WCC Game of the Week
2:30 PM PST
San Francisco Dons at Pepperdine Waves
Firestone Fieldhouse, Malibu, California.
San Francisco is 9-13 on the season, 2-7 in WCC play and is currently on a two game losing streak.
Pepperdine is 10-11 on the season, 2-6 in WCC play and currently on a two game losing streak.
TV: Time Warner Cable SportsNet, Comcast SportsNet. Delayed until 9:00 PM PST on ROOT Sports Rocky Mountain and Northwest.
Radio: 95.7 FM in the Bay Area
Online: Live video from Pepperdine Sports.
Pepperdine and San Francisco are coming off of close defeats at the hands of BYU and Saint Mary's respectively. Both teams played very well in those games and managed to, especially Pepperdine, put a major scare in their much more powerful foe.
In this game the chance for a major upset is gone but not the opportunity to play very well. San Francisco has the highest three point percentage of any WCC team. Not only can they score from deep but they like doing so. San Francisco is second in the WCC, by a slight margin to Santa Clara, in percentage of total points coming from long range. 33.78% of the Dons' points come from deep. That long range savvy will come in handy against a Waves team that likes to run a slow and methodical offense.
Pepperdine has the least possessions per forty minutes of any WCC team with 64.4. Against a Dons team that struggles mightily to defend, their slow pace and reliance on the two point shot should normally allow them to control the game and grind out a win. However, as I said earlier, the Dons can light it up from deep. If the Dons get going from downtown they will be able to burst past Pepperdine's slow, two by two buildup of points.
Hey, there are two great guards playing in this game. It's a WCC game after all. Cody Doolin and Lorne Jackson are the experienced core of their young teams, and they're really good at basketball.
4:30 PM PST
Portland Pilots at Saint Mary's Gaels
McKeon Pavilion, Moraga, California.
Portland is 8-15 on the season, 1-7 in WCC play and currently on a five game losing streak.
Saint Mary's is 18-4 on the season, 7-1 in WCC play and currently on a six game winning streak.
TV: Comcast SportsNet California, ROOT Sports Northwest.
Radio: KPDQ 800 AM in the Portland area.
Online: Live audio from KPDQ.
A horrible offense visits an elite offense. That doesn't always mean a blow out's a comin', some teams do play defense very well... but Portland isn't one of them. The score from the Pilots loss to the Broncos on Thursday, 46-70, pretty much sums things up. This team has a very hard time scoring and a very hard time stopping teams from scoring. That always means a blow out is a comin'.
The Gaels have a tendency to let games come down to the wire. The Gaels have already produced two last second (literally, in both cases) come from behind wins over Harvard and BYU (both with a 70-69 score no less). On Wednesday they nearly saw that happen again. With four seconds left the Gaels held only a two point lead over the Dons. Don't expect to see that sort of outcome in this game though.
Saint Mary's wing Stephen Holt is from Portland so the Pilots will get another chance to see what they missed out on.
6:00 PM PST
Santa Clara Broncos at Brigham Young Cougars
Marriott Center, Provo, Utah.
Santa Clara is 17-6 on the season, 5-3 in WCC play and currently on a five game winning streak.
BYU is 17-6 on the season, 7-2 in WCC play and currently on a two game winning streak.
TV: BYUtv.
Radio: KSL 102.7 FM & 1160 AM along the Wasatch Front and KDOW 1220 AM in the Bay Area.
Satellite Radio: BYU Radio Sirius XM 143.
Online: Live video from BYUtv Sports, Live audio from KSL and KDOW.
Now this is going to be a great game! These two teams met earlier this season in Santa Clara and it was a thriller for a half and then a BYU fans' dream for the other half. However that was back during Santa Clara's early conference play slump.
These two teams both play very well on both sides of the ball. They're both in the upper half of the conference standings in most scoring statistics. Since that 18 point defeat at BYU six games ago Santa Clara has outscored its' opponents by 31, 8, 30, 14 and 24 points.
BYU's big three of Matt Carlino, Tyler Haws and Brandon Davies going up against Santa Clara's big three of Evan Roquemore, Marc Trasolini and Kevin Foster. Santa Clara has three players, those three, who've totaled over 1,000 points each in their careers. BYU has two of the top scorers in the nation in Haws and Davies.
8:00 PM PST
#7 Gonzaga Bulldogs at San Diego Toreros
Jenny Craig Pavilion, San Diego, California.
Gonzaga is 20-2 on the season, 7-0 in WCC play and currently on a three game winning streak.
San Diego is 11-11 on the season, 4-3 in WCC play and currently on a three game losing streak.
TV: ESPNU
Radio: KGA 1510 AM in the Inland Northwest and 1090 AM in the San Diego area.
Toreros' coach Bill Grier will get to see the program he helped build tonight. Unfortunately for him it comes as his Toreros are sliding (they were never as good as their early WCC record looked anyways) and the Zags are firing on all cylinders. After a heartbreaking one point loss at the buzzer to Butler a couple weeks ago the Zags have been leaving nothing to chance. They've won their last three games 83-63 (BYU), 66-52 (USF) and 88-43 (LMU). They've shown they're far more than their tall, talented and deep front court. In their last game the Zags made 13 of their 21 three point attempts.
San Diego on the other hand is just falling apart. I'm sure being a head coach is great but this game might make Bill Grier wish he never left Gonzaga.
Oh also this game, like most, features great guards. San Diego's sophomore pair of Johnny Dee and Christopher Anderson face off against Gonzaga's sophomore pair of Kevin Pangos and Gary Bell Jr.
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