Late Tuesday night, for the fourth consecutive year and sixth time in a seven-year span, it’ll be Gonzaga against Saint Mary’s in the championship game of the West Coast Conference Tournament.
At this point, it’s basically a tradition.
And what’s interesting about this particular matchup is that even though Saint Mary’s just won the outright WCC regular-season title by three games, beat Gonzaga twice this regular season and is seeded higher than the Zags in Jerry Palm’s latest projected bracket, the Gaels are listed as 3.5-point underdogs.
That’s a testament to Gonzaga’s strong computer numbers.
The Zags are No. 8 in the NET and No. 9 at BartTorvik.com despite a 24-8 record featuring only three Q1 wins — partly because those eight losses came by an average of just 5.1 points and never by more than eight. Put another way, Gonzaga has zero double-digit losses and 21 double-digit wins — but only one victory against a team likely to secure an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament (Baylor). That’s how you end up with strong numbers in the predictive metrics but just a so-so resume. That’s why the Zags could find themselves ranked in the top 10 of some computers on Selection Sunday but also with a double-digit seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Either way, barring a surprise, no matter what happens Tuesday night, the Zags will get their lowest seed on Selection Sunday since they were an 11 seed in 2016.
Saint Mary’s is No. 18 in Tuesday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. The Gaels are 28-4 overall with an 18-1 mark against WCC opponents. They’re 10-4 in the first two quadrants with four Q1 victories.
