WCC Basketball: 2022 conference tournament preview and predictions

Tournament favorites and dark horse

Favorite – Gonzaga

The Bulldogs must be the tournament favorite despite the poor showing in Moraga. They enter the tournament as the favorites and with a newly added chip on their shoulder now that the conference might smell blood. As much hand-wringing from detractors and doom and gloom from supporters, we learned just how much of a bad game it takes for Gonzaga to lose to a really good team like Saint Mary’s. The Zags shot 22.8% below their average, they were outscored by 12 points in the paint and their two leading scored 12 points rather than their 32 point average.

Knowing head coach Mark Few and his coaching staff, the extra team practices leading up to Monday’s game are going to be hell. Senior guard Rasir Bolton predicted warfare in their leadups. Expect the Zags to come back with an edge.

Biggest threat – Saint Mary’s

The Gaels not only get the benefit of extra rest with their two seed but also the benefit of being on the other side of the bracket from fourth and fifth seeds San Francisco and BYU. Saint Mary’s has proven to be the one team to give Gonzaga problems for an extended period of time, even keeping the score to single digits well into the second half of their road game up in Spokane.

While beating Gonzaga was a surprise this weekend, it’s important to not sell the Gaels short as one of the best mid-majors in all of college basketball. Their seventh-ranked defense and twenty-second slowest tempo according to KenPom makes them incredibly tough to play against and outmaneuver.

Darkhorse – Santa Clara

This may be surprising to those unfamiliar with the conference but a possible and certainly most fun possibility for the tournament is head coach Herb Sendek’s Santa Clara to take advantage of an extra game on their path to the tournament championship as a way to get red hot.

Four bids for the conference has seemed like a near impossibility with the way the conference cannibalized itself and that remains largely true with how seeding broke (San Francisco’s first game being against most likely BYU). Santa Clara has proven the ability to beat almost anyone in the conference this season with wins over everyone but the Bulldogs.

A dream scenario for conference believers is the Broncos dispatching the Gaels again and somehow avoiding Gonzaga and facing a beatable San Francisco or BYU in the championship. Wilder things have happened and it would be a nice bow on one of the most competitive years the conference has seen in a long time.