Zags Inherit Curse Of Wcc’s Top Seed Nothing’s For Certain Despite Gonzaga’s 21-Victory Season

In his first year as Gonzaga men’s basketball coach, Dan Monson has won 21 regular-season games and an outright West Coast Conference title.

But he performed, perhaps, his most surprising feat earlier this week when he managed to keep the target off his team’s chest heading into Saturday’s opening round of the WCC tournament at Santa Clara’s 5,000-seat Toso Pavilion.

Despite an impressive 11-4 non-conference record and the fact their four WCC losses were by a total of eight points, the top-seeded Bulldogs are not everyone’s favorite to secure the automatic NCAA berth that goes to the tournament champion.

Several WCC coaches like No. 2-seed Pepperdine or No. 3-seed Santa Clara. That’s fine with Monson, who did his best to shift the spotlight off his Bulldogs by tactfully proclaiming that “all eight teams have a chance” to win the tournament.

Among the teams Monson is concerned about are USF, San Diego, Santa Clara and streaking Pepperdine, which comes in having won four in a row, including a 65-64 road win over GU a week ago last Thursday.

“San Francisco and Pepperdine definitely have enough ability to win it,” Monson said.

“And they are teams that have given us problems this year. San Diego has played us as well as anyone, so I wouldn’t count them out.

“And how in the world can you count Santa Clara out when they’re playing home games? I mean, when is the last time they haven’t been favored at home in the last five years?”

Buying heavily into Monson’s logic is Portland coach Rob Chavez, who admitted that Pepperdine, with three all-WCC selections on its roster, and Gonzaga, with two, probably have a slight talent edge.

“But Santa Clara’s got to be the tournament favorite,” he added, “because they’re playing at home. And like Dan said, there’s probably not been a time in the last five years where they have not been favored at home.”

Recent history is working against Santa Clara and Gonzaga, however.

In the 11-year history of the tournament, the host team has made it to the finals once - back in 1988, when Santa Clara lost at home to Loyola Marymount.

And the Broncos, despite hosting four other tournaments, haven’t won a first-round game at Toso Pavilion since.

The tournament has been almost as cruel to its No. 1 seeds, considering they have won just three titles and none have advanced past the first round since 1994, when Gonzaga beat Loyola Marymount before losing to San Diego in the semifinals.

GU closed its regular season with a 107-84 rout of LMU last Saturday, and the opening-round matchup against the Lions marks the fourth time the Bulldogs have played back-to-back games against the same opponent. But that seems to matter little to either coach.

“I don’t know if it’s an advantage or disadvantage,” first-year Lions coach Charles Bradley said of the immediate rematch. “But (as the No. 8 seed) we don’t have the luxury of picking who we play.

“Gonzaga is a very good basketball team, and we’re just going to have to be lucky to hang on.” Monson said the keys to beating LMU will be the same this time as they were in the first two meetings, when the Bulldogs rolled to lopsided wins.

“Our keys have been the same all year,” he explained. “Somebody’s got to stop Bakari Hendrix inside to be successful against us, and then shut down our perimeter game.

“The teams that have been able to do that have beat us.”

Pepperdine, which suited only eight players in last week’s upset of Gonzaga, might seem to have some depth problems, but Chavez insists that’s not the case.

“They’re older kids,” he said of the Waves, who made his Pilots their fourth straight victim with a 67-57 road win last Saturday. “They know how to pace themselves throughout the course of a game. They know how to get their rest. They’re mature, they’re not going to have the anxiety that younger kids sometimes have, they’re physically strong and they’re playing well right now.

“They will not wear down.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WCC tournament All games at Santa Clara, Calif. Saturday’s games Noon: No. 4 St. Mary’s (12-14, 7-7) vs. No. 5 San Francisco (16-10, 7-7) 2:30 p.m.: No. 1 Gonzaga (21-8, 10-4) vs. No. 8 Loyola Marymount (7-19, 3-11) 6 p.m.: No. 2 Pepperdine (17-9, 9-5) vs. No. 7 San Diego (13-13, 5-9) 8:30 p.m.: No. 3 Santa Clara (17-9, 8-6) vs. No. 6 Portland (14-12, 7-7)