It's been March for about a week now. There have already been about a dozen tickets punched to the big dance. Today though is the first day of March that seems like March Madness. Every conference tournament has gotten underway. So it's do or die for mid level teams from the big 6 conferences. An exit in the first round of the conference tournament means a popped bubble.
BYU has 25 wins and is number 47 in the RPI. However they play in the WCC and because of that could be overlooked for an at large bid. I find it disgusting that weak teams like Northwestern, Washington and Illinois stayed on the bubble until the 3 days before Selection Sunday just because they play in "big 6" conferences. Fortunately those 3 teams have played their way off the bubble with losses today. This is great news for Brigham Young.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Where are We Going?
The WCC season is over. Saint Mary's has won both the regular season and tournament championships. The Gaels and Zags will both be big dancing. Brigham Young might, or they might go to the NIT. Loyola Marymount and San Francisco both have post-season hopes, but who knows where they'll be playing, the NIT, CIT or CBI are all in the fray (they're the only ones besides the NCAA by the way).
Monday, March 5, 2012
Saint Mary's Wins
The Gaels snatched the regular season title streak from the Zags a week ago, now they get the Tournament Championship. Gaels win in overtime. This game was insane, I need to calm down before I write anything more.
WCC Championship: Gonzaga vs Saint Mary's
If you're a fan of either program, or any program in the WCC you know how big this game is. For everybody else it just got a little bigger. Saint Mary's sits at #18 in the coaches poll and Gonzaga moved back in at #25. Considering this is ESPN's prime time match up (6pm Pacific-9pm Eastern) people in the know were aware of how big a game this would be. This is the fourth straight meeting between the schools in the conference title game, with Gonzaga winning the 1st and 3rd. More impressive than those four straight is this number, 15 straight. Gonzaga has set an NCAA record with 15 consecutive conference title game appearances. That's right, the streak that fell when Saint Mary's won the regular season outright hasn't been going on as long as this one.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
It's Gonzaga vs Saint Mary's... Again
For the 4th straight year Gonzaga and Saint Mary's will face off for the West Coast Conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. This is also Gonzaga's 15th straight trip to the WCC championship game. Last year Saint Mary's was snubbed on selection Sunday following their loss to Gonzaga. This year it seems certain that both teams will get in even if one wins by 100 points. So how did these two teams get to the title game? Well since the WCC offers double-byes to the top two seeds they won one game each. Last night Gonzaga stomped BYU in their 4th meeting in less than a year and Saint Mary's outlasted San Francisco.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
WCC Tourament Semifinals
Tonight there's the North Carolina at Duke game, but I don't much care about that. San Francisco vs Saint Mary's at 8 and Gonzaga vs Brigham Young at 10 will both be awesome.
Saint Mary's hasn't played for a week, San Francisco will be playing their third game in as many days. If the Dons legs can hold up this should be an extremely interesting game. Saint Mary's will most likely be without sophomore guard Stephen Holt who sprained his knee in the Gaels' loss to Loyola Marymount on February 15th. From what I've heard Holt is healing up nicely but will be needed much more in the finals against Gonzaga or Brigham Young. First though, the Gaels have to get there.
Gonzaga also hasn't played for a while. The Zags' last game was Monday night against Longwood, which they easily won and used as a bit of a tune up game for the bench. Brigham Young snuck past San Diego last night in their first game of the tournament. The injured senior leader Noah Hartsock didn't start for the Cougars but had 19 points in 27 minutes off the bench. Hartsock was 3rd on the team in minutes played last night despite not starting which shows just how important the big man is for the Cougars. Both of these semis come down to key knees.
I've created a twitter because the WCC Tournament produces so many interesting tibits that are too small to post on the main blog here. As a consequence I have been posting a little less on here. You can see my 2 most recent tweets on the left side of the page under the standings or follow my twitter @willswccblog.
Saint Mary's hasn't played for a week, San Francisco will be playing their third game in as many days. If the Dons legs can hold up this should be an extremely interesting game. Saint Mary's will most likely be without sophomore guard Stephen Holt who sprained his knee in the Gaels' loss to Loyola Marymount on February 15th. From what I've heard Holt is healing up nicely but will be needed much more in the finals against Gonzaga or Brigham Young. First though, the Gaels have to get there.
Gonzaga also hasn't played for a while. The Zags' last game was Monday night against Longwood, which they easily won and used as a bit of a tune up game for the bench. Brigham Young snuck past San Diego last night in their first game of the tournament. The injured senior leader Noah Hartsock didn't start for the Cougars but had 19 points in 27 minutes off the bench. Hartsock was 3rd on the team in minutes played last night despite not starting which shows just how important the big man is for the Cougars. Both of these semis come down to key knees.
I've created a twitter because the WCC Tournament produces so many interesting tibits that are too small to post on the main blog here. As a consequence I have been posting a little less on here. You can see my 2 most recent tweets on the left side of the page under the standings or follow my twitter @willswccblog.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Update: More Fun in Vegas
WCC Tournament quarterfinal #1 San Francisco 67, Loyola Marymount 60. The Dons won the matchup of 19 win teams tonight. For the first time since 1989 and the second time ever, the West Coast Conference has produced 4 20 win teams. I believe LMU will be invited to a postseason tournament, though they may have just played their way out of the NIT. 1 win in the CIT or CBI and for the first time EVER the WCC will have 5 20 win teams.
