WCC Tournament Breakdown

Basketball
1

First Round (Thurs., March 4), BYUtv

Game 1: No. 8 San Francisco vs. No. 9 San Diego, 7 p.m.
SanFran should clobber them ipo though they have had their problems recently. Toreros are not as good as the Dons, in more ways than just their mascots.

Game 2: No. 7 Santa Clara vs. No. 10 Portland, 10 p.m.
I’ll be somewhat surprised if Portland shows up, given the Covid state of their team and the disarray in the program.
Santa Clara sinks this game going away if it happens.

Second Round (Fri., March 5), BYUtv

Game 3: No. 5 LMU vs. Game 1 winner, 7 p.m.
LMU - SanFran as close to a 50/50 game as I can think of this year in conference. Both teams have played well and played poorly at times. LMU has won twice winning a third straight against the same team that is basically evenly matched is tough. LMU has been stronger recently though…I go with momentum and say LMU wins this one.

Game 4: No. 6 Pacific vs. Game 2 winner, 10 p.m.
Pacific v Santa Clara should be an easy Pacific win this time. They clobbered them at home a few weeks ago. Santa Clara has simply been disappointing this year so expect more of the same.

Quarterfinals (Sat., March 6)
Game 5: No. 4 Saint Mary’s vs. Game 3 winner, 7 p.m., ESPNU
SMC - LMU should be interesting. SMC won their earlier contest at LMU though it was close. Wish I could watch the previous meeting to make a decision. I think LMU wins this one. They have improved over the course of the season. SMC seems to have finally gelled now but I just don’t think they have the juice to get past a hungrier LMU squad.

Game 6: No. 3 Pepperdine vs. Game 4 winner, 10 p.m., ESPN2
Pepperdine Pacific hmm easiest game to pick I think. The Waves just wash the tigers out to sea.

Semifinals (Mon., March 8)
Game 7: No. 1 Gonzaga vs. Game 5 winner, 7 p.m., ESPN
a rematch of yesterdays LMU Zaga game but on a neutral court. LMU did better than any WCC team not named BYU against Few’s boys. But well enough said.
Game 8: No. 2 BYU vs. Game 6 winner, 10 p.m., ESPN2
Two tough games between these two teams already…my heart is obvious. Home court advantage disappears; Pope’s boys have improved dramatically. How big a win? with Pope not happy to be their and the boys hungry to get a place on the big stage…

Men’s Championship (Tues., March 9)
Gonzaga BYU
if wishes were hippogryphs…
neither coach is happy to be there. Both teams have bigger things on their mind. Both are looking for a place in history…Gonzaga is nationally, historically, good I think.
Hope BYU wins jumps up in the NCAA seeding and thus is on the way to winning 8 more games.
But realistically the Bulldogs win 8 more games and Few’s boys go down in the history books as the first undefeated team since Bobby Knight’s Hoosiers…as an adopted Hoosier I’m not sure what to make of that…

2

SMC over LMU, Bennett will get them ready. Gonzaga will feast on a punchless SMC.

BYU is dying to play Pepperdine again. Then we play Gonzaga and magic happens…for Gonzaga. hahaha. Championship game will be Zags vs. Michigan.

Boy OSU sure stunk it up against Iowa today

3

Ohio state rank fourth in the pole? Now that they lost three straight? Ha ha ha ha

4

Few’s boys will feast on Gaels or Lions; easily I think.
Stan Johnson is in his first year as head coach. Like Pope he was handed a relatively experienced team, that had underperformed the previous year. LMU underperformed last year much more seriously than any of Rose’s teams however. But I like the improvement his team seems to me to have shown over the course of the year. Assuming he continues to improve the way his team has LMU could get back to respectable again, or he could move on, PAC12? Utah?

5

I call you on The SCU as I’m predicting they defeat Pacific and Pepperdine!!!

6

SCU, is a soft spot for me, Sendak’s boys against Stoudamire’s, but can SCU get revenge for a home loss by 20 points because of their improvement? or because the floor is neutral? or their health has improved???

SCU vs Pepperdine was a close run thing and only a week ago…you may be right if SCU can get revenge on a 20 point loss they may be able to take out Pepperdine again.

Then will the broncs be able kick the cougs to the curb? could be interesting to see the the bright future for SCU’s programs begins to dawn in vegas march of '21.
Sendak is a solid coach…but not a great recruiter…SCU? just not buying this year.

7

It makes it fun to try and predict how teams will do. I base my predictions on very little opportunities to view a lot of these games. BYU didn’t play SCU, so I had no input there, and I saw them against Gonzaga and they were right in that game through one half. They had some good wins late in the season. I’m not crazy about Pepperdine and Ross, so I wouldn’t mind seeing them lose and I didn’t think Pacific played a very clean game against BYU, so a loss there would make me smile. In reality, with the exception of Portland, any one of these teams are capable of beating anyone else except Gonzaga, and even Gonzaga is defensively vulnerable at the basket. Timme is more of a wing, with great footwork, but they really don’t have a defensive stopper down low.

8

hope you are wrong about your exceptions, Gonzaga and Portland must be granted as the high and the low,
Pope’s boys however…hmmm

9

Im counting on beating Pepperdine and Ross.

Last we played Timme, our bigs, all of them were 2 points out of 20 attempt from inside the rim. He is a 1st rounder. You are right, he is a Wing in the NBA but a true center in college

Haarms will be the key to any run BYU has in the WCC and the Dance

10

I agree about Haarms, as to what is key, is the shots that are not taken because of that presence inside as well as the blocks that are made. Gonzaga plays great team defense and the last five games they have been exploited a bit down low, especially in the first half of games where they have trailed consistently, which has been a concern of Few, but when they are focused as a team defensively and the ball is moving, they are unbeatable in the WCC and so far in all of college basketball. Their weakness, however is at the glass on isolations as they don’t have a big stopper like Haarms