Obligatory Sports Post

Gonzaga wins again. A fifth straight WCC championship and automatic NCAA bid, that is.

As a Pepperdine alum and fan, this is disconcerting...and heartening.

Gonzaga represents the first true national presence for the WCC in Men's Basketball since USF won championships with Bill Russell at center in the 1950's. There have been other teams in other decades that tried, but none have reached this level of success. The exception might be the USF teams in the 1970's, but Quintin Dailey's indiscretion destroyed that program in the early 80's and it has not yet regained anything near it's former status.

Pepperdine briefly filled the vacuum created by USF's "death penalty" sentence. Pepperdine won championships in 1981 (co-champs with USF in one of it's last seasons as a power), '82, '83, '85, '86, '91-'93; other programs achieved limited success as well, most notably LMU with their Final Eight appearance in 1990. But in none of those years could Pepperdine advance beyond the second-round of the NCAA tournament, and into that round but once, and none of the other schools sustained their successes.

After coach Tom Asbury's departure to Kansas State in 1994, Pepperdine's program fell into decline and though they have shared two regular season conference titles with Gonzaga, the program has not yet reached it's previous level in a decade of trying. Gonzaga's run at national prominence began in '97 and continues today.

The hope is always that one program's rise to prominence and breakthrough into the National 'club' translates into a leap for the rest of the conference to a higher-level of play. That has not yet occurred in the WCC, though this season could be a tipping point if St. Mary's and/or San Diego should receive at-large bids to the NCAA tournament.

So yet again, as a Pepperdine fan and alum I am forced to swallow my pride and root for other squads while hoping my team can bask, even briefly, in the light they bring to the WCC.