Country United States | First awarded 1953 | |
Awarded for the most outstanding basketball player in the West Coast Conference Currently held by Nigel Williams-Goss, Gonzaga | ||
The West Coast Conference (WCC) Men's Basketball Player of the Year is a basketball award given to the most outstanding men's basketball player in the West Coast Conference. The award was first given following the conference's inaugural 1952–53 season, when it was known as the California Basketball Association. The only season in which the award was not presented was the conference's second season of 1953–54. There have been four ties in the award's history, most recently in 2006–07 between Sean Denison of Santa Clara and Derek Raivio of Gonzaga. There have also been 13 repeat winners, but only one—Bill Cartwright of San Francisco—has been Player of the Year three times.
Four schools in the West Coast Conference have dominated the total awards distribution. Before 2000, Pepperdine, San Francisco and Santa Clara had earned the bulk of the awards. Since then, Gonzaga has claimed a near-monopoly on it. In the 16 seasons from 2000–01 to the present, coinciding with the Bulldogs' rise to national prominence, Gonzaga players have won the award outright 11 times and shared the award once. Gonzaga now claims the most winners with 15, while each of the three other schools are tied for the second most with 11 winners apiece. The next closest school, Saint Mary's, has seven. One current member has yet to have a winner (Portland).