Selection Sunday will reveal Gonzaga’s first-round foe and tournament path as likely top overall seed

Head coach Mark Few never stops recruiting and he made a blatant pitch to Gonzaga fans minutes after his team captured the West Coast Conference Tournament championship Tuesday in Las Vegas.

“There’s nobody that travels like this on the West Coast,” Few said to ESPN’s Sean Farnham and roughly 5,000 Zag fans inside Orleans Arena. “Hey, and we’re going to Portland and then we’re going to San Francisco. We need to see all of you and all of your friends moving forward through these next two weeks.”

There doesn’t seem to be much mystery regarding the Zags on Selection Sunday. Farnham closed his remarks by flatly saying Gonzaga is the top overall seed. There’s essentially a consensus on that in most bracket projections.

The Zags are expected to be the No. 1 seed in the West Region and open the NCAA Tournament in Portland. Gonzaga would need two wins to advance to the regional semifinals at Chase Center in San Francisco.

Gonzaga on Sunday will learn its first-round assignment and potential matchups in the 16-team West bracket. That’s where things could get interesting.

Mike DeCourcy’s bracket Saturday morning for Fox Sports lists Georgia State as GU’s first-round matchup with the winner facing No. 8 seed Boise State, led by former Gonzaga assistant Leon Rice, or No. 9 Davidson.

DeCourcy’s top four West seeds include No. 2 Wisconsin, No. 3 Tennessee and No. 4 UCLA. Gonzaga thumped UCLA 83-63 in November.

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi projects GU will face a First Four winner with No. 8 Murray State or No. 9 Marquette potential second-round foes. Lunardi projects the West’s top four seeds as Gonzaga, Purdue, Tennessee and UCLA.

CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm has Gonzaga facing No. 16 Norfolk State in a rematch of last year’s tourney opener won by the Zags 98-55. Potential second-round foes are No. 8 San Diego State or No. 9 Iowa State. Rasir Bolton played two seasons at Iowa State before joining Gonzaga as a grad transfer.

No. 2 Duke, No. 3 Texas Tech and No. 4 Arkansas round out Palm’s top seeds in the West. Gonzaga lost to Duke in Las Vegas and defeated Texas Tech in Phoenix.

Few took a moment to reflect on the Zags’ recent run of top seeds following Tuesday’s 82-69 victory over Saint Mary’s.

“To be able to go all the way through a season like this and end up with another No. 1 seed, I know sometimes people expect that, but it doesn’t just magically happen,” he said. “There’s so much work that goes into it, everybody’s gunning for us. We did it in 2017, 19, did it in 20, we actually were in the tournament as a No. 1 seed, obviously 21 and now 22.

“I don’t know how many teams in the history of college basketball have been able to do that. I couldn’t be prouder.”