Either No. 12 Gonzaga or No. 21 Saint Mary’s has won every West Coast Conference Tournament championship since 2007-08, when San Diego took the crown.
The Bulldogs and Gaels shared the regular-season title this year after splitting their series in what is likely their final season as conference rivals. There’s a pretty good chance they’ll face each other one more time in the WCC Tournament finals on March 10 on ESPN.
Gonzaga will join Oregon State, Washington State, San Diego State, Boise State, Colorado State, Utah State, Fresno State, and Texas State in the new Pac-12 later this year.
The WCC Tournament will run from March 5-10 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. The action kicks off Thursday when No. 9 seed Portland takes on No. 12 seed Pepperdine, and No. 10 seed Loyola Marymount faces No. 11 seed San Diego.
Gonzaga (28-3, 16-2 WCC) has won 21 WCC Tournament titles since 1998-99, and the Zags have claimed the crown 20 times since head coach Mark Few was hired in 1999. They’ve won five of the past six tournament titles, including last season when they beat then-No. 1 seed Saint Mary’s in the finals.
The Zags own the top seed this season, despite a 70-59 loss at Saint Mary’s in the regular-season finale. Gonzaga won their first meeting of the season, 73-65, in Spokane, Washington. The Gaels enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed, which, like the Zags, means they earn a bye all the way to the semifinals and only have to win one game to set up a rematch in the finals.
Gonzaga’s offense runs through WCC Player of the Year Graham Ike, who leads the conference with 19.7 points a game and 13 double-doubles. He’s No. 2 in the league with 8.3 rebounds a night. The 6-foot-9 fifth-year senior scored at least 20 points in nine consecutive games this season, including 34 points against Santa Clara and a season-high 35 against Oregon State.
The Zags’ second-leading scorer, Braden Huff, was lost to a knee injury in January, but Grand Canyon transfer Tyon Grant-Foster is averaging 11.1 points and 5.1 rebounds a game, and Colgate transfer Braeden Smith leads the team with 121 assists. Smith was the Patriot League Player of the Year in 2024.
Saint Mary’s (27-4, 16-2 WCC) has won the WCC Tournament four times since 2009-10. The Gaels head into the tournament this year on an eight-game winning streak. Its physically imposing lineup is led by 6-foot-8 junior Paulius Murauskas, who ranks No. 2 in the conference with 18.6 points a game and No. 3 with a team-high 7.7 rebounds a night.
Mikey Lewis is No. 2 on the team with 13.9 points a game, and he’s coming off a 31-point effort in the regular-season finale against Gonzaga. Joshua Dent ranks No. 3 in the conference with 174 assists, and the Gaels have four players averaging at least five rebounds a game, including 7-foot-3 center Andrew McKeever, who leads the WCC with 9.1 a game.
WCC Basketball Tournament Odds
Gonzaga is a -190 college basketball betting odds favorite to win the WCC Tournament on BetMGM as of this writing.
Saint Mary’s is No. 2 at +200, followed by Santa Clara at +725 and San Francisco at +10000. Fourth-seed Oregon State’s odds of winning the title stand at +12500.
WCC Basketball Tournament Predictions
I predict Gonzaga wins its 23rd West Coast Conference Tournament championship since 1993-94.
Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s are really a coin flip to win the title because they’re so similar. They have two of the WCC’s top offenses. The Zags lead the league with 86 points a game. The Gaels are No. 3 with 78.4. They also have the conference’s top defenses. The Gaels are giving up 64.2 points a game, and the Zags are surrendering 66.3.
The Bulldogs are the best shooting team in the conference, and Saint Mary’s leads the league from 3-point range. Neither team turns the ball over very often, and both average more than 40 rebounds a game.
Dent’s length and scoring ability at point guard give the Gaels a slight advantage, but Ike is the real difference between these two WCC heavyweights when he’s firing on all cylinders.
Ike is an elite scorer and an elite rebounder. He wasn’t all that effective in the regular-season finale against the Gaels, but that’s because he didn’t get enough help from the rest of Gonzaga’s bigs.
Grant-Foster, Jalen Warley, and Emmanuel Innocenti need to pull down some rebounds and score some points in the paint if Gonzaga is going to ride off into the sunset with another WCC Tournament title.
There’s very little chance of a sleeper sneaking into the championship game, but if one does, it’ll be Santa Clara. The Broncos (24-7, 15-3) are the No. 3 seed after handing Saint Mary’s one of its two conference losses. Santa Clara ranks No. 2 in the WCC with 83.8 points a game, and it’s led by 6-foot-4 guard Christian Hammond, who ranks No. 5 in the league with 15.9 points a night.
