Why winning the WCC tournament is now a necessity for Gonzaga
Only two times in recent history has Gonzaga entered the West Coast Conference tournament needing to win it to assure itself of an NCAA bid.
In 2007, the Zags edged Santa Clara in the WCC title game after a turbulent 10-loss regular season had thrown their NCAA tournament hopes into some doubt. In 2011, the Zags pulled away late from Saint Mary's in the WCC title game to avoid an anxious Selection Sunday.
It will probably take a similar backs-against-the-wall performance from Gonzaga in Las Vegas next month to extend the program's streak of consecutive NCAA tournaments to 18. The Zags' 63-58 home loss to Saint Mary's on Saturday night left them in serious jeopardy of not hearing their name called on Selection Sunday if they don't secure an automatic NCAA bid by winning the WCC tournament.
Consider the three resumes below:
Team A is Gonzaga; Team B is WCC co-leader Saint Mary's; Team C is Cincinnati, a classic last-four-in, first-four-out bubble team.
Who has the strongest resume of that trio? It's probably Cincinnati by virtue of its five top 50 wins. Gonzaga has the fewest sub-100 losses and Saint Mary's has the best overall record, but the Zags have squandered too many opportunities for marquee victories and the Gaels didn't schedule enough quality non-conference opponents.
It's surprising Gonzaga is in this precarious position because the Zags were expected to field one of the West's best teams this season. They returned one of the nation's elite frontcourts from a team that went 35-3 and fell to eventual national champion Duke in the Elite Eight.
A season-ending back injury to center Przemek Karnowski served as the first warning sign this Gonzaga team might not meet expectations. The Zags miss the skilled 7-footer's low-post scoring, passing and ability to clog the lane and protect the rim on defense.
The turnovers that plagued Gonzaga early in the season have become less of an issue now that point guard Josh Perkins has become more comfortable, but the Zags still aren't good at staying in front of their man off the dribble. They also have shown a maddening season-long proclivity for blowing big leads in the second half of games.
Can Gonzaga still right itself in the WCC tournament? Certainly, even though the Zags may have to beat BYU and Saint Mary's on back-to-back nights to do it. In its first loss to Saint Mary's, Gonzaga blew a huge halftime lead. In its second loss to the Gaels, the Zags shot just 5-for-26 from behind the arc and got little out of star Kyle Wiltjer yet still only lost by five.
So all is not yet lost for Gonzaga, but the Zags are up against it like they've seldom been during Mark Few's remarkable tenure.
For the first time in five years, the WCC tournament is about more than NCAA tournament seeding. Gonzaga probably needs to win it just to make the field of 68 at all.
- - - - - - -
Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
