BYU basketball in familiar spot in preseason, but can Cougars win WCC title in final year?

PROVO — BYU men's basketball found itself in a familiar position, if not with a number of new faces, after the annual vote of West Coast Conference coaches to tip off WCC media day in Las Vegas.

The Cougars were picked to finish third in the conference, with league stalwarts Gonzaga and Saint Mary's atop the preseason coaches' poll. San Francisco was tied with BYU for third, followed by Santa Clara, Pepperdine, San Diego, Loyola Marymount and Pacific.

In a decade in the league, BYU has yet to break through and topple the Zags on a consistent basis. Mark Few's team is the WCC's preseason favorites for the 11th consecutive season after returning All-American and 2022 WCC Player of the Year Drew Timme and a handful of role players like Julian Strawther, Rasir Bolton and former Wasatch Academy standout Nolan Hickman.

Fousseyni Traore, the rising sophomore who set BYU freshman records a year ago, was the lone BYU men's basketball player on the preseason all-conference list. The native of Bamako, Mali, averaged 9.6 points and 8.5 rebounds per game, shooting 58.9% from the field in 33 games, including 22 starts. His 280 rebounds set a program record, including 93 offensive boards; and his nine double-doubles were the second-most by a BYU freshman in program history.

Traore's 42 blocks also rank third in program history, and he owns the freshman record for most rebounds in a game with a 25-point, 19-board effort in the regular-season finale against Pepperdine.

But with BYU off to the Big 12 in most sports, including men's and women's basketball, in 2023, do the Cougars have what it takes to win a conference regular-season or tournament title in their final year in the WCC?

Knocking off the Zags (and the Gaels, to an only slightly lesser extent) is the goal, of course.

"Obviously, it's going to take a good team to beat them," Traore told Sean Farnham and Guy Haberman at WCC media day."You have to show up every single day. I think we have a lot of good guys, and we have a chance to do that — if everybody shows up every day."

BYU hasn't won a conference regular-season championship since leaving the Mountain West in 2011, and has been without a league tournament title since 2001 — what was only its third conference tournament championship in program history.

It's now or never in the WCC, senior forward Gideon George said, illustrating the 2022-23 season to the ESPN documentary "The Last Dance" about Michael Jordan's final year with the Chicago Bulls.

"It's going to be a good ride," George said. "Just like the Last Dance, this is the last dance for BYU at the WCC. Going into the Big 12, that would be a good stepping stone for us. And it's just what we need; we're all about getting better every day. That's what we're all about."

The Cougars have a dozen newcomers on the roster, including Detroit Mercy transfer Noah Waterman, Arkansas' Jaxson Robinson and senior Rudi Williams from Coastal Carolina. They also bring in several highly touted freshman recently returned from church missions in Dallin Hall (Fremont), Richie Saunders (Wasatch Academy) and Tanner Toolson (Vancouver, Washington).

They'l be tasked to replace a number of offensive starters, including junior wing Trevin Knell, who is out until at least January after offseason shoulder surgery. The biggest name to replace, of course, is Alex Barcello, the former three-year standout who plays for Kolossos Rodou in Greece who averaged 16.7 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists last year for the 24-11 Cougars.

How do you even begin to replace a player of Barcello's caliber?

"You don't. We can't," BYU coach Mark Pope said. "And we're not even trying to. Alex was an incredible player for us for three years.

"We're going to attack it in a different way. And I think the guys are feeling it now. There's something special about a roster that is equal opportunity, and that's what these guys are living in.

"It's going to make us more dangerous, in some ways," he added. "We're going to be a much more difficult scout. It's going to be fun."

BYU opens the season Monday, Nov. 7 against Idaho State at home. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. MDT on BYUtv.

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