The 2011 WCC Tournament brackets have been released. The 2011 WCC Tournament schedule begins on Friday, March 5, giving fans of West Coast Conference teams a chance to enjoy their tournament a week before many others. All eight teams in the conference make it into the postseason tournament, but the WCC used a double-bye system that rewards those who play the best during the regular season. The two teams that tied for the regular season championship received the byes, and now wait in the semi-finals for the rest of the brackets to complete play.
According to the WCC website, under the format that was adopted in 2003, the No. 5 through No. 8 seeds will compete in the opening round to determine who will advance to the next round of the tournament. Waiting for the winners in the quarterfinals will be the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds, who will have first round byes. The winners of the quarterfinal match-ups will go head-to-head with the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, which will have byes through the first two rounds of the tournament. This format makes what the Big East does look simple, and it means that several schools have a lot of work to do if they want to grab that automatic NCAA berth.
Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s finished the regular season with a tie at 11-3 atop the West Coast Conference standings. Through tie-breakers, Gonzaga acquired the No. 1 seed in the 2011 WCC Tournament, and gets to wait for the first two rounds to be completed. Both schools are heavily favored to receive invites from the 2011 NCAA Tournament, even if they don’t win the conference tournament. Neither school wants to risk having that decision taken out of their hands, though, and if they meet in the WCC Championship Game, it will serve as a deciding game for their respective seasons. They split the season series so far, so either team could win it all in the WCC.
The first round games of the WCC Tournament will take place on Friday, March 5, to decide which teams advance to the second round. Game 1 is Portland vs. Loyola Marymount at 6 p.m. PST, and Game 2 is Santa Clara vs. San Diego beginning 30 minutes after the first game. Pepperdine and San Francisco are the teams waiting in the second round of the tournament, with those games getting played on Saturday beginning at 6 p.m. as well. The Gonzaga semi-final game and the Championship Game will both be seen on ESPN at 9 p.m. PST, with the games taking place on Sunday, March 7, and Monday, March 8.
2011 WCC Tournament Seeds:
1 — Gonzaga
2 — Saint Mary’s
3 — Pepperdine
4 — San Francisco
5 — Santa Clara
6 — Portland
7 — Loyola Marymount
8 — San Diego
More From YCN:
NCAA_Tournament_Schedule
References:
WCC_Standings
Full_WCC_Tournament_Bracket
