CBB: WCC Conference Tournament Preview

Favorites (odds below +500)

Gonzaga Bulldogs (-125): It’s been a very strange season for Gonzaga early on things seemed to be normal and then all of a sudden one day seemingly everyone realized it wasn’t. Gonzaga was entering conference play with losses to every good opponent they played and the ones they beat weren’t as good as originally expected. Gonzaga was squarely on the wrong side of the bubble, but they had one last non-conference game, at Kentucky to prove themselves. That’s where Gonzaga hit the switch and finished the season strong. They are now in the tournament no matter what happens in the WCC Conference tournament.

St. Mary’s Gaels (+110): St Mary’s had a strange season too. A lot was expected of the Gaels and it completely fell short early on in a disaster of a 3-5 start. They slowly began to right the ship and then had another setback to Missouri State, that would be the end of their struggles, however, they to back to playing suffocating defense and won 16 in a row to put themselves easily in the tournament. They nearly went undefeated in WCC play but lost a valuable player in Joshua Jefferson to injury, and they seemed to be missing him in the loss to Gonzaga.

Sleepers (+500 or above)

San Francisco Dons (+1300): San Francisco has a very solid team, they’ve actually maintained a rather clean record throughout the year, never losing to anyone bad, but the downside is despite coming close many times they haven’t been able to close on a good win either. They couldn’t disrupt Gonzaga or St Mary’s dominance at all this season despite the window looking open at one point.

Santa Clara Broncos (+3000): I had such high hopes for Santa Clara at one point this year, they started 6-0 with wins over Oregon and Stanford and an At-Large bid looked so promising but they couldn’t maintain it. They started losing and couldn’t keep up. That being said, if you want someone to disrupt the Gonzaga/St Mary’s balance this still might be the team. Santa Clara beat Gonzaga earlier this year and as additional proof of concept that they can beat good teams they also won at Washington State, no one thought much of it at the time but that win looks fantastic in hindsight.

My Pick:

Gonzaga Bulldogs (-125): Gonzaga is the team that is getting hot at the right time currently. Thanks to the WCC format they only need to win 2 games to win the conference tournament and I don’t believe a depleted St Mary’s will be able to keep up with the Zags.