Gonzaga will try to avoid making the wrong kind of history versus San Francisco

USA Today

01-03-2025

Gonzaga will try to avoid making the wrong kind of history versus San Francisco Gonzaga West Coast Conference empire could take a huge hit against San Francisco
An unexpected scenario greets college basketball fans and the Gonzaga Bulldogs on Saturday night in San Francisco. The serious college basketball fan definitely knows how much Gonzaga has dominated the West Coast Conference over the longer run of history in the 21st century. Gonzaga and Saint Mary's have taken turns ruling the WCC. One of the two schools is always in the WCC Tournament championship game, and both schools usually make that game more often than not.
Saint Mary's and Gonzaga have made the WCC Tournament final each of the past three years, five out of the last six, and seven of the last nine. They could meet up again this year in Las Vegas, at the tournament which begins one week from now. However, Gonzaga's place in the tournament bracket could be threatened, for reasons we will explain below with help from Western college basketball analyst and veteran bracketologist Rocco Miller:
First time?
Gonzaga on the brink
Rocco Miller's historical fact sheet about Gonzaga never previously missing out on a WCC Tournament bye into the semifinals underscores the importance of this Saturday's game for the Zags at San Francisco (11 p.m. ET, 8 p.m. PT, ESPN and ESPN Plus).
Gonzaga and San Francisco are tied for second place. The winner of this game gets the No. 2 seed in the WCC Tournament and the bye into the semifinals. If Gonzaga loses, it will not have a bye into the semis for the first time ever.
Added workload
Gonzaga and Saint Mary's usually meet in the WCC Tournament championship game because they get the byes into the semis and are farm fresh for the quarterfinal winners. Now Gonzaga might not get that preferred path. Gonzaga might become the team which has to slave away in the quarters while San Francisco gets the added rest. That's why GU has to go on the road this Saturday and win. The Zags want to avoid having the uphill climb in the WCC, the kind of battle USF and other schools have usually faced.
NCAA Tournament implications
The domino effect on the NCAA Tournament could be substantial here. If San Francisco beats Gonzaga and earns a bye into the semis, San Francisco's chances of getting into the final will rise, if only because the Dons won't have to win a quarterfinal. If USF then wins a semifinal against Gonzaga and makes the final, it will be playing for an NCAA Tournament bid which could take away a spot from a bubble team. Bubble teams will want Gonzaga to beat San Francisco on Saturday to reduce the odds of a surprise autobid coming from the WCC.
Saint Mary's double
In the many years in which Saint Mary's and Gonzaga have lorded themselves over the rest of the West Coast Conference, we have seen several instances in which one of the two schools won the regular-season WCC championship and the other won the tournament title. Last year, Saint Mary's won the double, taking the regular-season and tournament championships. It's the first time SMC did so since 2012. Now, the Gaels -- freshly-crowned 2025 WCC regular-season champions -- will try to do the double in consecutive years for the first time in school history.
Call it the double-double. Gonzaga will be trying to prevent that, but a loss to San Francisco will lower the chances of the Zags getting in SMC's path in Las Vegas next week.