LAS VEGAS – You can't say the USD men's and women's basketball teams don't stick together.
Coming off seasons in which both teams won their respective West Coast Conference tournaments and advanced to the NCAAs, the men and women were picked to finish third in the WCC in the upcoming season by a vote of league coaches released at a media event here yesterday.
Coach Bill Grier's men, returning all five starters from a 22-14 team that defeated Connecticut in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, were placed behind perennial power Gonzaga and Saint Mary's – the league's other representatives at the 2008 Big Dance. Gonzaga got five first-place votes, Saint Mary's two and USD one.
Toreros seniors Brandon Johnson and Gyno Pomare, returning All-Conference first-team selections, were named to the preseason All-Conference team. Gonzaga and Saint Mary's had three representatives apiece topped by guards Jeremy Pargo of Gonzaga, the 2008 conference Player of the Year, and Patrick Mills of Saint Mary's, the leading scorer for Australia at the Beijing Olympics.
Gonzaga also was picked No. 1 on the women's side, receiving seven first-place votes. Loyola Marymount got the other first-place nod. Senior center Amber Sprague was the only USD representative on a 10-player preseason All-Conference team that included two from Gonzaga, most notably 2008 Player of the Year Heather Bowman, and three from Saint Mary's, the No. 4 team in the poll.
“I don't put a lot of stock in it. At this point, it's all speculation,” said USD women's coach Cindy Fisher, whose team went 19-13 and lost to Cal in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Toreros return four starters, but have a big hole to fill with the loss to graduation of All-WCC guard Amanda Rego. The question for both Toreros teams will be how they deal with the raised expectations that are the natural product of last season's success.
“This year there are greater expectations, mostly external,” Grier said. “What I've been preaching to them is that they have to accept it and step up to the challenge of being a hunted (rather than hunter) team.
“I have some experience in that from being at Gonzaga when the same thing happened, and I'm excited about facing that challenge with the group of kids we have here.”
Men's and women's coaches from all eight schools were on hand for the event at the 7,471-seat Orleans Arena, an adjunct to the Orleans Hotel that will be the site of the WCC men's and women's tournaments March 6-9.
All 16 coaches yesterday expressed enthusiasm over the fact that the conference event will be staged on a neutral, rather than campus, court for the first time.
All eight schools have an allotment of tickets to sell. Of the 2,000 that were made available to the public through the WCC or Orleans Web sites starting yesterday morning, more than half were sold in the first few hours, WCC officials said.
Toreros notes
Men's team incoming freshman
Devonier Braswell, a Detroit high school product, has been lost for the season with a ruptured Achilles'tendon suffered in conditioning work. Braswell underwent surgery on Tuesday. Recovery is expected to take six months or more . . . Grier and his wife
Nicole are expecting their second child. A sibling for 2-year-old daughter
Giselle is due to arrive around April 22, Grier said . . . Fisher said redshirt junior
Kelly Winther, who sat out last season with a shoulder injury, will miss the early part of the season while recovering from a torn labrum in the front of the same shoulder. The Toreros hope she'll return by the start of the conference season in January.
Hank Wesch: (619) 293-1853; hank.wesch@uniontrib.com