Not to get ahead of myself I will keep this update brief. The Dons move on to play hobbled league leader Saint Mary's tomorrow at 6pm Pacific. Loyola Marymount will have a good while to rest up Anthony Ireland's leg, which he injured late in the second half. Ireland stayed in the game but wasn't able to carry the load (which was extremely heavy as the rest of his team underperformed offensively) on just one leg.
Saint Mary's knows who they'll play in the semis. Gonzaga awaits the winner of the San Diego vs Brigham Young game that should be tipping off any time now on ESPNU.
Thorough analysis to come tomorrow. Also, I need to apologize for an error in my tournament bracket. I have the quarterfinals listed as being on ESPN2, they are in fact on ESPNU. My bad. The semis are for sure on ESPN2 and the finals on ESPN.
Not to get ahead of myself I will keep this update brief. The Dons move on to play hobbled league leader Saint Mary's tomorrow at 6pm Pacific. Loyola Marymount will have a good while to rest up Anthony Ireland's leg, which he injured late in the second half. Ireland stayed in the game but wasn't able to carry the load (which was extremely heavy as the rest of his team underperformed offensively) on just one leg.
Saint Mary's knows who they'll play in the semis. Gonzaga awaits the winner of the San Diego vs Brigham Young game that should be tipping off any time now on ESPNU.
Thorough analysis to come tomorrow. Also, I need to apologize for an error in my tournament bracket. I have the quarterfinals listed as being on ESPN2, they are in fact on ESPNU. My bad. The semis are for sure on ESPN2 and the finals on ESPN.
Fun in Las Vegas
The WCC Tournament quarterfinals begin tonight at 6pm. Last night #5 San Francisco easily handled #8 Portland 87-66. The Dons never trailed and led by as many as 29 behind 19 point efforts from Rashad Green and Angelo Caloario. Portland's disappointing season ends with a 7-24 record. San Francisco will now face #4 Loyola Marymount at 6pm, the game is on ESPN2. The Lions have swept the Dons this year, but needed overtime in the first game and escaped with only a two point win the second time. San Francisco has come on strong at the end of the season and did so against the top three teams in the league so expect them to put up a good fight against the Lions.
The other game tonight is #6 San Diego vs #3 Brigham Young. The gap between the five and six seed is extreme. San Francisco can keep up with anybody in the conference and have 19 wins, San Diego only has 12 and a 7-9 conference record. Last night the Toreros sent Pepperdine packing with a 76-54 victory. The Waves' season ends at 10-19. While it might not be as close as the first game of the night, this game will be extremely interesting. Gonzaga has always enjoyed a cozy atmosphere in the Orleans Arena as Zag faithful are good travelers. However BYU is located only 385 miles from Las Vegas. Expect the Orleans Arena to be packed with Cougar fans for every game they play.
Here's the bracket as it stands as of now, click it for a full size view.
The other game tonight is #6 San Diego vs #3 Brigham Young. The gap between the five and six seed is extreme. San Francisco can keep up with anybody in the conference and have 19 wins, San Diego only has 12 and a 7-9 conference record. Last night the Toreros sent Pepperdine packing with a 76-54 victory. The Waves' season ends at 10-19. While it might not be as close as the first game of the night, this game will be extremely interesting. Gonzaga has always enjoyed a cozy atmosphere in the Orleans Arena as Zag faithful are good travelers. However BYU is located only 385 miles from Las Vegas. Expect the Orleans Arena to be packed with Cougar fans for every game they play.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
The Best Month of The Year!
It's March everybody and the first day of the month of madness brings two WCC Tournament games to the table. #8 Portland will face #5 San Francisco at 6 PM. Then at 8 #6 San Diego and #7 Pepperdine will go at it. Both games are streaming online at ESPN3.com. They can also be heard on the radio, check the team pages for radio information.
While this is the best month of the college hoops season it is also the worst for about half of the teams in division 1. Santa Clara was eliminated last night due to their 70-74 loss to Portland, the Broncos won't be invited to any post season tournaments with their 0-17 record in WCC play. Tonight's games will eliminate 2 more teams from the tournament most likely ending their seasons. San Francisco is the only team playing tonight that has the potential to be invited to the CBI or CIT post season tournaments even with a loss.
Here's a look at the bracket as it stands right now, click it for full size.
While this is the best month of the college hoops season it is also the worst for about half of the teams in division 1. Santa Clara was eliminated last night due to their 70-74 loss to Portland, the Broncos won't be invited to any post season tournaments with their 0-17 record in WCC play. Tonight's games will eliminate 2 more teams from the tournament most likely ending their seasons. San Francisco is the only team playing tonight that has the potential to be invited to the CBI or CIT post season tournaments even with a loss.
Here's a look at the bracket as it stands right now, click it for full size.
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