Bracket, game times announced for 2023 University Credit Union WCC men's basketball tournament

TOURNAMENT CENTRAL | TICKETS

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Following last night's showdown in Spokane with Gonzaga defeating Saint Mary's, the Gaels and the Zags are the West Coast Conference 2022-23 Co-Regular Season Champions. They were each awarded triple byes heading into the University Credit Union WCC Basketball Tournament as the Conference announced the full men's tournament bracket on Sunday. 

Saint Mary's was awarded the No. 1 seed and Gonzaga was awarded the No. 2 seed in the WCC seeding process with tiebreakers, which was determined by the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) the day following the conclusion of the Conference regular season schedule.

Riding a seven-game winning streak, Santa Clara heads to Las Vegas as the No. 3 seed. With wins over both Saint Mary's and Gonzaga earlier this season, LMU joins the Broncos with a double bye as the No. 4 seed. Santa Clara and LMU will take the court for the first time on Saturday, March 4. 

Last night, BYU defeated San Francisco in Provo. As a result of that outcome, BYU, Pacific and San Francisco tied for fifth place in the standings. Conference seeding tiebreakers for three or more teams establish a pod with the teams tied in the standings. Against the other two teams in the pod, BYU and USF posted a 3-1 record and Pacific recorded an 0-4 record. The Tigers were awarded the No. 7 seed. BYU and USF move through the tiebreaker process to determine the No. 5 and No. 6 seed. They split their two games against each other during the regular season. The next tiebreaker is each team’s record vs. teams in descending order of the conference standings. Both BYU and USF lost twice to Gonzaga (tied for first place), Saint Mary’s (tied for first place) and Santa Clara (third place). Against fourth-place LMU, the Dons were 1-0 and the Cougars were 1-1. With an unbalanced conference schedule, the number of games against an opponent may be unequal. In this case, the Conference tiebreaking policy establishes that fewer losses do not prevail if the teams have the same number of wins and the team with fewer games could equal or surpass the loss total of the other team. Against Pacific (tied for fifth place), BYU and San Francisco were both 2-0. Against eighth-place Portland, ninth-place San Diego and 10th-place Pepperdine, one team recorded a 1-0 record and the other team recorded a 1-1 record. Once again, in each of these cases, the Conference tiebreaker policy establishes that fewer losses do not prevail if the teams have the same number of wins and the team with fewer games could equal or surpass the loss total of the other team. The final determination is the NCAA Evaluation Tool on the day following the conclusion of the Conference regular season schedule, which awarded BYU (No. 89 in the NET) the No. 5 seed and San Francisco (No. 121 in the NET) the No. 6 seed.

The opening round on Thursday will feature the No. 8 seed Portland battling No. 9 San Diego in the first men's game at 6 p.m. PT, followed by No. 7 seed Pacific facing No. 10 Pepperdine at 8:30 p.m. PT. 

BYU will play the winner of Portland/USD on Friday, March 3, at 6 p.m. PT and USF will play the winner of Pacific/Pepperdine on Friday, March 3, at 8:30 p.m. PT.
 
On the women's side, due to the Portland-BYU women's basketball game being rescheduled for Monday, the UCU WCC Women's Basketball Tournament Bracket will be announced tomorrow following the completion of that game. 

The 2023 University Credit Union West Coast Conference Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament will be held from March 2-7 at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. The first two rounds of the men’s tournament and the first four rounds of the women’s tournament will be televised on the WCC’s regional sports network partners, NBC Sports Bay Area, NBC Sports California, ROOT Sports NW, Bally Sports West, Bally Sports SoCal, Bally Sports San Diego, as well as BYUtv. These games will also be available online on the WCC Network. ESPN will televise the quarterfinals and semifinals of the men’s tournament, and the championship games of both the men’s and women’s tournament.

Thursday, March 2 – Women’s and Men’s First Round
12:00 p.m. – Women’s Game 1: No. 8 seed vs. No. 9 seed (RSNs/BYUtv/WCC Network)
2:30 p.m. – Women’s Game 2: No. 7 seed vs. No. 10 seed (RSNs/BYUtv/WCC Network)
6:00 p.m. – Men’s Game 1: No.  8 Portland LMU vs. No. 9 San Diego (RSNs/BYUtv/WCC Network)
8:30 p.m. – Men’s Game 2: No. 7 Pacific vs. No. 10 Pepperdine (RSNs/BYUtv/WCC Network)
 
Friday, March 3 – Women’s and Men’s Second Round
12:00 p.m. – Women’s Game 3: No. 5 seed vs. Winner Game 1 (RSNs/BYUtv/WCC Network)
2:30 p.m. – Women’s Game 4: No. 6 seed vs. Winner Game 2 (RSNs/BYUtv/WCC Network)
6:00 p.m. – Men’s Game 3: No. 5 seed BYU vs. Winner Game 1 (RSNs/BYUtv/WCC Network)
8:30 p.m. Men’s Game 4: No. 6 seed San Francisco vs. Winner Game 2 (RSNs/BYUtv/WCC Network)
 
Saturday, March 4 –Women’s and Men’s Quarterfinals
1:00 p.m. – Women’s Game 5: No. 4 seed vs. Winner Game 3 (RSNs/BYUtv/WCC Network)
3:30 p.m. – Women’s Game 6: No. 3 seed vs. Winner Game 4 (RSNs/BYUtv/WCC Network)
7:00 p.m. – Men’s Game 5: No. 4 seed LMU vs. Winner Game 3 (ESPN2)
9:30 p.m. – Men’s game 6: No. 3 seed Santa Clara vs. Winner Game 4 (ESPN2)
 
Monday, March 6 –Women’s and Men’s Semifinals
12:00 p.m. – Women’s game 7: No. 1 seed vs. Winner Game 5 (RSNs/BYUtv)
2:30 p.m. – Women’s Game 8: No. 2 seed vs. Winner Game 6 (RSNs/BYUtv)
6:00 p.m. – Men’s Game 7: No. 1 seed Saint Mary's vs. Winner Game 5 (ESPN)
8:30 p.m. – Men’s Game 8: No. 2 seed Gonzaga vs. Winner Game 6 (ESPN2)
 
Tuesday, March 7 – Women’s and Men’s Finals
1:00 p.m. – Women’s Basketball Championship: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8 (ESPNU)
6:00 p.m. – Men’s Basketball Championship: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8 (ESPN)