WCC Award Predictions! Is it FINALLY Graham Ike's turn for Player of the Year? Projecting other Gonzaga winners

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Ram, EK is the heavy favorite to finally win the WCC Player of the Year Award.

Who else from Gonzaga will take home some hardware this year?

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That's right, it's an extra episode here of Lockdown Zags.

Trying to do a handful of these throughout the month of March, as we are here in the

busiest time of the college basketball season.

We're making predictions.

As we're recording this right now, we're probably about 20-ish hours of when we expect

the WCC Awards to be announced.

They typically come out the Tuesday of the WCC Tournament week.

And so we'll see who's going to win the Player of the Year, Coach of the Year,

the all WCC, first team, et cetera, et cetera.

So thought it might be fun to give some thoughts and predictions

to see how we end up doing.

There will be a full more quote-unquote traditional episode of Lockdown Zags coming

later on Monday evening on YouTube and on Tuesday for those of you listening on audio.

We're going to talk about the NCAA Tournament picture for Gonzaga.

Are they still a three-seed?

Maybe move into the four-seed line.

We'll also take some mail-bag questions and talk about the Gonzaga women's team

as they head into the conference tournament as well.

That's all on the next show today.

We're just making our predictions.

Who will win the major awards in the West Coast Conference?

It's the final year of Gonzaga being in this league.

Does that mean that we see some coaches maybe give them some honors on the way out?

Or maybe not so much.

We'll see how it all shakes out.

All right, we're going to talk about those major award predictions here.

First up, WCC Player of the Year.

And folks, we're not going to tease the mystery too much.

It's going to be Grammy-K.

I feel like there's no real strong argument against it being Grammy-K.

And I know we talked about this last week leading in to Gonzaga's game against St. Mary's

of like, oh, what happens?

You know, if Gonzaga loses this game, if Graham doesn't have a good game.

Part of that conversation was that in order for the tight to really flip

in favor of Paulus Morowskas, not only would St. Mary's have to win, which they did,

not only would Graham have to have an off-night, which he did.

Morowskas would have to have a great night.

He didn't.

He didn't.

Graham had a quote unquote off-night where he scored 17 points and shot 50% from the field.

So that bad of a night.

He had a really bad second half, just was kind of not usable in the second half,

which was a huge part of the problem for Gonzaga.

But Morowskas scored nine points total on 10 shots.

And looking at a full scope, I mean, Graham leads the conference and scoring

just under 20 points per game.

He leads the conference and field goal percentage, 56 and a half percent.

He's averaging over eight rebounds, two and a half assists, 61 percent on two, 34 and a half

percent from three.

And more importantly, he carried this team.

He put this team on his back and carried them to a first place finish in the West Coast

conference without Braden Huff for most of league play.

It is his time.

Two years in a row of getting beat by Augustus Marcellonus from St. Mary's.

Wednesday, Mary's won the WCC outright.

Now, Gonzaga gets their share of the WCC title.

They don't win it outright, unfortunately.

But there is no debate in my mind that it will be Grammy-EK with honorable mentions,

of course, to Morowskas as well as Santa Clara Guard Christian Hammond.

It would be a travesty in my mind if Grammy-EK did not win this award on Tuesday

or whenever the awards do come out.

Coach of the year, I think it's a more interesting conversation.

I'm honestly going to say Herb Sendeck from Santa Clara.

I think you could make an argument from Mark Fu.

In fact, if you saw the quote from Randy Bennett after the St. Mary's game,

he said he told Coach Fu, I think this is maybe the best coaching job that you have done

to have this team win as many games as they did without Braden Huff as incredible.

I think that's a very nice compliment from Randy.

And I think he's being genuine.

And I do think Coach Fu has done a phenomenal job,

but I don't think he will win it.

I wouldn't be, I think there's an argument for him deserving it.

And I also wouldn't be shocked if he won it.

But I think there's an argument for Fu.

There's also an argument for Bennett.

And I think there's really truly a strong argument for Sendeck.

This team went 15 and three in the league.

They did go one and three against the top two teams.

And I think that's a strong counter argument of like,

you only beat St. Mary's once, you got swept by Gonzaga.

How can you be coached the year?

But this team's, I mean, they're probably going to make the NCAA tournament.

At this point, they're trending towards being in the NCAA tournament.

That is so rare in the WCC for the WBA team that's not Gonzaga or St. Mary's that makes the big dance.

I think that might be enough to push Sendeck over the top to win this award.

I'll also give an honorable mention to Dave Smart at Pacific.

They were in fourth place in the final week of the season.

I ended up finishing I think sixth because there was a bunch of tie breakers basically

that bumped them down, but really nice job from him in year two.

Newcomer of the year in the West Coast Conference.

