The West Coast Conference Online: Where Photography is King

Each week we will break down a different conference across the D-1 landscape, giving you a look into how they are connecting with fans (and recruits) across their website and social media. Along the way, we'll elevate a few things in each conference that are best-in-class: what we can learn from the schools that make up each conference.

You can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

We break down leagues based on how squads finished last season. Thus far we've checked out the ACC, Horizon, Big Ten, Big East, Big 12, Atlantic 10, MVC, Pac-10, and Ivy. It's time to keep moving... Our final conference to land a squad in the Sweet 16 was the WCC, thanks to Saint Mary's.

Check out the WCC website here, and below:

Photography is powerful. It captures emotion and energy. It makes us feel something powerul inside. And yet in this era of streaming video and live broadcasts, I think we often underestimate its potential. The West Coast Conference sees the potential in photography.

Hitting the WCC home page, you'll note the far right menu calls out "Multimedia." That's where we will turn our attention...

Clicking into Photo Gallery takes us here, to a deep lineup of galleries by school.

I chose Gonzaga, which took me here.

And then, 2 clicks later, I end up in a beautiful sea of basketball photos, which you can check out here (or below).

Powerful images, yeah?

How could we make this better? There is an enormous level of depth to this photography. I'm not sure if I've come across a gallery this robust yet. And yet it remains buried deep into the site. That's a focus I'd love to see elevated -- take this great photography and infuse it into the home page, into the sport or school home pages, and into social media. The hard part's done (getting this level of asset). Now let's get the most out of what we have!

West Coast Conference week continues tomorrow. We will take a peak at how the conference is leveraging social media. Then, we'll wrap the week up with 3 peaks into things I found fantastic across the 8-team conference landscape.

Don't forget, you can follow along via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

Andy