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PROJECTING THE WCC TOURNAMENT
With only two weeks of conference play left, the race for top seeds for the West Coast Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament is getting hot and heavy. We take a look at who would play whom, based on current league standings. Plenty of questions remain, and there’s every likelihood the standings will change in the next two weeks. What is clear is that no one wants to finish in the bottom half of the league standings and face the daunting prospect of winning 4 games in 4 days to earn a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
With a pair of road wins last week, Gonzaga sits alone atop the conference standings with a 9-2 record with just three games remaining. The Bulldogs head into Thursday’s game against San Diego a game and a half up on second place Saint Mary's, who owns a 7-3 league mark, and two and a half games ahead of third place Santa Clara, who owns a 6-4 conference record. Gonzaga could clinch at least a share of the WCC regular season title on Thursday with a win against the Toreros and an SMC loss to LMU. If both GU and SMC win on Thursday, the Bulldogs would clinch at least a share of the title with a win versus USF on Saturday, regardless of the outcome of the Saint Mary's-Pepperdine game later that day.
Just for fun, here’s how the teams would be seeded for the WCC Tournament based on current standings.
Projected Seedings and Tournament Matchups Based on Present Standings and Tiebreakers:
1. Gonzaga (9-2)
2. St. Mary’s (7-3)
3. Santa Clara (6-4)
4. San Diego (5-5)
5. San Francisco (4-6)
6. Portland (4-7) (currently holds tie-breaker over Pepperdine)
7. Pepperdine (4-7)
8. Loyola-Marymount (3-8)
First Session Games:, Friday, March 4th:
Game 1: #5 San Francisco v. #8 Loyola
Game 2: #6 Portland v. #7 Pepperdine
Second Session Games, Saturday, March 5th:
Game 3: #3 Santa Clara v. Portland/Pepperdine winner
Game 4: #4 San Diego v. San Francisco/Loyola winner
Semi-finals, Sunday, March 6th:
First Semi-final: #2 St. Mary’s v. winner of Santa Clara v. Portland/Pepperdine winner
Second Semi-final: #1 Gonzaga v. winner of San Diego v. San Francisco/Loyola winner
Note: One of the WCC semi-final games will be an ESPN2 game.
Finals: Winner of Game 5 v. winner of Game 6, played on Monday night, March 7th at 9:00 PM, on ESPN.
At stake: the WCC Tournament Championship and resulting automatic NCAA bid.