WCC Tournament 2016: Bracket, schedule and scores

Barring a surprising upset, Gonzaga and Saint Mary's are on a collision course.

The West Coast Conference has two quality teams in Saint Mary's and Gonzaga, variously solid teams in BYU and Pepperdine and then, after that, not a whole lot. It's a top-heavy league, and that puts the Gaels and Zags on a likely collision course in this week's WCC Tournament in Nevada.

Either BYU or Pepperdine could reasonably interrupt the Gonzaga-Saint Mary's collision course, but if anybody else did, it would come as a major surprise. Nobody else in the WCC finished within so few as six games of the two top teams at 15-3 in the league. Gonzaga is 9-2 in its last 11 games, while Saint Mary's is 10-2 in its last 12. These teams are better than the competition and avoid any real threats until at least the semis.

The stakes here are high. The WCC shapes up as one-bid conference for the NCAA Tournament, with an outside chance that both Gonzaga and Saint Mary's get in. The only way to avoid that uncertainty is to win the league.

The format

The 10-team league has a nine-team tournament this year, with Pacific sitting out under a self-imposed postseason ban. The two lowest seeds meet in a play-in to join the rest of the teams in a predetermined quarterfinal round. From there, it's a straight-on, single-elimination playoff. All games are played just beyond the Las Vegas Strip, at Orleans Arena.

The teams

1. Saint Mary's 
2. Gonzaga
3. BYU
4. Pepperdine
5. San Francisco
6. Santa Clara
7. Portland
8. Loyola Marymount
9. San Diego

Bracket

A full printable bracket is here.

Schedule and Results (all times Eastern)

Friday, March 4 (First Round)

Game 1: No. 8 Loyola Marymount 64, No. 9 San Diego 61

Saturday, March 5 (Quarterfinals)

Game 2: No. 3 BYU vs. No. 6 Santa Clara (4 p.m., TWC/CSN/ROOT/BYUtv/TheW.tv)
Game 3: No. 4 Pepperdine vs. No. 5 San Francisco (6 p.m., TWC/CSN/ROOT/BYUtv/TheW.tv) 
Game 4: No. 1 Saint Mary's vs. No. 8 Loyola Marymount (10 p.m., ESPN2)
Game 5: No. 2 Gonzaga vs. No. 7 Portland (12 a.m., ESPN2)

Monday, March 7 (Semifinals)

Game 6: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner (9 or 11:30 p.m., ESPN or ESPN2)
Game 7: Game 2 winner vs. Game 5 winner (9 or 11:30 p.m., ESPN or ESPN2)

Tuesday, March 8 (Championship)

Game 8: Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 winner (9 p.m., ESPN)