or do they see tiny gyms and pretty crappy teams other than Gonzaga?
Perception means a lot, and while everything you said is true, perception of the WCC is that it's little schools in tiny high school gyms. Blue Chip recruits aren't typically going to be interested in that, and it looks like we could be losing a player and a top rated recruit. If that's the primary reason I don't know, but I don't think it's helping anything