2010 West Coast Conference Tournament Preview

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/03/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - For the 10th year in a row, the Gonzaga Bulldogs won the West Coast Conference regular-season title, as they finished 12-2 within the league. The Bulldogs are out to repeat in this tournament after winning the 2009 event, which was held at a neutral site for the first time ever. Orleans Arena in Las Vegas will once again serve as host to the 24th-annual WCC Tournament, an eight-team event that gets underway on Friday.

The Saint Mary's Gaels ended up 11-3 and earned the second seed, while the University of Portland Pilots are locked in as the third seed courtesy of their 10-4 league mark. San Francisco and Loyola Marymount both finished 7-7, with the Dons grabbing the fourth seed and the Lions the fifth. Santa Clara, San Diego and Pepperdine all had 3-11 marks and the Toreros ended up as the sixth seed, the Broncos seventh and the Waves at eight. The winner of this event earns an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.

The WCC Tournament gets started on Friday with the fifth-seeded Loyola Marymount Lions facing the eighth-seeded Pepperdine Waves. The Lions got healthy and played well down the stretch, winning five of their last seven games, including an upset of Gonzaga. The team's 16 overall wins are its most since capturing 18 in 1995-96. Loyola has won this event three times, with the last coming in 1990. As for the Waves, they started conference play with three straight wins before losing their last 11 contests. Pepperdine however, does own a 27-19 all-time mark in this event and that includes three titles.

The first round will conclude on Friday with sixth-seeded San Diego clashing with seventh-seeded Santa Clara. The Toreros are the only team, aside from Gonzaga, to win this event in the last 11 years, capturing titles in 2003 and 2008. San Diego ended a six-game slide with a win over Pepperdine in its finale and split two meetings with Santa Clara. Speaking of the Broncos, they carry a three-game losing skid into the postseason. Santa Clara owns a 24-21 record in this tourney and won its last title in 1993.

The quarterfinals will begin on Saturday and fourth-seeded San Francisco will await the winner of the Loyola Marymount/Pepperdine matchup. The Dons tied Loyola Marymount at 7-7, but swept the Lions during the regular season, giving them the fourth seed and a first-round bye. San Francisco, which knocked off Gonzaga in late January, is in search of its first tourney title since 1998.

In the second quarterfinal round game, the third-seeded Pilots will tussle with the survivor of the San Diego/Santa Clara pairing. Portland tied the school record of 10 WCC victories set during the 1994-95 season, as it won five of its last six bouts. The Pilots, who earned their first national ranking in 50 years earlier on in the campaign, are just 8-21 all-time in this event.

The top-seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs will make their much anticipated debut when they take the floor in the first game of the semifinal round on Sunday. Gonzaga has won 12 of the past 13 WCC regular-season titles, including the last 10. The Bulldogs are now tied with UNLV (1983-92 Big West) and Connecticut (1951-60 Yankee Conference) for the second-longest conference regular season title winning streak in NCAA history. Gonzaga has won this tourney a record 10 times and they are 35-13 all-time in the event. The Bulldogs have made 12 straight championship game appearances, winning the title nine of those times, including an 83-58 trouncing of Saint Mary's last year.

The second-seeded Gaels earned a bye into the semifinals and will need just one win to reach their second straight title game. Despite three championship game appearances in the last six years, the Gaels have won just one title and that came in 1997. The team is paced by Omar Samhan, the leading scorer (21.5 ppg) and rebounder (11.1 rpg) in the conference.