Bracket, game times announced for 2015 WCC Championships

TOURNAMENT CENTRAL

SAN BRUNO, Calif. – BYU men's basketball has earned the No. 2 seed in the 2015 West Coast Conference Basketball Championships at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas and will play the winner of No. 7 seed Santa Clara vs. No. seed 10 Loyola Marymount. All nine games during the tournament will be televised live nationwide and streamed live online.

The 2015 event marks the second year the WCC has fielded a 10-team bracket. The men's tournament will begin Friday, March 6, with No. 8 San Francisco vs. No. 9 Pacific at 6 p.m. PST and No. 7 Santa Clara vs. No. 10 Loyola Marymount at 8 p.m. PST. Both games will be televised live on BYUtv and TheW.tv.

Saturday, March 7, is devoted to the four men's basketball quarterfinals. There will be no games on Sunday, March 8, and the tournament will resume with the semifinals on Monday, March 9. The champion will be crowned on Tuesday, March 10.

No. 3/2 Gonzaga won its 14th WCC men's regular season title in the last 15 years, posting a 17-1 conference mark. BYU and Saint Mary's tied for second place with identical 13-5 marks. The Cougars split with the Gaels in the regular season and take the second seed by virtue of their victory at Gonzaga in the regular season finale.

Pepperdine is the fourth seed, and will open tournament play against fifth seed San Diego in Saturday's quarterfinal round. Portland, Santa Clara and San Francisco finished with identical 7-11 records in conference play, but the Pilots earn the sixth seed and accompanying opening round bye due to their 3-1 record vs. the Broncos and Dons. Portland will take on No. 3 Saint Mary's in the quarterfinals.

Santa Clara and San Francisco split the regular season series and the Broncos are the seventh seed after defeating Saint Mary's in the final weekend of the regular season. Pacific and Loyola Marymount tied with the Tigers taking the ninth seed by virtue of a win against Santa Clara. The Broncos take on the Lions in Friday's opening round while San Francisco squares off against Pacific.

For the third straight year, every game from the 2015 West Coast Conference Championships will be nationally televised. The first four games can be seen live in well over 60 million homes nationwide via cable and satellite on BYUtv. Those games will also be streamed live on TheW.tv, the West Coast Conference's digital platform.

For the first time, Time Warner Cable SportsNet, the home of the Los Angeles Lakers, will televise the first two men's quarterfinals on Saturday. These broadcasts can also be seen on Comcast SportsNet California and ROOT Sports Northwest. The two men's evening quarterfinals will be televised on ESPN2 beginning at 6 p.m.

On Monday, one men's semifinal will air at 6 p.m. on ESPN, with the other semifinal immediately to follow on ESPN2. The order of Monday's semifinals is to be determined following Saturday's games.

The winner of the 2015 West Coast Conference Basketball Championships will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Friday, March 6

No. 8 San Francisco vs. No. 9 Pacific, 6:00 p.m. ((BYUtv, TheW.tv)
No. 7 Santa Clara vs. No. 10 Loyola Marymount, 8:00 p.m. (BYUtv, TheW.tv)

Saturday, March 7

No. 3 Saint Mary's vs. No 6 Portland, 12:00 p.m. (TWC SportsNet, CSN California, ROOT Northwest, BYUtv, TheW.tv)
No. 4 Pepperdine vs. No. 5 San Diego, 2:00 p.m. (TWC SportsNet, CSN California, ROOT Northwest, BYUtv, TheW.tv)
No. 1 Gonzaga vs. No. 8/9, 6:00 p.m. (ESPN2, WatchESPN)
No. 2 BYU vs. No. 7/10, 8:00 p.m. (ESPN2, WatchESPN)

Monday, March 9

TBA - Men's Semifinal No. 1, 6:00 p.m. (ESPN, WatchESPN)
TBA - Men's Semifinal No. 2, 8:30 p.m. (ESPN2, WatchESPN)

Tuesday, March 10

Men's Championship Game, 6:00 p.m. (ESPN, WatchESPN)