This month, Gonzaga will be looking to make a run at a third Final Four appearance in six seasons. But first, the top-ranked Bulldogs will aim for yet another WCC Tournament title.
Since the late 1990s, Gonzaga has dominated the West Coast Conference. In fact, domination might be understating it a bit. This season, the Zags won their 21st WCC regular season title across the past 24 seasons, and two wins in Paradise, Nevada will make it 19 WCC tournament titles in that span.
Their biggest challenger, as has been the case many times over the past two decades, will likely be Saint Mary’s. The Gaels have three of those five non-Gonzaga tournament titles (San Diego has the other two), won the last non-Gonzaga WCC regular season title in 2014, and prevented Gonzaga from winning a seventh straight tournament title in the championship game three years ago.
Also, Randy Bennett’s Gaels handed the Zags their most recent losses, ending a 17-game win streak and a run at a second straight perfect conference mark with a 67-57 upset on February 26.
Will we get another Saint Mary’s-Gonzaga meeting in the WCC tournament championship game? Or will Santa Clara or BYU spring a surprise, much to the concern of the NCAA Tournament bubble teams out there?
Let’s take a look at the tournament information, betting odds, and bracket.
2022 West Coast Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament Information, Bracket & Betting Odds
2022 WCC Tournament Information
- Venue & Location: Orleans Arena (Paradise, Nevada)
- Dates: Thursday, March 3 to Tuesday, March 8, 2022
- TV: BYUtv (first and second rounds), RSN (first and second rounds), ESPN2 (third round and second semifinal), ESPN (first semifinal and championship game)
2022 WCC Tournament Seeds
Teams in bold are still alive in the tournament.
- 1. Gonzaga
- 2. Saint Mary’s
- 3. Santa Clara
- 4. San Francisco
- 5. BYU
- 6. Portland
- 7. San Diego
- 8. Loyola Marymount
- 9. Pacific
- 10. Pepperdine
2022 WCC Tournament Odds
- Gonzaga -450
- Saint Mary’s +500
- San Francisco +1300
- Santa Clara +1600
Odds are via BetMGM.
Who Will Win the 2022 WCC Tournament?
Gonzaga (-450) Seeks to Secure Top Seed in NCAA Tournament
Despite losing their regular season finale in Moraga, Gonzaga remains in position to claim a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament yet again. And there is a strong possibility that, for the second year in a row, it will be the top overall seed.
The Bulldogs have their share of detractors around the country, given the conference they reside in. But said conference will receive at least three NCAA Tournament berths this season, and it could end up with four if fortune favors BYU. Also, Santa Clara should end up in the NIT if they don’t win the auto bid, which would be its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament or NIT since 1996.
Gonzaga also owns non-conference wins over Texas, UCLA, and Texas Tech, sits atop the NET, and is 8-3 in Quad 1 games.
The metrics are nice and all, but this is also a pretty darn good team. The Bulldogs lead the nation in scoring at 88.3 points per game, are second in field goal percentage (52.4 percent), and tied for 21st in three-point shooting percentage (37.8 percent). They are also second in rebounds per game, third in assists, fifth in blocks, and seventh in assist-to-turnover ratio.
They can certainly be beaten. Duke and Alabama managed to outscore them, and Saint Mary’s held them to their lowest point total since the 2019 WCC Tournament championship game. But just because you’ve done it once doesn’t mean you can do it again.
Saint Mary’s (+500 Looks to Improve Seeding with Tournament Title
If you love the way Gonzaga plays, then you probably don’t like the way that Saint Mary’s plays, and vice versa.
While Gonzaga’s sustained success now enables them to land top recruits and elite transfers, Saint Mary’s is still very much the little engine that could. This isn’t to disparage their talent in the slightest, but the two teams couldn’t be more different with regards to how they recruit and how they play.
Saint Mary’s is one of the best defensive teams in college basketball, and that was on display in their recent upset of Gonzaga. To hold a team that can easily score 57 points in one half to 57 in 40 minutes is an impressive feat. Along with that, the Bulldogs shot only 36.7 percent from the field (a season low), 33.3 percent from three, were outrebounded, and had a 4-to-14 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Can they do it again if they meet in Tuesday’s WCC Tournament championship game? Probably not, but if there is any team in this field that can beat Gonzaga, this is the team to put your money on.
Can Santa Clara (+1600) Win Its Way into the NCAA Tournament?
Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s, San Francisco, and BYU have received plenty of attention throughout this season, but Santa Clara finished ahead of both USF and BYU in the conference standings.
As a result, Steve Nash’s alma mater avoided a semifinal matchup with Gonzaga and gets a crack at Saint Mary’s, who they beat at home last month. In fact, the 77 points that the Broncos scored in their five-point win on February 8 are the most that anyone has scored on the Gaels this season. That’s right, even more than Gonzaga, who scored only 74 in their win over Saint Mary’s in Spokane.
Santa Clara ranks 31st in the country in scoring, averaging 78.3 points per game. They have four double-digit scorers, led by Jalen Williams (18.1 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 4.1 APG) and Josip Vrankic (15.4 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 3.3 APG). They are one of the nation’s top shooting teams as well, ranking sixth in field goal percentage (49.3 percent) and tied for fourth in three-point field goal percentage (38.8 percent).
In their win over Saint Mary’s, the Broncos shot 55.4 percent from the field and made 31 shots from the field, the best that any opponent has done against the Gaels to date this season.
Can they get hot again and make their first appearance in the WCC Tournament championship game since 2007? Let’s not look too far ahead, but if they do knock out Saint Mary’s, don’t dismiss their chances of making things interesting against Gonzaga. They lost by only 12 in Spokane and trailed by only six points more than halfway through the second half.
Dons (+1300) Look to Stun Gonzaga and Make Long-Awaited Title Game Return
It has been quite the season for San Francisco. This is a program that has two things that Gonzaga does not (two national championships), but their glory days with Hall of Famers K.C. Jones and Bill Russell were almost 60 years ago, and the last time the Dons made the NCAA Tournament was 1998.
That drought is certain to end this season, as the Dons appear to be safely in the field of 68. But if they wish to improve their seeding, they will have to take down the nation’s top-ranked team. In the regular season, they lost to Gonzaga by 16 points in both meetings, so the odds are not in their favor.
But the Dons do average 77.3 points per game, which ranks 42nd in the country. If Jamaree Bouyea (17.1 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 4.1 APG) is on–he had 25 in the first meeting with Gonzaga this season–and the Dons can keep it close most of the way, anything can happen.
Regardless of the result, it has been a fantastic season for San Francisco, and it could result in head coach Todd Golden landing a power conference job in the coming weeks.
