Candid Coaches: Would Gonzaga be better off staying in WCC, or moving to Big 12, Big East or Pac-12/MW combo?

rewrite this content material with complete period and stay HTML tags CBS Sports faculty basketball insiders Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander spent a month surveying 100-plus Division I males’s basketball coaches for our annual Candid Coaches sequence. They polled around the game’s panorama: probably the most greatest names in faculty basketball, but additionally small-school assistants in low-major leagues. Coaches agreed to proportion unfiltered critiques in change for anonymity. We requested them 10 questions, and can post the effects over a three-week span.We started this 12 months’s Candid Coaches sequence on Monday with a take a look at UConn’s position in convention realignment and what basketball coaches consider is perfect for that college.Now we flip our consideration to the other coast. Gonzaga, the king of the WCC for almost 25 years now, has semi-privately flirted with the Big 12, Mountain West and Big East in fresh years. It has additionally lengthy been observed through some in faculty sports activities as a logical/geographical add-on (even with out soccer) to the Pac-12 … however that used to be prior to the Pac-12 crumbled. There is not any evolutionary tale in faculty athletics slightly like Gonzaga. It is a one in every of one. From mid-major outpost to nationwide energy. As football-dominated realignment continues to obliterate the geography of faculty sports activities, the place does a faculty like GU have compatibility? Does it have compatibility anyplace, instead of the convention the place it is grown right into a basketball behemoth? So, we requested … Which league is perfect for Gonzaga: WCC, Big 12, Big East or a combo of Pac-12/Mountain West colleges? WCC49%Wait and align with Pac-12 and/or Mountain West18%Big East17%Big 1216%Quotes that stood outStay in WCC• “Outside of revenue, I would say they would be STUPID for leaving the conference they are in.”• “They are a high-major team in a mid-major league. They are set up to win 25-30 games every year and they do not have football. Moving to a conference where they will face equal/greater talent every night AND travel cross-country … that just doesn’t make sense to me. Sure, they could make some more money in a better conference, but they run the risk of becoming just ‘one of the guys’ instead of THE guy. Why risk it?”• “WCC is the best league for them. They’ve put themselves in a position, and they’ve earned it, because of how good they are and have been. There’s a lot of concessions made for them as well. And money is a factor, but when you move to one of those other leagues, there’s going to be no concessions. You’ve played for a national championship, you’ve had No. 1 seeds. Look at the (WCC) conference tournament schedule. I’ve seen nothing like it. To be that good and have those advantages, it’s going to be hard to replicate that kind of success somewhere else.”  • “They know what they’re dealing with and they know what they have to do every year to get their schedule accordingly to be a 1- or 2-seed. I think there’s more risk, tougher league, different travel. I’ve dealt with a conference change and you’ve got a lot to get used to. The new gyms, the talent, recruiting, the referees. If it ain’t broke, I don’t think you need to fix it.”• “Gonzaga is getting everything they need and want while in the WCC. They are consistently a top-10 or top-five team. They are beating blue blood programs head-to-head in recruiting and on the court. They have the ability to maneuver their preseason schedule how they want and they are extremely attractive for other highly ranked programs around the country to schedule with. The WCC is vastly improved, which is allowing for Gonzaga to be battle-tested enough throughout their conference season while still being able to win the league most years. They have been to multiple national championship games and Final Fours coming out of the WCC, not to mention their run of Sweet 16s. So the argument that they cannot advance in the NCAA Tournament coming out of the WCC has zero factual backing. In fact, you could make a great argument for the exact opposite. Gonzaga is clearly the best program in the West over UCLA, Arizona and others without being a part of a Power Five conference. Their uniqueness becomes an advantage in recruiting, in my opinion.”• “I think if you ask three separate parties, you’d get three separate answers. If you ask the coaches in the WCC, I’d imagine they would like to see Gonzaga elsewhere. If you ask the Gonzaga staff/administration, I’d imagine they are happy with the WCC and the model they have been doing for over 20 years. If you ask the college basketball fan, I’d imagine they’d love to see Gonzaga in a power conference. If I were coaching at Gonzaga, I’d want to stay right in the WCC.” Align with Pac-12/MW combo• “Gonzaga should take advantage of the instability out West. Use your leverage to find a more suitable fit, conference-wise, and position yourself to be the top dog of whatever that league looks like.”• “Gonzaga in the Mountain West would create very high-level, exciting regional games for college basketball. Gonzaga vs. San Diego State, vs. New Mexico, Boise, UNLV, etc. would be higher-profile matchups than what they currently have other than Saint Mary’s.” • “I know things aren’t looking great for the Pac-12 overall right now, but it still would be a major step up from WCC if they can keep some of the remaining teams and then potentially add some up-and-comers that geographically fit.” Move to Big East • “I think they fit the mold of a Big East team. Basketball-centric for sure. Travel would be tough, though.” • “Schools are similar to them academically and basketball-wise. Not football schools. Perfect fit.” Aim for Big 12• “It’s time for them to step into a power-conference. And that’s coming from a little bit of when I was in the Pac-12 at that time, they had some games when they were challenging themselves, but there wasn’t enough in that conference. They should be at a place where they are challenging themselves in league play. It’s time to go to one of the bigger-boy conferences.” • “Tough one, but I will go with Big 12. Gonzaga is an elite basketball program and the Big 12 is the best basketball conference, so they would probably be the best match.”• “I think it’s the best basketball league right now, depth-wise, and I always felt like the Pac-12 fit until UCLA and USC left. I think there are too many unknowns there, and by default, you go to the next one over. The Big 12 is so deep and competitive. [The WCC] is working in certain areas … but I think it’s like dominating the JVs and you always want to play on the varsity.”The takeaway Our polling in this query started in past due July — simply as Colorado introduced it used to be leaving the Pac-12. Soon thereafter got here the downfall of that league. So, this query (and our UConn one, to an extent) had a unique backdrop to it than maximum surveys we’ve got achieved during the last 11 years. Normally, instances surrounding a query we are asking do not vastly alternate as we’re amassing our solutions.  This one did, despite the fact that. Responses to this Q spanned over a four-week window that incorporated one of the crucial vital upheavals in faculty athletics historical past.That mentioned, the solutions are all nonetheless informative — as a result of as I made my calls and texts in this, I used to be positive to ask the coaches what they concept would be the most productive place for Gonzaga moving ahead, irrespective of the noise of this news cycle. From that standpoint, you might be nonetheless getting a decent appraisal by way of probably the most maximum knowledgeable minds in the game.As easy as it will were to have an both/or selection for the Zags, that is not been the truth for this program in the previous 5 years. In 2018, the Mountain West driven for Gonzaga to sign up for its ranks, just for Gonzaga to keep on with the WCC as it did not really feel as despite the fact that the slight uptick in MW pageant (and the most probably downgrade in annual cash) would be value it.  Then got here some discussion with the Big East. But that in the end fizzled due to the geography. As a couple of other people have informed me over the months/years: If no longer for the place it is positioned, Gonzaga would were in the Big East when the convention reformed in 2013. In each opposite direction, the…