And it feels almost like cheating, picking a player who actually is returning to his school.

But all of Seattle University is a newcomer in the WCC.

And that means Braden Maldonado counts for this category.

And he was fantastic this year for the Red Hawks.

15 points, three boards, two and a half assists, 38% from three.

I didn't want to pick a freshman because we're going to talk about freshman later.

The transfer class is good, but I felt like Braden Maldonado is better

as a more impactful player for a better team than most of the really good transfers in this conference.

I think David Fuchs or David Fuchs from San Francisco will be in the conversation.

TJ Wainwright at Pacific has been fantastic this year.

Tying Grant Foster should be in this conversation as well.

But I didn't see anybody who stood out to me more than Braden Maldonado.

So I'm going to pick him here for this award.

Freshman of the year, really, really good class of freshman in the WCC.

It is incredible.

We're going to talk about the all freshman team to close out the show.

There's five names on that list.

And I mean, it's incredible the names that are getting left off that list

in a year where this league has so much great freshman talent.

But the answer here is Joel Foxwell.

Gonzaga fans are too familiar with Joel Foxwell.

Saw more of him this year than they would have liked to.

The Australian point guard from the University of Portland has just been extraordinary this year.

Finish of the regular season, averaging 15.7 points a game.

Leads the conference in six and a half assists per game.

I did not pull this data.

But I don't I bet it has been a while since a true freshman has led the WCC and assist per game.

That is not something you expect to see all that often.

One and a half steals per game.

Also played over 35 minutes and night for Shantae leggings and the pilots.

Obviously, part of the argument against him would be that you

finish ninth in the league.

But and of course, the other argument being there's other really talented freshmen in the league.

But to me, I just don't know how you could go against Foxwell.

Putting up 35 point games in league play at 27 and 8 against Gonzaga in that win.

The biggest win.

Any team picked up in the WCC this season with respect to Alan Graves at Santa Clara with respect

to Ace Glass at Washington State.

This should go to Joel Foxwell in my opinion.

And speaking of Alan Graves, we don't need to give him too much respect there because

we're going to give him respect here.

I have him as the winner for the WCC sixth man of the year.

Graves average 11.5 points, six and a half boards, two steals and just under two assists.

He did that in 22 minutes a game.

Elite levels of productivity from the freshman big man, four coach Sendex team, 56.5% on two

pointers, 41% from three for again, a six foot nine freshman big man already starting to crop

up on mock drafts and big boards as somebody who's like, hey, this guy is really, really productive

at a really young age and a limited role like that kind of gets you some real attention.

He has been exceptionally played well in both games against Gonzaga this year played well

against St. Mary's really, really good find by coach Sendex who has put players in the NBA multiple

times with Jalen Williams and Brandon Pajewski recently in particular. I do think Tion Grant

Foster belongs in this conversation. There are certainly some other names in this mix as well,

but I think Tion will get some serious consideration. His numbers are not that far off from Alan Graves's

and he didn't start there. I think Graves started four games all year long. I think Tion started

a few more than that, but didn't start many in conference play. So I think he'll definitely be

in the mix. Warly would have been in the mix had he not taken over as a starter

for the in the Bradenhoff injury situation, but I do think ultimately Graves will be the winner

here. And then last but not least WCC defensive player of the year. This is the second award that I

have going to a Gonzaga player. And I think it would be an awesome, awesome thing to see a manual

in a Chente honored for this award. To me, it's between in a Chente or Jalen Warley. And I think that

Warley's kind of limited impact in the last month or so following his thigh injury is probably

going to take him out of consideration here. And I think that means it will go to in a Chente.

Gonzaga's defense is great. Gonzaga's defense is as good or better than St. Mary's throughout

the year for the most part, at least according to Kenpom. And St. Mary's has some very good defensive

players, but they don't have like an elite rim protector. They don't have kind of an obvious

candidate for this award. Whereas for Gonzaga, I mean, in a Chente is their defensive stalwart. He is

the guy who's at the point of attack, who's defending the other team's best playmaker. Look at the

numbers of guys like Ace Class and guys like even Joshua Dent, guys like Christian Hammond at

Santa Clara. I mean, he shut down some of the best players in this conference night in and

night out for Gonzaga. I think it should be him. I think Will Heimro from Seattle. You will get

some attention here. I think he leads the conference in blocks. And he's a six foot seven wing,

really, really good shop shop blocker and good defender on a good defensive team. But ultimately,

I think in a Chente should and hopefully will be the player selected for this defensive player of

the year award. Well, folks, we're going to talk about the 10 players who I project to make the

all WCC first team. How many of them are going to be from Gonzaga? We'll talk about that coming up

