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It's a slightly new-look West Coast Conference Tournament this year with the inclusion of Oregon State and Washington State, which joined the WCC this year amidst conference realignment and the destruction of the Pac-12 and are now part of this 11-team tournament. But the same heavyweights remain as Saint Mary's and Gonzaga are the No. 1 and 2 seeds, respectively, once again and have byes into the semifinals. No. 3 San Francisco and No. 4 Santa Clara will not play until the quarterfinals, and speaking of Oregon State and Washington State, those schools have byes into the third round as the No. 5 and 6 seeds, respectively. The action all takes place in Las Vegas, and the first game between No. 10 Pacific and No. 11 San Diego is Thursday, March 6. Currently, two WCC teams -- Saint Mary's and Gonzaga -- are tournament-bound according to Jerry Palm's latest bracketology update on CBS Sports.
West Coast Conference Tournament Schedule
First Round
No. 10 Pacific vs. No. 11 San Diego
Second Round
SR1 - No. 8 Portland vs. No. 9 Pepperdine
SR2 - No. 7 LMU vs. Pacific/San Diego
Third Round
TR1 - No. 5 Oregon State vs. SR1 winner
TR2 - No. 6 Washington State vs. SR2 winner
Quarterfinals
QF1 - No. 4 Santa Clara vs. TR1 winner
QF2 - No. 3 San Francisco vs. TR2 winner
Semifinals
SF1 - No. 1 Saint Mary's vs. QF1 winner
SF2 - No. 2 Gonzaga vs QF2 winner
Final
SF1 winner vs. SF2 winner
Saint Mary's earned the No. 1 seed for the third year in a row, and either the Gaels or Gonzaga have won the WCC tournament every year since 2008, when San Diego took the crown. Despite being the No. 2 seed, Gonzaga is the betting favorite (-150 at FanDuel) while Saint Mary's is second at +150. It's worth noting that the Gaels beat the Bulldogs in their two head-to-head matchups this season. Next up is Santa Clara as a longshot +1600, and San Francisco is +2700, which gave Saint Mary's its only conference loss of the season. The two newest WCC members, Oregon State and Washington State, are +6000 and +16000, respectively.
Saint Mary's is led by conference player of the year Augustas Marciulionis, who led the Gaels in points (14.4), assists (6.1) and steals (1.4) per contest this season. Paulius Murauskas, the conference newcomer of the year, is averaging 12.8 points per game and a team-leading 8.1 rebounds per contest, and Mitchell Saxon was the conference's defensive player of the year. Graham Ike paced the Bulldogs in scoring with 17.0 points per game while Ryan Nembhard averaged a double-double with 10.9 points per game and 10.0 assists. San Francisco's Malik Thomas leads the WCC in scoring this year at 19.1 points per game, and fellow guard Marcus Williams is the conference's No. 6 scorer at 15.1. Santa Clara's top player this year is Adama-Alpha Bal, who leads the Broncos in both points (13.1) and assists (3.1) per game.
Gonzaga leads the WCC in points per game at 87.6 points per game, which is second in the nation. Saint Mary's has one of the nation's best defenses at 60.8 points per game allowed, which is first in the WCC and fifth in America. Santa Clara ranks second in points per game in the WCC and San Francisco is second in scoring defense. Gonzaga and Saint Mary's pace the conference in scoring margin, as well.
SportsLine expert Thomas Casale is backing Gonzaga to win the tournament for the 22nd time, and Zach Cimini also had made his pick. You can find out which teams Casale, Cimini and other SportsLine experts are backing for each conference tournament only at SportsLine.
