Gonzaga and Brigham Young both received at large bids to the big dance. Along with Saint Mary's automatic bid there are 3 WCC teams dancing this year. This is the second year that has happened, 2008 was the last when the Zags, Gaels and San Diego Toreros made it. San Francisco and Loyola Marymount also will dance, though in smaller dance halls. San Francisco is in the College Basketball Invitational and Loyola Marymount in the Collegeinsider.com Tournament.
Gonzaga and Saint Mary's received 7 seeds. They sit at 27 and 26 respectively on the selection committee's "S-curve". Brigham Young snuck in at 49 on the S-curve only two at large teams got in after them. You can take a look at the complete S-curve here.
Saint Mary's will play 10 seed Purdue in Omaha, Nebraska this Friday at approximately 4:30pm Pacific time. Purdue is 21-12 on the season, they finished 6th in the Big-10. Marv Albert and Steve Kerr will be calling the action. Televised on truTV.
Gonzaga will play 10 seed West Virginia in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a mere 75 miles from the Mountaineers campus, this Thursday at 4:20pm Pacific. West Virgina is 19-13 on the season, finished just 9-9 in the Big East which was good enough for 8th place. Kevin Harlan, Len Elmore, and Reggie Miller will call the action. Televised on TNT.
Brigham Young received a 14 seed and will play fellow 14 Iona in the new (established last year) First Four games, which the NCAA poorly calls the "First Round" which means that other than the 8 teams playing in the "First Round" everybody's first game is in the second round. Iona finished the season at 25-7, 1st in the MAAC but fell in the semis of the conference tournament. The game is in Dayton, Ohio on Tuesday after the conclusion of the first game of the night, so approximately 5:45pm Pacific. Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg with have the call on truTV.
San Francisco will host Washington State at 7pm Pacific on Tuesday. I really have no clue why Washington State was invited to the CBI. The Cougars are sub .500 on the season and in Pac-12 play (the Pac-12 was so horrible this year that regular season champion Washington was left out of the NCAA tournament which is the first time a BCS league champion has been left out) at 15-16 overall and 7-11 in league play. San Francisco on the other hand is 20-13.
Loyola Marymount will host Cal State Fullerton at 7pm Pacific on Wednesday. CS Fullerton finished second in the Big West and stand at 21-9 on the year. A win by the Lions would push them to 20 wins, which would make them the 5th WCC team to hit that mark this season. Never have 5 WCC teams had 20 wins in a year before.
I'll have more in-depth previews of these games up about a day before they happen and probably Tuesday or Wednesday for the Zags and Gaels games. I'm not too familiar with any of these opposing teams so research must be done. Stay tuned succumb to the madness!
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