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All right, folks segment two. Still any patents still locked on Zags podcast,

and we're still here talking about the WCC award predictions. And folks, if you want to get

locked on Zags ad free, you can do so by joining the every day or club. You also get members only

discord access. You can join all of that at lockedonzags.supercast.com. There's also a link

in the show notes. All right, as you know, the WCC 10 players for their first team,

whether you like it or not, that is what the conference does. We're going to give our predictions

on who those 10 will be, who the five players on the second team will be, and then we're also going

to talk about the five player all WCC freshman team projections as well. We'll start with the WCC

first team. I'm doing it organized by how many players per team, not necessarily in the order of

like the best players. So for Gonzaga, kind of a weird year for Gonzaga. Because Bradenhof didn't

really play enough games, the WCC to I think qualify for this list. And outside of that,

they had a lot of good players, but do they have a lot of players outside of one, obviously,

who should be first team? I'm not sure. I'll tell you that I'm predicting two. I am predicting

Graham UK, obviously, that is a no doubt or even if he somehow does not win WCC player of the year,

he will certainly be on the first team. My other prediction here is Jalen Warley. And that's a little

bit, I mean, his numbers are good, obviously, very good this year. And his impact is even better

than the numbers might suggest. But you know, the numbers don't necessarily stand up with like,

every team's leading score or leading rebound, he doesn't like, you know, lead the is not top five

in the conference in assists or anything like that. I believe he is in steals. But otherwise,

like his impact is more just kind of eye test and knowing how important he is to this team. But I do

think that the coaches will respect that. And I do think that means he will earn his spot on the

all WCC first team alongside Graham UK. Gonzaga will not be the team with the most players on the

all WCC first team. I project that to be Saint Mary's. I think they will have three players.

One of them very obviously will be Paulis Morowskis, who is probably the runner-up for the

player of the year in the conference, second in scoring. And I think second or third in rebounding

as well. Never played well against Gonzaga. We'll see if that changes if they match up in the WCC

tournament. But certainly played well against everybody else in this league. I also got Joshua

Dent just a fantastic young guard for this Saint Mary's team. My goodness, he has been unbelievable.

This season in his first year of like real significant playing time for coach Bennett. And then

I also got Mikey Lewis. And Mikey Lewis didn't have the best year. He didn't have the breakout

sophomore season that a lot of people thought that he was going to. And I think honestly,

he probably cemented his spot on this first team with that 31 point performance against Gonzaga

in Moraga on Saturday night. But statistically, I think he belongs here. I think a third

gale probably does belong on this list. And I think it would be Lewis over, you know, guys like Dylan

Shaw and guys like, you know, Harry Wessels and some of the other big time players for this team.

I think it deserves to be Lewis. And I think that those five players, the two zags and the three

gales, all kind of need to be in this conversation. And outside of that, of course, you got to have

at least two reps from Santa Clara because of how fantastic they have been this year. And so those

are going to be Christian Hammond, who I think Christian Hammond is probably the third most secure

player on this list behind EK Marouskas. He is the straw that stirs the drink for a very, very good

Santa Clara team. Great shooter, great distributor, great facilitator does everything that Coach

Sendek needs him to do for the Broncos. And then next up is Elijah Mahi. Really good player,

big body wing can get to his spots, can get all the way to the rim. A great shooter as well.

And a tough nose defender, really, really good balanced player for Santa Clara. Three other players

all from different teams in the conference. First up, Elias Ralph, or Elias Ralph, excuse me,

from Pacific, great player. Great player didn't play exceptionally well against Gonzaga in that game.

In Spokane a few weeks ago, but I think it's averaging over 16 points a game. Third or fourth

from the conference and scoring was great last year for Dave Smart in his first year with the

Tigers. Great rebounder, good shooter, effective player definitely should be in this conversation,

was on the preseason team for what it is worth. Joel Foxwell from Portland, I think he has to be

in this conversation, freshman of the year, leader and assist per game in the conference. One of

the leading scorers as well played the most minutes of anybody in the league. I think he's kind of a

slam dunk for this. And then I got Raiden Maldonado from Seattle U as my final spot. Again, I

talked about him as the newcomer of the year. One of the leading scorers in the league. I think

Seattle used placement in the league wouldn't have been where they were without his work as a

scorer, as a facilitator and as a tough defender and coach Chris Victor's offense.

