WCC Tournament: Zags, Gaels, Broncos o. . . Beavers?

1. Will Santa Clara be able to make it to the Big Dance?

YesAnta Clara has had a phenomenal year with Herb Sendek. As of Monday morning, the Broncos are projected as one of the “last four teams in” the NCAA Tournament.

SCU features a dangerous offense that can beat any team on any given night. They rank 30th in the nation, averaging 83.8 points per game.

Their resume should prove strong enough to get them an at-large bid, unless they stumble in the WCC Tournament.

The Broncos are around the top-40 mark in predictive metrics and resume, indicating they should be in the field.

Santa Clara’s top three scorers are Christian Hammond, Elijah Mahi and Allen Graves. Hammond is their leading scorer, averaging 15.9 points per game.

Bukky Oboye is their best defensive player with 20 blocks and 16 steals this year.

SCU will likely open the WCC tournament against Pacific or Seattle U, but Loyola Marymount and San Diego are still in the mix.

If the Broncos lose their first game of the tournament, they will likely be eliminated from the dance.

They should be fine, given their varied scoring options, but this is that month.

If Santa Clara wants to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament, it will likely need to win at least two games.

With a win in the third round, they would face SMC in the semi-finals on Monday, which would be a great opportunity to win QUAD 1.

With Gonzaga leaving for the Pac-12, the Broncos have a chance to make a statement in the conference going forward.

2. Do Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s still run the WCC?

TOWhile it would be great to see Santa Clara make a run at the title, this has been a two-game league and will likely remain that way until the end.

With Saint Mary’s win over Gonzaga last week, they earned a share of the WCC regular-season title for the fourth consecutive year.

And while this minimally affected the Zags’ standings or tournament line, they will remember the loss.

They also did not have Jalen Warley, one of the most underrated players nationally.

Warley doesn’t have eye-catching numbers. He only averages 7.1 points per game and 4.6 rebounds per game. But he is a defensive terror who leads the team with 1.6 steals per game.

He and Tyon Grant-Foster can shut down most perimeter players in the country.

Warley does all the little things that are overlooked but felt in Moraga. Without him, the Gaels ate up the Zags in the second half.

And this is with Paulius Murauskas playing poorly.

Murauskas is one of the best players in the WCC, but if he performs like he did against the Bulldogs, Gonzaga will annihilate them in a rematch.

He looked so bad against the Zags that I thought he might play basketball again.

But he has the opportunity to do it well.

3. Could the state of Oregon be the spoiler? (No one else can)

ohRegon State is the only team that could try, by my logic. The Beavers aren’t as good, but they’re in a unique place.

Pacific would have been my pick two weeks ago, but they lost their last four games, so that’s it.

At No. 5, San Francisco has been eliminated in four of its last six games.

And the Dons almost stole one from Gonzaga earlier in the year, so that’s no surprise to anyone.

Seattle U is coming in a little hot, so they could be another team to watch. But their three-game winning streak came against the worst teams in the conference.

And the Cougs? They don’t know how to play basketball anymore.

The reason the Beavers can make a run is so Wayne Tinkle, who OSU will not hire for next season, can have some fun.

He can run any scheme, he can play against anyone and they are the fourth seed, so they would only have to pull off two surprises.

Tinkle could have left, but he decided to stay with his team like a man.

What if they win the tournament? Would Oregon State suddenly rehire him?

The Beavs will probably be overtaken by Gonzaga, but hey, it’s March.

It’s time to get it.