death. tax. And Gonzaga is on top of the WCC totem pole.
That story is copy and pasted to kick off the WCC betting breakdown until further notice.
Even Randy Bennett’s historically good St. Maria Gales couldn’t beat the Zags last season despite a stunning home win to close out the season.
For the tenth consecutive year, all “Gonzaga Wins WCC Regular Season” futures tickets have been redeemed.
spoiler. The 2023 campaign is eerily similar to the 2022 story arc. Zag rules. Gales will enter. The rest will fight.
rinse. wash. repeat.
| Gonzaga | -1600 |
| BYU | +1600 |
| St. Mary’s | +1600 |
| San Francisco | +2500 |
| st clair | +10000 |
| Loyola Marymount | +25000 |
| Portland | +50000 |
| pepper dine | +50000 |
| San Diego | +50000 |
| Pacific | +100000 |
BYU’s recovery is imminent. The Cougars boast a ferocious front line and insane smart coaches, but the boundaries are questionable.
With Cougar Basketball heart Alex Barcelo no longer around, head coach Mark Pope was forced to immediately seek help via the transfer portal.
He landed a valuable pickup in Rudy Williams, but a Kansas State-Coastal Carolina move feels like a glorified rental rather than a safe, long-term solution.
Still, Pope, who has a deep, young core, will definitely be in the top three in 2023.
Hats off to Triage, which is based in the St. Mary’s, San Francisco and Santa Clara Bay Areas. All three enjoyed a banner year last season for both fans and betting his backers.
Gales and the Broncos finished the year with a combined 38-24-4 against the spread.
USF maintained an average cover margin of +1.9 throughout the year (bad variance warning!) despite an astonishing 13-19 record in the ATS.
In short, these three teams were underrated from start to finish last season. For goodness sake, the Broncos were a whopping 12-4 to the number of league games.
The commonalities are clear. There are three very sharp coaching staff on his staff.
Bennett retained his longtime post at SMC, Herb Sendek returned to Santa Clara for a seventh season on the sidelines, and former assistant Chris Gerhusen despite USF losing Todd Golden to the SEC. remains in safe hands under
However, tread lightly when supporting these cover beasts this year. Like other California schools crippled by his COVID season in 2021, this year’s handicap is worth nothing.
St. Mary’s Church was the ultimate beneficiary of this dynamic move last year. Not only was Gales simply a better team, the COVID season has ruined his 2021 campaign and created additional bets.
Stunning in SoCal? Or boom?
Will this be the year of SoCal’s revenge against their Northern Territories rivals?
However, computer models can smell the roses here as well, as seen in the spike in earthquakes in preseasonal forecasts.
From the betting lens, Lions, Waves, and Treros improve if not, but by how much? Each is its own puzzle with different moving parts.
San Diego may offer the most advantage of the group. Former UCLA and St. Johns head of his coach Steve Lavin is looking to revive both his own career and his brother-in-law’s Hoops program in San Diego.
In video games, simulation could see USD catch up to Zags as WCC runner-up.
Heck, the roster has two Pac-12 All-Conference Caliber players in Jaden DeLea and Eric Williams, but that’s just the tip of the talent iceberg.
If Lavin believes he can weld individual parts, the USD could benefit the betting market.
Pepperdine’s projection is fairly simple. A talent magnet, Lorenzo Romar holds onto his three pro-level talents, who are now entering his coveted sophomore year.
Mike Mitchell Jr., Maxwell Lewis and Houston Mallett are as talented as any trio in the league. How high they fly drives the core of Pepperdine’s value this season.
For reference, KenPom predicts that both Waves and Toreros will improve by nearly 100 spots overall from last year’s final ranking to this year’s opening ranking. That baseline serves as a relative marker to declare which team you’re on.
Finally, the LMU pushes the reset button. No one noticed Stan Johnson creeping into Top 100 territory in his 2021.
This was quietly filled by last year’s tailspin, but Johnson returns with two starters who were key cogs in that stout 2021 rendition.
Johnson has also scored some big transfer fees, and motivated by last season’s conference record of 3-12, he’s eager to unleash what he sees as a hungry team in 2023.
Chantilly Legance’s prowess is difficult to see in this league, which teaches chess masters.
But his work on Clipboard last season was great.
The Pilots reigned on the betting battlefield, though they had a 7-7 record in last year’s WCC action. Portland finished 11-5 against his game spread in the conference, according to TeamRankings, and he covered the game by a whopping 6.5 points.
It’s easy to see why the pilot was an early season darling of the WCC. Pulling back the layers, however, reveals a regression lurking.
The devil is in the details of the schedule.
Portland faced Gonzaga and St. Mary’s once each, going 1-1 in two matchups. Against Santa Clara, Pilot struggled in both contests and was unable to cover.
Against a formidable frontline, pilots may struggle to keep the stakes down, despite Legance’s shrewd coaching chops.
The Tigers will be the bottom of the WCC this season, thousands leagues above sea level.
Are they autofading? necessarily.
Head coach Leonard Perry may be unproven, but he embodies many of the same intangibles that helped his former boss Damon Stoudamire bring the team together in 2020 and 2021. increase.
During that period, the Tigers finished one game above .500 and were far from the betting dumpster fire.
WCC Futures and Picks
- Gonzaga 1-16: Bet $160 and win $10. This is a safe mutual fund that will pay out small but worthwhile dividends by spring. Don’t overthink it.
- St. Mary’s 16-1: HoweverIf you want to swing for the fence, take Zags’ WCC Arch Nemesis. Gales is 16-1, priced in the same tier as BYU, and could be as good as last year. They lost an important shotmaker in Tommy Couse, but burgeoning big man Mitchell Saxen could be Moraga’s next great Gael big.
