Gaels Are Top Seed in the West Coast Conference Tournament and Share the Season Title
The tourney kicks off March 2 in Las Vegas. On March 6, Saint Mary's plays the winner of Saturday night's game.
The West Coast Conference announced on Sunday morning the full bracket on the men's side of the 2023 University Credit Union WCC Basketball Tournament in The Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. After much anticipation in seeing how the tie-breaking process would play out, Saint Mary's men's basketball is the top seed in the tournament, edging out Gonzaga in the third tiebreaker for the top spot.
The tournament gets underway on Thursday, March 2 and runs through Tuesday, March 7 with the championship games. By virtue of their top seed, the Gaels will not play until Monday, March 6 at 6 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPN with the Gaels set to take on the winner of a game played Saturday night, in which the fourth-seeded LMU Lions take on a to-be-determined team.
First Time the Gaels Have Been Top Seed Since 2016
This is the first time that the Gaels have been the top seed in the UCU WCC Basketball Tournament since 2016. That was also the last time the Gaels and Gonzaga shared the regular season championship. As the top seed in the conference tournament, the Gaels all-time are 6–3. This is their fifth appearance as the top seed. In 2012, the Gaels won both the regular season and won the tournament while being seeded at the top.
Should Saint Mary's see Loyola Marymount in the semifinals, the Gaels are 3–1 all-time against the Lions in the conference tournament, with their most recent matchup coming in the 2021 quarterfinals. The Gaels won that game 52–47. Their only loss came in the 2006 semifinals, when the tournament was hosted by Gonzaga.
Sharing the Regular Season Title
Saturday night was the long-awaited regular season finale between No. 15 Saint Mary's and No. 12 Gonzaga. It featured ESPN's College GameDay crew, it drew their primetime slot on ESPN, and the entire nation tuned in to see if the Gaels could win their first outright regular season title in 11 years. Gonzaga had other plans, using a strong surge late in the first half and rode that momentum all the way to a 77–68 win over SMC. Saint Mary's finishes the regular season 25-6 (14-2) and shares the regular season title with Gonzaga.
The Gaels bested Gonzaga in their first-matchup of the season in an overtime thriller in the UCU Pavilion. With each team claiming a victory over the other in the regular season—and an equal 14–2 record—for the WCC Tournament the top seed went to the team with the stronger NET rankings. That would be the Gaels.
Along with winning percentage, the NET rankings take into account game results, strength of schedule, game location, scoring margin, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses. For the NCAA, it's both a results-driven and predictive metric.
Coming out of the weekend, the AP college basketball poll ranks Saint Mary’s at No. 17 in the country. The USA Today Coaches Poll puts SMC at No. 16 nationally.
The Punch
Saint Mary's has been one of the best teams in the country in holding onto the basketball, ranking inside the top-25 in the country in terms of fewest turnovers per game. In the game against Gonzaga, it became a talking point in the first half, with the Gaels turning it over eight times compared to just one for Gonzaga. That resulted in a huge gap in points off of turnover, where the Gaels had just one in the first half, but the Zags had 16. Per game, the Gaels turn it over less than 11 times per game, so the large number of turnovers in the first half was a surprise.
The Gaels did a good job of keeping the game within reach for a good portion of the first half, but it got away from them late in the half. Gonzaga turned what was a 22–19 lead into a 39–20 advantage thanks to a 17–1 run over just five minutes. The lone point for SMC during that run came from Logan Johnson at the free throw line, but it came to an end as the half wound down thanks to a trip to the line from Augustas Marciulionis and a corner three from Alex Ducas, his first make of the night. Thanks to a solid finish to the half, the Gaels were able to enter the break trailing by 13 as opposed to 19.
For the Gaels, numbers across the board were better in the second half, highlighted by their 50% shooting from the floor and 16 free throws attempted. A 14–2 Saint Mary's run over three minutes pulled them within six points with just under 12 minutes remaining in the game. Gonzaga countered with a 6–0 run to move it back up to a 12-point game, and the rest of the way it stayed between five and 12 points. Still, the Gaels finished the second half out-scoring Gonzaga 42–38.
Logan Johnson Still on a Heater
It's been three weeks, and SMC’s Logan Johnson is still playing otherworldly basketball. He was the main source of offense for the Gaels on Saturday night in Spokane, leading the way with 27 points. Saint Mary's scored just 26 points in the first half. Johnson provided 15 of those. Over his last six games, Johnson has scored at least 15 points in a half four times. His night was efficient, going 7–12 from the field, a perfect 2–2 from beyond the arc, and 11–15 from the free throw line. Over the final six games of the season, Johnson averaged 25.2 points per game.
Alex Ducas was the only other Gael in double-digits with 10 points, while Aidan Mahaney scored nine and Joshua Jefferson scored a career-best nine points on a career-high 23 minutes. The Gaels defense was great on a couple of important players for Gonzaga: They held Julian Strawther to just 2-10 from the floor, and kept Rasir Bolton to only three points.
With the two teams splitting the title, this is the first time since 2015–16 that the conference will have a shared champion. The last 23 regular season champions of the WCC have been either Saint Mary's, Gonzaga, or both teams.
READ MORE about the WCC Basketball Tournament and the SMC vs. Gonzaga game in stories originally published on SMCGaels. And watch for a preview on the WCC Tournament later this week.