Gonzaga vs San Francisco: WCC Basketball tournament preview, TV
Gonzaga looks to solidify themselves as a 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament by winning these next two games. But can upset-minded San Francisco find a way to take down the Bulldogs?
TV schedule: Monday, Feb 9, 9:00 pm ET. ESPN
Arena: Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada
Conference tournaments have begun, with Gonzaga (29-2, 15-1) already benefitting from one result in particular. The San Diego State Aztecs, who Gonzaga was fighting for a No. 1 seed in the West Region, fell to Utah State in the Mountain West Tournament finals. It provides some breathing room for the Bulldogs in the WCC Tournament but it’s best to leave nothing to chance.
The Bulldogs will have to get by a tough matchup in the semifinals against San Francisco (22-11, 9-7). While Gonzaga has been on a bye to this point, the Dons had to beat both LMU and Pacific to get to this point. Leading scorer Charles Minlend was the star of both games, scoring 16 and 21 points respectively to lead them to the wins.
San Francisco was close to beating the Bulldogs in their first matchup, leading by as much as 12 at home before falling by just four points in a game where they controlled much of it. The Dons were up by nine points at the half in Spokane near the end of the regular season but Gonzaga’s offense was too much, outscoring them by 26 in the final 20 minutes to win 71-54.
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The Dons have the recipe to beat Gonzaga. Good coaching, quick and athletic guards, and enough size and depth down low that Filip Petresev, Killian Tillie and Drew Timme can’t dominate, forcing the guards to beat them is how the Bulldogs can be beaten. Unfortunately, San Francisco just doesn’t have it in them to do it for all 40 minutes while preventing one of those patented runs by Gonzaga to blow the game open.
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Still, this game shouldn’t be overlooked by casual observers. The BYU-Saint Mary’s matchup will be the game of the night but San Francisco will at least avoid getting blown out. And if Minlend gets hot and goes for 20+, anything can happen. The Bulldogs will be a bit rusty early on but the rest they have compared to the somewhat tired legs on the other side will be the difference, with Gonzaga getting some separation in the last 10 minutes.