Second team, I got Alan Graves from Santa Clara. We've already talked about him a little bit. I got

another freshman in Ace Glass from Washington State, Wazoo. Not great this year, but Ace Glass was

fantastic. He had a 40 point game this season. He had a 25 point game in league play average,

I think 15 or 16 points per game as a true freshman, but far and away, the best player on this

Washington State team. I think he definitely belongs in this conversation. Probably not a first

team or just because Wazoo wasn't great, but I think he'll be in that second team. Certainly,

at least honorable mention conversation. Got Ryan Beasley here next. Ryan Beasley didn't have a great

year. I mean, he was good, but Santa Clara certainly didn't have the year that people hope that

they would. And I think that's going to hurt them when it comes to award season, whether it is

Tyrone Riley, who missed some time, whether it is David Fuchs, who, you know, didn't play super

well against Gonzaga, but had some good moments at times this year. But I think Beasley is the best

player on this team, the best college player in particular. And I think he'll get at least some

recognition from the committee or from the voting, voting panel when this comes out on Tuesday.

Then I have another Zag here, Ty and Grant Foster. I think Grant Foster should get some love.

I think it'd be tough to put him on the first team, although not crazy to put him on the first

team. In consistency was certainly part of the deal with Grant Foster this year, but he's the,

you know, third leading score, second leading score with Huff kind of not in my mind, not qualifying

for these awards just because of how little he played in the conference. He had some really big

performances down the stretch was a key player for Gonzaga at times. And I think there'll be at least,

there'll be more players from Gonzaga represented than just E.K. and Warley and Grant Foster feels like

the likely candidate to be in that mix. And then I got Aaron Clark from Pepperdine. I kind of

debated him or MJ Amy at LMU, Roddy Brown also at LMU, kind of as the top other options here.

Tyler Johnson from San Diego was considered. He led the team in scoring and assists, but he left the

team like two weeks ago. And I don't think the WCC is going to put him on any of their awards when

he's not currently on a team in the conference. All freshman team is how we're closing out the show

here. Five players and we've talked about almost every single one of them. Obviously we have Joel

Foxwell. We don't need to talk more about him. Obviously we have Alan Graves. We do not need to talk

more about him. Those are your top two freshmen in the conference, top two players or two of the top

players in the league period. Then we have Ace Glass. We already mentioned him as a potential first or

second teamer in this conference from Washington state. Again, a tremendous score didn't do a whole

lot else other than score the ball, which is part of why he's not at the top of this conversation,

but a tremendously gifted score. It'd be a shock if he wasn't on this team. Two more spots,

lots of candidates again, really good league. You've Dylan Shaw from St. Mary's Liam Campbell,

also from St. Mary's Davis Fogel from Gonzaga. Those are three very, very good freshmen in this league.

None of them are in this conversation. They are in this conversation. They are not on this final two

spots on the all WCC freshman team. One of them goes to the best name in the conference legend.

Smiley from San Francisco. Smiley, true freshman for the dawn, stepped into a starting role,

has been fantastic this season. A gifted three point shooter. I think four or five threes against

Gonzaga in Spokane earlier this year had some really big time performances throughout the season.

Coach Grolison on this podcast a few weeks ago just was so complimentary of his development this year

and the way that the veteran guards have kind of helped lead him into this role that he has. If

they can keep him around, man, he's going to be a good player and even better player in this league

very soon. And then last, certainly not least our final Gonzaga representative. I said it's not

Davis Fogel. That means that it is Mario St. Superior. I think Mario should be here. Mario,

obviously, you know, kind of in and out of the starting lineup this year, didn't start most of

the time in the WCC until the last five or so games, but has been a prolific player. The highs

and the lows for Mario are certainly there's a widespread between them. We've seen that this year

where we've seen performances where he's taken over entirely like he did in Seattle against the Red

Hawks. We've seen games where he's kind of vanished like he did on Saturday against St. Mary's. And

that's sort of the deal with freshman a lot of the time is what makes guys who are consistent

like Foxwell, like graves really, really, really impactful. I think Mario gets the nod over Fogel

and those other guys because he was an impactful player consistently for Gonzaga Fogel obviously

is tremendously talented. And it wouldn't shock me if he does end up in on this team or in this

conversation for sure, but he wasn't an impactful player in Gonzaga's rotation for a lot of the

season. And I think that will be held against him, even though his ability to step into that

role seamlessly was one of the biggest storylines in a positive way for Gonzaga this season. Still

give me Mario for this last spot on what is a loaded all freshman team in the West Coast Conference.

Folks, that's going to wrap it up for me today here. Again, on this bonus episode of the Lockdown

Zags podcast, we will have another show later today on YouTube and Tuesday morning on Lockdown Zags

talking about the NCAA tournament picture for Gonzaga answering some mailbag questions talking

about the women's team ahead of the WCC tournament. And then when this award list actually comes out

again, we're expecting that to happen on Tuesday. We will then break down. How did we do? What did I

get wrong? What did I get right? What does it look like? How did the coaches respond to Gonzaga in

their final year in the league? Thanks again, folks. As always, we want to say, have a fantastic rest

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