Zing Beyond Zags

The first sign that the West Coast Conference was going to be different from usual had nothing to do with Gonzaga.

North Carolina, a team with national championship aspirations, visited the left coast Nov. 19 to play a Santa Clara squad coming off a 16-16 season and not expected to do a whole lot better this time around. The Tar Heels were humbled, 77-66, their only defeat to date.

It would be easy to write that off as a classic case of a highly ranked team in its season opener overlooking an inferior opponent. Except two days later, St. Mary’s won at California. The next week, Santa Clara dealt the more prestigious Pacific 10 another blow in defeating Stanford.

The difference is, the conference that has been all things Gonzaga is turning heads with the play of its seven other teams. All have beaten higher-profile teams or pushed them to the brink in giving the league its best nonconference showing in years.

“We all recognized that we could be on an upswing because every team had some good returning players,” Loyola Marymount Coach Steve Aggers said. “What Santa Clara did obviously raised some eyebrows.... Our league is just a monster.”

As a result, the WCC is gaining in stature. According to the latest RPI rankings, the league ranks seventh among 32 conferences, ahead of the widely respected Missouri Valley, Conference USA and Mountain West and just below the powerful Southeastern.

“I don’t know if you can call it a mid-major conference anymore,” Cal Coach Ben Braun told Associated Press after the St. Mary’s defeat. “They can play with anyone in the country.”

The list of impressive victories and quality defeats has had contributions from every team:

* Besides beating Cal, St. Mary’s has beaten Nevada Las Vegas and San Diego State on the road, and dealt Brigham Young a 21-point setback on Tuesday.

* Santa Clara has those victories over North Carolina and Stanford but at 7-8, has the league’s worst overall record.

* Pepperdine beat nationally ranked Wisconsin and lost in the final seconds to UCLA and Cal.

* San Francisco has beaten Fresno State and Pacific, an NCAA tournament team, took Stanford to overtime and lost by 10 points to 9-1 Wichita State on the road.

* Portland defeated Western Michigan, another tournament team, and had near misses against Oregon State and Washington State.

* San Diego, which finished 4-26 last season, is coming off victories at Wyoming and at home against Creighton.

* Loyola Marymount play- ed a ranked Virginia team into overtime on the road and pushed Washington before losing.

“The West Coast Conference is a pretty tough conference,” said Washington Coach Lorenzo Romar after a 100-93 victory over the Lions, picked by WCC coaches to finish seventh. “Loyola wasn’t picked to finish in the top four or five and they’re a pretty good team.”

Even Gonzaga, the regular-season champion four years running, has done its part. The common view was that the Bulldogs were ready to be knocked from the top of the WCC mountain, but they have beaten Washington at home and Final Four participants Georgia Tech (in a game at Las Vegas) and Oklahoma State (at Oklahoma City).

St. Mary’s Coach Randy Bennett, a former assistant to Romar at Pepperdine and Saint Louis, said Gonzaga’s dominance had spurred every other program.

“What Gonzaga has done has raised the perception of our league and the result is, our head coaches have had to improve their programs to keep up,” said Bennett, who in four seasons has taken the Gaels from two wins to 19 last season. “We’re all competitive people and you want a piece of the prize.”

All the nonconference success has led observers to conclude that the WCC could get two, perhaps three, teams into the NCAA tournament. The question is, will the selection committee remember in March the victories in November and December?

The WCC has sent two teams only five times in the last 15 years and recently only when Gonzaga was upset in the conference tournament. A possible setback could be that only the Bulldogs have an RPI below 72.

Aggers said there would be some upset coaches if the league didn’t get at least two bids.

“Our league has earned more respect and deserves to have more than one team in the tournament,” he said. “The teams have also done this without the benefit of guaranteed home games. We’ve all had to go on the road.”

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Rising Status

WCC teams have had an impressive nonconference season:

*--* TEAM RECORD RPI BEST WIN Gonzaga 10-2 11 Oklahoma State Portland 11-4 72 Western Michigan St. Mary’s 12-4 87 California San Francisco 9-4 95 Pacific Pepperdine 10-5 104 Wisconsin Loyola Marymount 8-5 142 San Diego State San Diego 8-5 180 Creighton Santa Clara 7-8 211 North Carolina

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Note: Ken Pomeroy’s rating percentage index is as of games through Jan. 3.