The 2011–12 West Coast Conference women's basketball season began with practices in October 2011 and ended with the

2012 West Coast Conference women's basketball tournament The 2012 West Coast Conference women's basketball tournament was held February 29 though March 5 at the Orleans Arena in the Las Vegas area community of Paradise, Nevada. Format With the addition of BYU to the conference, a new format will be i ...

from February 29- March 5, 2012 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. The regular season began on the weekend of November 11, with the conference schedule starting on December 29. This was the 27th season for WCC women's basketball, which began in the 1985–86 season when the league was known as the West Coast Athletic Conference (WCAC). It was also the 22nd season under the West Coast Conference name (the conference began as the California Basketball Association in 1952, became the WCAC in 1956, and dropped the word "Athletic" in 1989). In July 2011, a new faith based, private school joined the conference. BYU came from the

Mountain West The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

, marking the WCC's first change in membership since 1980.

Pre-season

* Pre-season media day was held on October 27, 2011, at YouTube's headquarters in San Bruno, California. * 2011–12 West Coast Women's Basketball Media Poll: :''Rank, School (first-place votes), Points'' :1. Gonzaga University (8), 64 :2. Brigham Young University (1), 52 :3. Pepperdine University, 50 :4. Loyola Marymount University, 36 :5. Saint Mary's College, 34 :6. University of Portland, 32 :7. University of San Diego, 26 :8. Santa Clara University, 22 :9. University of San Francisco, 8 * 2011–12 West Coast Women's Preseason All-West Conference Team: :''Player, School, Yr., Pos.'' :Dominique Conners, USD, Sr., G :Alex Cowling, Loyola Marymount, RS-Jr., G/F :Natalie Day, Portland, Sr.., G/F :Jazmine Jackson, Pepperdine, Sr., G : Katelan Redmon, Gonzaga, Sr., G/F :Kristen Riley, Brigham Young University, Sr., F :Alyssa Shoji, Santa Clara, Sr., G :Jasmine Smith, Saint Mary's, RS-Sr., G :Kayla Standish, Gonzaga, Sr., F :ReZina TecleMariam , Portland, Sr., G

Rankings

Non-Conference games

* BYU would lose to #8 Duke 61–55 on November 11, 2011.

Conference games

*2 Conference Games would be shown nationally on CBS Sports Network- Portland at San Diego on January 19, 2012, and Loyola Marymount at Gonzaga on January 26, 2012. *BYUtv would show all home BYU games except for the Saint Mary's game on February 4, 2012. *SWX Right Now would show all Gonzaga home games except for the game shown nationally on CBS Sports Network. *In Week 11 the WCC had two teams rank in the Top 25 for the first time in the conference's history with BYU and Gonzaga both claiming Top 25 spots.

Composite Matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play. (x) indicates games remaining this season.

Conference tournament

* February 29- March 5, 2012 – West Coast Conference Basketball Tournament, Orleans Arena, Las Vegas, NV.

Head coaches

Jeff Judkins Jeff Reed Judkins (born March 23, 1956) is a retired American professional basketball player and coach. He coached the Brigham Young University (BYU) Cougars women's basketball team from 2001 to 2022, after serving as their assistant coach in 2000 ...

, BYU :

Kelly Graves Kelly Lee Graves (born January 14, 1963) is the current head women's basketball coach at the University of Oregon. Previously, Graves was the head women's basketball coach at St. Mary's from 1997 to 2000, as well as Gonzaga University from 2000 to ...

, Gonzaga : Julie Wilhoit, Loyola Marymount :

Julie Rousseau Julie Rousseau (born 1964 or 1965) was the head coach of the WNBA team Los Angeles Sparks from 1997 to 1998. Outside of the WNBA, Rousseau was a coach of multiple NCAA teams including the Stanford Cardinal and Pepperdine Waves. She also was an a ...

, Pepperdine : Jim Sollars, Portland : Paul Thomas, Saint Mary's :

Cindy Fisher Cindy Ann Fisher (born August 2, 1964) is the head women's basketball coach at the University of San Diego The University of San Diego (USD) is a private Roman Catholic research university in San Diego, California. Chartered in July 1949 as ...

, San Diego :

Jennifer Azzi Jennifer Lynn Azzi (born August 31, 1968) is a former basketball coach, most recently the head coach of the women's team at the University of San Francisco. Azzi is also a former collegiate and professional basketball player, as well as an Olympic ...

, San Francisco :

Jennifer Mountain Jennifer or Jenifer may refer to: People *Jennifer (given name) * Jenifer (singer), French pop singer * Jennifer Warnes, American singer who formerly used the stage name Jennifer * Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer * Daniel Jenifer Film and televi ...

, Santa Clara

Post-season

NCAA tournament

*Gonzaga was an 11-seed. They advanced to the Sweet Sixteen after winning the 1st and 2nd Round games on their home court. *BYU was a 10-seed. They lost in the first round against DePaul on the DePaul men's team home court.

WNIT

* San Diego was granted the WCC's automatic bid to the WNIT after Gonzaga was taken as an at large team. They played into the semifinals on the WNIT before they were finally defeated at Oklahoma State. USD won 2 road games to make the semifinals of the WNIT- at Texas Tech in the regional semi's and then at Washington in the regional final. * Saint Mary's was taken as an at-large selection. They defeated UNLV in the first round before losing at Oregon State. Oregon State would lose in the next round to Washington who was eliminated by fellow WCC school San Diego in the quarterfinals.

WBI

* No WCC school qualified for the WBI.

Highlights and notes

Awards and honors

Primetime Performers Honor Roll by Collegesports360.com

* Haiden Palmer, Gonzaga, Week of Dec 19-25 * Alex Carbonel, Saint Mary's, Week of Jan 9-15 * Taelor Karr, Gonzaga, Week of Jan 23-29 * Jennifer Hamson, BYU, Week of Feb 6-12

Scholar-Athlete of the Year

Player-of-the-Week

* Nov. 14 – Natalie Day, Portland * Nov. 28 – Natalie Day, Portland * Dec. 12 – Alex Cowling, Loyola Marymount * Dec. 26 – Jasmine Smith, Saint Mary's * Jan. 9 – Dominique Conners, San Diego * Jan. 23 – Katelan Redmon, Gonzaga * Feb. 6 – Lauren Bell, Pepperdine * Feb. 20 – Kelly Bowen, Gonzaga * Nov. 21 – Natalie Day, Portland * Dec. 5 – Kim Parker, BYU * Dec. 19 – Haiden Palmer, Gonzaga * Jan. 2 – Morgan Woodrow, San Diego * Jan. 16 – Alex Carbonel, Saint Mary's * Jan. 30 – Kristen Riley, BYU * Feb. 13 – Kim Parker, BYU * Feb. 27 – Katelan Redmon, Gonzaga

Player-of-the-Month

* November – Natalie Day, Portland * December – Alex Cowling, Loyola Marymount * January – Kristen Riley, BYU * February – Kristen Riley, BYU

All-Americans

All West Coast Conference teams

Voting was by conference coaches: *Player of The Year: Kristen Riley, BYU *Co-Newcomer of The Year: Lexi Eaton, BYU *Co-Newcomer of the Year: Haiden Palmer, Gonzaga *Defensive Player of The Year: Jazmine Jackson, Pepperdine *Coach of The Year: Cindy Fisher, San Diego