We’re fully into conference play out west, with teams in the WCC and the majority of the Mountain West both having two games under their belt. And wouldn’t you know it, but a healthy portion of what we’ve established from the first two months of the season seems to no longer apply. The parity of the Mountain West and West Coast conferences is shaping up to be particularly rampant in the final season before major realignment.

The top of the leagues remain unharmed through the preliminary ruckus, with Utah State, Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s undefeated week one. But those victories did not come without some minor sweating for the two aforementioned WCC teams. The Gaels snuck out of Loyola Marymount with a two-possession win where they trailed with a little over 5 minutes left in the second half. The Zags led by 19 points with 6 minutes and 19 seconds remaining against San Diego before the Toreros got hot from deep and brought the margin down to 6 points before the final buzzer. All of this to say, even the best teams in these two leagues won’t be able to sleepwalk through their schedule.

The Swiss Army Knife tandem for Gonzaga

Gonzaga is a dangerous matchup for a variety of reasons that we’ve discussed in these round-ups dating back to November. Their starting frontcourt is elite and they’ve surrounded them with better shooting compared to last season. But it’s the adaptive nature of Gonzaga’s depth that proved to be the deciding factor in the first two games of the conference season.

The wing/frontcourt hybrid additions of Tyon Grant-Foster and Jalen Warley is just a level of size, athleticism and skill that the vast majority of this conference will struggle to handle over the next couple of months. The tilting disadvantages they created were leveraged in both the Pepperdine and San Diego games, resulting in the two teams having the highest offensive ratings and point totals in the rotation for early conference action.

In a frankly bizarrely paced and officiated game in San Diego, Warley played 34 minutes, exploiting his athleticism as an undersized forward against the plotting traditional bigs San Diego started, or too big a matchup when the Toreros would try to opt for a traditional wing/guard to stay in front of him. Warley finished with 22 points and 14 rebounds in the game, 7 of those boards coming on offense.

With Grant-Foster, he provides an ability to finish from the wing that breaks down many ways opponents try to offer support for interior defenders worried about the Huff-Ike tandem. Gonzaga’s offense has shifted this season to emphasizing lob touches for Grant-Foster, largely coming baseline.

Grant-Foster shot a blistering 76.5% from the field over the first two games of conference play, tabling some concerns of his offensive performance towards the end of 2025. Seeing how his role solidifies in conference play is something to look out for when considering Gonzaga’s ceiling in March.

San Francisco needs Tyrone Riley to be the guy

When talking to head coach Chris Gerlufsen towards the beginning of fall practices, the first name he mentioned to me for his San Francisco team was Tyrone Riley and subsequently, the first expectation he gave was that Riley would become a volume scorer on high efficiency (specifically, 40% from three). The fourth-year head coach went on to discuss numerous other rotational pieces for a season with big goals and significant challenges in the non-conference schedule.

Riley is the most talented weapon for this Dons team, now ranked 111th in the NET after splitting their first two league games and arriving at 9-6 on the season. But the sophomore wing hasn’t fully assumed the role expected, attempting just one more shot per game than he did the previous season. He’s second in attempts behind point guard Ryan Beasley. It is worth noting that San Francisco has slowed their pace down from the previous season.

It has been a lack of impact and role more than Riley, having poor games in San Francisco’s losses. In 4 of the 6 losses, the wing took fewer shots than his season average. He’s taken the most shots in only 2 of the team’s games this season.

To add further confusion, Riley had his best games going up against better competition. He averaged 17 points on efficient shooting in games against Quad 1 teams, considerably higher than his season average of 11.7 points. He’s proving Gerlufsen’s projection of perimeter scoring correct, shooting 46.5% on 43 attempts so far this season. However, a bigger step and greater output will be required for the Dons to become the team they set out to be.

Tayshawn Comer leads the Wolf Pack towards the top of the MWC

A team that has really looked to have turned a corner from their rough November start is Steve Alford’s Nevada Wolf Pack, who have won their last 6 games, including wins over San Francisco, Boise State and Colorado State. The 9-man rotation features 7 new faces compared to last season, notably led by journeyman guard Tayshawn Comer.

Comer is playing just around two-thirds of the point guard minutes this season and has been dynamic in juggling facilitation duties and scoring, averaging 15 points and 3.5 assists per game. He boasts an assist-to-turnover ratio over 2 on the season, a big reason why the Wolf Pack ranks third in the country for turnover percentage on offense.

Comer’s 29% assist percentage is in the 94th-percentile of Division I and while not hyper-efficient, his scoring is productive enough to help lead Nevada to an offensive rating of 124 over their last five games. He’s shooting 36% above the break from three and forced to take a lot of difficult midrange shots due to defenses not worried about perimeter scoring (Nevada is 348th in the country in three-point shot attempts to total field goal attempts).

However, Comer has excelled at drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line. His 5.5 free throw attempts per game put him in the 95th-percentile for college basketball. Nevada holds the fourth slowest tempo in the conference, which makes taking care of the basketball all the more valuable. Bringing a high-floor, principled offense on the road makes Nevada one of the better teams in a league where no other team avoids turnovers like the Wolf Pack has all season.

Games to watch

• Seattle at Gonzaga, Friday at 6 pm PT/9 pm ET, ESPN+
• Loyola Marymount at Washington State, Friday at 6:30 pm PT/9:30 pm ET, ESPN+
• Boise State at San Diego State, Saturday at 7 pm PT/10 pm ET, CBSSN
• Colorado State at Grand Canyon, Saturday at 5 pm PT/8 pm ET, theMW.com