March Madness 2025: West Coast Conference tournament preview and predictions

The West Coast Conference men’s basketball tournament, or the Gonzaga/Saint Mary’s invitational, is set to tip off this week as regular season play has wrapped up and the bracket has been set. 

This year's field looks a little different with 11 teams making the trip to Las Vegas as Oregon State and Washington State joined the WCC as affiliate members following the collapse of the Pac 12. These two teams added some much needed depth to a conference that has been top heavy for so long and was hurt, in terms of men’s basketball, by the departure of BYU.

Saint Mary’s clinched the top spot with only one loss in conference play, while Gonzaga finds themselves as a top two seed for the 28th year in a row.

Complete WCC seeding is as follows:

1. Saint Mary’s Gaels 27-4 (17-1)
2. Gonzaga Bulldogs 23-8 (14-4)
3. San Francisco Dons 23-8 (13-5)
4. Santa Clara Broncos 20-11 (12-6)
5. Oregon State Beavers 20-11 (10-8)
6. Washington State Cougars 18-13 (8-10)
7. Loyola Marymount Lions 16-14 (8-10)
8. Portland Pilots 12-19 (7-11)
9. Pepperdine Waves 10-21 (4-14)
10. Pacific Tigers 9-23 (4-14)
11. San Diego Toreros 5-26 (2-16)

The WCC has one of the more bizarre looking brackets with the several teams receiving byes, including the top two seeds earning an automatic spot in the semifinals. While this may seem odd, I do like how it puts more of an emphasis on the regular season, and it makes sense since this tournament has been won by one of two different schools for 16 years straight.

The singular first round game will kick off the tournament on Thursday March 6th, with each future round games set to be played the following day, and the championship game scheduled for Tuesday, March 11th. All games will be played at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

Players to Watch

F Graham Ike, Gonzaga (Sr.)

2024-2025 stats: 17.0 ppg, 7.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists

Ike has been one of the most dominant big men in college basketball since his sophomore season at Wyoming when he averaged 19.6 ppg and 9.6 rpg. This year has been no different as he sits in the top five in conference for both points and rebounds and is leading in field goal percentage by a margin of 11.1%. Against WCC opponents he has been held to under 15 points just five times, but will need to be better than he was last year in Vegas if the Bulldogs want to win it all.

G Augustas Marciulionis, Saint Mary’s (Sr.)

2024-2025 stats: 14.4 ppg, 2.8 rebounds, 6.1 assists

Marciulionis is having a great senior year at Saint Mary’s where he has started in 87 games. He is the reigning WCC Player of the Year and won the tournament MVP last year. It is hard to pinpoint one guy for a Gaels squad that plays incredible team basketball, but Marciulionis is the straw that stirs the drink and will be looking to lead Saint Mary’s to their first ever back-to-back WCC tournament championship.

G Malik Thomas, San Francisco (Sr.)

2024-2025 stats: 19.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists

Thomas enters as the league leader in points as he helped lead San Francisco to their fourth straight 20+ win season. On top of scoring, he is not afraid to sit down and play some defense as he is averaging another league best of 1.7 steals per game. Thomas can score from all three levels and is great at driving to the bucket, creating contact, and getting to the free throw line where he is a reliable 83.4%.

F Austin Rapp, Portland (Fr.)

2024-2025 stats: 13.7 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists

The Australian has been one of the top freshmen in all of college basketball this season and could be a name to keep an eye on in the transfer portal. Rapp shoots the ball, and especially does so a lot from behind the arc where he is averaging 7.4 attempts per game. If Rapp can heat up, we could see a little run by the Pilots.

Team Superlatives

Team(s) to Beat: Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s

It is no secret that these are the best two teams in the league by far. This may have been a bit of a down year for the Zags in conference play where they are 14-4, but they have turned it on as of late by beating all teams not named Saint Mary’s by double digits since late January. The Gaels have a ton of experience and know what it takes to win this thing. It also helps that both of these squads are already in the semifinal game and only need two wins to be called champions.

Top Contender(s): Santa Clara and San Francisco

Santa Clara and San Francisco have been the clear next tier in this conference all season long. The Dons handed Saint Mary’s their lone WCC loss of the season and the Broncos pulled out a win over Gonzaga while also having several impressive non-conference wins on their resume. It is also win or go (to the NIT) home for both of these teams, so they should come out with some more juice as they know they need the automatic bid that comes with a conference title.

Dark Horse - None

There is no dark horse in the WCC. Everybody knows this is Gonzaga/Saint Mary’s tournament to lose, and even if one of the aforementioned contenders wins it would be a massive surprise.

Bracketology

Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga will have a spot in the NCAA Tournament no matter what happens in Vegas. Seeding wise the Gaels are in the 5 to 6 range, while Gonzaga is projected to be an 8 or 9 which would be their lowest since 2016. If anyone else were to win this tournament they would receive an automatic bid stealing a spot and making life on the bubble much more stressful.

Predictions

First Round

• No. 10 Pacific over No. 11 San Diego

Second Round

• No. 8 Portland over No. 9 Pepperdine

• No. 10 Pacific over No. 7 Loyola Marymount

Third Round

• No. 5 Oregon State over No. 8 Portland
• No. 6 Washington State over No. 10 Pacific

Quarterfinals

• No. 4 Santa Clara over No. 5 Oregon State
• No. 3 San Francisco No. 6 Washington State

Semifinals

• No. 1 Saint Mary’s over No. 4 Santa Clara
• No. 2 Gonzaga over No. 3 San Francisco

Championship

• No. 2 Gonzaga over No. 1 Saint Mary’s

We have seen these teams go at it so many times in a championship game in Vegas, and I see it happening again this year. It is hard to beat a team twice, let alone three times, and I think Gonzaga gets their revenge in this one. The Gaels have already cemented themselves as the top team in the league and I believe more of their focus will be on the NCAA Tournament and making it past the first weekend for the first time since 2010. I expect a big game from Ike and Zags guard Ryan Nembhard who will join his brother as a WCC Tournament MVP.