Yahoo Sports will break down the top 10 leagues for the upcoming college basketball season working backward from No. 10 to No. 1. Here’s a look at our No. 10 league, the West Coast Conference.

Like Nick Saban’s facial expressions or Mike Krzyzewski’s hair color, the pecking order in the WCC never seems to change.

Gonzaga reigns over the conference, Saint Mary’s frequently rises up to mount a challenge, BYU rounds out the league’s top tier and the WCC’s seven other programs forlornly press their nose against the glass staring up at the Marquee Three.

No program besides Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s or BYU has reached the WCC title game in the past eight years. San Francisco’s second-place finish in 2014 is the only time any other team has cracked the top three in the WCC standings since BYU joined the league in 2011.

The chasm between the WCC’s top three and the best of the rest appears to be wider than ever this year. Whereas Gonzaga welcomes an exceptional crop of newcomers, Saint Mary’s returns everyone from a 29-win team and BYU is loaded with young talent, four of the league’s other seven programs changed coaches this past spring.

Gonzaga should be the preseason favorite despite losing four starters from last year’s 28-win Sweet 16 team including lottery pick Domantas Sabonis, 20-point scorer Kyle Wiltjer and league defensive player of the year Eric McClellan. The optimism stems from a legion of transfers and freshmen that are as promising as any group of newcomers Mark Few has welcomed.

Washington transfer Nigel Williams-Goss is a former McDonald’s All-American who averaged 15.6 points and 5.9 assists during his sophomore season with the Huskies. The 6-foot-3 junior is expected to play side by side with Gonzaga’s incumbent point guard Josh Perkins, giving the Zags two starting guards who can initiate the offense, knock down jumpers or make plays for themselves or their teammates off the dribble.

Adding to the strength of the Gonzaga backcourt is Jordan Mathews, a graduate transfer who averaged 13.5 points per game at Cal last season and shot 41.6 percent from behind the arc. His shooting will space the floor for Gonzaga, while college-ready freshman Zach Norvell and defensive standout Silas Melson will likely carve out playing time off the bench.

How well mammoth 7-footer Przemek Karnowski rebounds from back surgery will be key to Gonzaga’s frontcourt outlook. If he’s healthy enough to play heavy minutes, he’ll man the middle for the Zags alongside Missouri transfer Johnathan Williams III, enabling Few to bring McDonald’s All-American 7-footer Zach Collins along slowly off the bench.

The team best equipped to challenge Gonzaga is Saint Mary’s, which could join the Zags in the preseason Top 25. The Gaels should be even better than they were last year when they shared the WCC regular season title with Gonzaga yet missed the NCAA tournament because of a soft non-conference schedule featuring no out-of-state games.

All five starters return including the all-conference backcourt of playmakers Emmett Naar and James Rahon and last year’s top big man Dane Pineau. There’s depth in the froncourt, shooters throughout the roster and enough talent and experience that it would be a disappointment if Saint Mary’s has to settle for a fourth straight NIT bid.

It’s a testament to Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s that BYU is the league’s consensus third-best team. The Cougars will miss do-everything Kyle Collinsworth and elite shooter Chase Fischer, yet an influx of talent gives them a chance to be better than last year’s 26-win team was.

Sophomore guard Nick Emery is fearless and gifted scorer who should emerge as the centerpiece of BYU’s typically high-octane offense. T.J. Haws is the younger, more heralded brother of former Cougars star Tyler Haws. And Eric Mika returns from his mission eager to anchor the frontcourt and improve on his 2013-14 averages of 11.8 points and 6.4 rebounds.

The questions facing BYU are whether it can find a steadying influence at point guard to replace Collinsworth and whether it can build on last season’s gradual improvement on defense. The Cougars will also need their numerous newcomers and returning missionaries to mesh quickly so they can build a NCAA tournament-caliber resume in November and December and leave themselves some margin for error in conference play.

Story continues