’s second division since finishing third during the 1995-96 campaign.
Yet, it is a program that suddenly causes Gonzaga coach Mark Few as much concern as any in the league – thanks, in part, to a three-game winning streak built around as balanced a scoring attack as the WCC has seen in recent years.
The Lions are paced, offensively, by 6-foot-8 junior forward Matthew Knight, who is averaging 16.4 points and 9.4 rebounds. But they boast another legitimate inside threat in 6-10 senior center Chris Ayer (10.1 ppg) and a pair of talented and interchangeable guards in senior Wes Waldrop and junior Brandon Worthy, who have combined to average 24.7 points and 8.5 assists so far this season.
All of which is enough to convince Few that they are – despite their non-conference struggles – the real deal.
“We need to prepare ourselves for a first-place team rolling in here,” Few said of LMU following Saturday night’s impressive 102-73 rout of the once-powerful Pepperdine Waves, who have washed out dismally in recent years. “A lot of people picked (the Lions) to be at the top of the conference, with them returning everybody from last year.
“And we had some really tough games with them last year, so we’re expecting another real hard-fought battle.”
Other than a season-opening win over Brigham Young University, the Lions have little in the way of quality wins on their résumé. But they have proven they can hang with at least most of the WCC’s elite by virtue of their recent wins over San Diego, San Francisco and Portland.
“They’ve got a great post player in Knight, and some real good guards,” Few added. “So we’re going to have our hands full.”
Still, the Bulldogs come in as heavy favorites after having won 12 consecutive regular-season WCC games and 20 of their past 21 against LMU. In addition, the Zags have won 31 consecutive home games and have yet to lose at the McCarthey Athletic Center, which opened in the fall of 2004.
And they seem to be improving each week, thanks, in part, to the progress of Erroll Knight, who missed the first eight games of the season with knee problems.
Knight, a 6-foot-7 senior forward and the reigning WCC Defender of the Year, didn’t score in Saturday’s win over Pepperdine, but provided some much-needed energy on defense and a true veteran presence on offense, helping to fuel GU’s 59-point second half.
Few called Knight’s contributions against the Waves “huge,” and Knight warned that there may be better times to come.
“Everything now is timing, man,” he said. “And during practice, I can feel it getting better every day. I’m starting to get back into the motion of things and feeling comfortable again.”
Which can’t be good news for LMU – or the rest of the WCC, for that matter.