Women’s WCC preview: Expect parity to reign in conference full of unknowns

The West Coast Conference women’s basketball coaches emphatically tabbed Oregon State as the preseason favorite.

Truth be told, though, there are at least five teams that could make a case for the crown.

Count Gonzaga, which has captured eight regular season conference titles under coach Lisa Fortier, among them.

Most important is which team is standing in Las Vegas when the WCC Tournament concludes – assuming that just the tournament champ advances to the NCAAs.

The 12 WCC teams have 13 nonconference games to find out who they are before conference play commences in late December.

There’s much for each team to figure out before 2026 arrives.

One storyline that could emerge is who is going to take over where Gonzaga’s record-setting Yvonne Ejim left off? Ejim was named the WCC Player of the Year and the Defensive Player of the Year the last two seasons.

A number of players across the conference could step into that limelight, including Gonzaga sophomore point guard Allie Turner, the Freshman of the Year and an All-WCC first-team selection a year ago.

Another interesting tidbit is the WCC has gone to an unbalanced schedule. That means each team plays home-and-home against seven teams and four single games, two at home and two on the road, with the other teams.

Just like many WCC storylines, time will tell.