BYU Basketball picked as third best team in WCC preseason poll

LAS VEGAS – BYU Men’s basketball season is not too far away and the WCC held its media day Thursday at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

The West Coast Conference (WCC) coaches picked the BYU Men’s Basketball team to finish third in the conference this season.

They voted Gonzaga to finish first and Saint Mary’s to finish second.

The Cougars were selected to finish third in the WCC Preseason Coaches Poll while junior forward Yoeli Childs was named to the All-WCC Preseason Team.#BYUhoops #GoCougs pic.twitter.com/8E3Y9ryW0J

— BYU Basketball (@BYUbasketball) October 18, 2018

The Cougars did receive one first-place vote and that was from Gonzaga coach Mark Few. Coaches are not allowed to vote for their own team.

Yoeli Childs also was named to the All-WCC preseason team. However, he says he is not focused on preseason awards.

“No surprise. I don’t look at these preseason things much. It’s preseason. It doesn’t mean much,” he said. “The preseason all-conference guys aren’t never exactly right. They’re never going to be exactly right with the predictions for who’s going to be the best teams. There’s no surprises there. I wouldn’t be shocked to see anything there.”

Saint Mary’s lost much of its core last year due to graduation which then may surprise some of the #2 ranking. Childs is the only BYU player named to the All-WCC team after BYU lost Elijah Bryant last year when he went pro.

“We keep losing our leading scorer from the year before. I think when we return our leading scorer maybe that will change and it didn’t,” said BYU coach Dave Rose. “It’s not really scientific how this is done. It’s coaches that kind of know what’s returning but we don’t really know what each team is adding to their team. We’ll see how it plays out.”

BYU finished 24-11 last year and went 11-7 in conference games and finish third in the WCC standings. Gonzaga took home the conference title last year. They also finished 30-4 going 17-1 in conference play.

BYU will host its first exhibition match with Cougar Tipoff Friday evening at 7 p.m.

2018-19 All-Preseason Men’s Basketball Coaches Poll

Team (first place votes) Pts.

• 1. Gonzaga (9) 81
  2. Saint Mary’s 68
  3. BYU (1) 67
  4. San Francisco 57
  5. San Diego 52
  6. Pacific 39
  7. Loyola Marymount 31
  8. Pepperdine 22
  10. Santa Clara 18
  11. Portland 15

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