Gonzaga men, women teams to beat
Men: Bulldogs will play either Pacific or Santa Clara Saturday
Top seed and West Coast Conference regular-season champion Gonzaga will face either Pacific or Santa Clara in a 6 p.m. quarterfinal Saturday in the conference tournament at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
The Bulldogs wrapped up the outright regular-season title Thursday at Pacific, and the eighth-seeded Tigers could be Gonzaga’s foe Saturday. Santa Clara is the No. 9 seed.
The Tigers and Broncos meet Thursday in an opening-round game with the winner facing the Zags. Gonzaga swept both during the regular season.
Gonzaga has won 15 of the last 17 WCC regular-season crowns and is the defending champion of the WCC tournament.
Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s will not be meeting for the championship a sixth straight time when the finale is played March 11. With No. 4 seed Saint Mary’s facing No. 5 seed Pepperdine in a quarterfinal in the same half of the bracket as the Zags, the two teams can only meet in a semifinal a week from today.
The last time the Bulldogs and the Gaels did not face off in the tourney final was 2008, when No. 3 seed San Diego defeated top seed Gonzaga 69-62 in San Diego prior to the conference tournament moving to Las Vegas in 2009.
| BYU | BYU | |
| San Francisco | Pacific | |
| Saint Mary’s | Saint Mary’s | |
| Pepperdine | San Diego | |
| San Diego | Portland | |
| Portland | Santa Clara | |
| Pacific | San Francicsco | |
| Santa Clara | LMU | |
| LMU | Pepperdine |