West Coast Conference
March 4,5,7,8. All games at Las Vegas.
kPOY: Domantas Sabonis, Gonzaga.
The WCC gets underway Friday evening with a first round game at the Orleans Arena.
No team has dominated its conference this millennium like Gonzaga. Not only has it won at least a share of the WCC regular-season every season but one, but the Bulldogs have posted a staggering 36-4 record in the conference tournament since 1999. In fact, just three teams have won this event since 1999: Gonzaga (13 times), Saint Mary’s (twice), and San Diego (twice).
But things are different this season. Gonzaga may still have the best team in the conference, which has been the case for 13 of the past 14 season if you go by my ratings. And they have the two best players in the league in Domantas Sabonis and Kyle Wiltjer. But Wiltjer didn’t quite develop into an All-American candidate and the early season-ending injury to Przemek Karnowski reduced the Zags’ margin for error this season. The season sweep at the hands of Saint Mary’s ultimately cost them the top seed in the WCC tourney which gives the Gaels an easier path to the finals and makes Saint Mary’s a slight favorite here despite the fact they’d be an underdog to Gonzaga in the title game.
The at-large picture for the WCC is cloudy. The consensus has St. Mary’s at-large situation more secure than Gonzaga’s. (Which I have to admit, doesn’t make much sense to me. Saint Mary’s has played *19* home games and the extent of their quality wins is the sweep of Gonzaga.) Although this is where the tradition of assuming an automatic champ in the bracket forecasts doesn’t much help us here. All teams have to assume a title is necessary.
Qtrs Semis Final Champ 1 Saint Mary's 100 91.5 75.0 40.7 2 Gonzaga 100 89.9 59.5 35.5 3 BYU 100 87.5 37.0 17.8 4 Pepperdine 100 66.3 16.9 4.3 5 San Francisco 100 33.7 5.4 0.8 7 Portland 100 10.1 2.1 0.4 8 Loyola Marymount 60.7 5.9 2.0 0.3 6 Santa Clara 100 12.5 1.4 0.2 9 San Diego 39.3 2.6 0.7 0.05
WCC tourney records (since 1999)
Gonzaga 36- 4 BYU 5- 4 San Diego 18-15 Saint Mary’s 16-15 Santa Clara 15-17 Pepperdine 12-17 Loyola Marymount 10-17 San Francisco 8-17 Portland 5-17