West Coast Conference Tournament Preview

WEST COAST CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT

March 4-7

Hosted by: The Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada

Sponsored by: Zappos.com! The whole title? Zappos.Com West Coast Conference Championship: Advance to the Dance. Say that 5 times fast.

Tickets: Three tiers. $500, $225, $135. WHAT A RIPOFF. Not to mention you’ll have to travel to Las Vegas, since no one actually lives there. Then, you’ll have to most likely stay at the Orleans, since its miles away from the rest of the casinos. Then, you’ll probably lose a couple grand at the blackjack table. And finally, you’ll probably eat the gumbo at Big Al’s Crabshack at least 3 times a day for 3 days, (oh wait, that’s just me). As a sidenote, I actually like the Orleans. They got an okay sportsbook. They have a nice poker room. They got the aforementioned Big Al’s Crabshack. I played in the Orleans Open poker tournament in 2008, (I believe), and it was located in the big ballroom upstairs. I sat 10 feet away from T.J. Cloutier, and was eliminated sitting next to Tommy Vu (please look him up on youtube and watch his cheesy infomercials from the 1980s if you haven’t had the privilege already). So, yeah.

The Bracket:

NOOOOOOOOOOOO! It’s back! The Double Bye! And in an eight team tournament! WHY?!?!?!?! Does St. Mary’s or Gonzaga really need help beating San Diego or Loyola? Wait, check that, St. Mary’s lost to San Diego last week. Nevermind, bring on the double bye!

Friday March 4: #5 Portland v. #8 Loyola Marymount (1)

#6 Pepperdine v. #7 San Diego (2)

Saturday March 5: #4 Santa Clara v. Winner of (1) This is game (3)

#3 San Francisco v. Winner of (2) This is game (4)

Sunday March 6: #1 St. Marys vs Winner of (3)

#2 Gonzaga vs Winner of (4)

Monday March 7: Finals

The Favorite: Gonzaga. They’re playing better right now. They looked dead a few times throughout the year, especially after losing at home to St. Marys, but when you look at their resume overall, it isn’t THAT bad. That being said, I don’t think they belong in if they don’t win the tournament (although I wouldn’t be surprised if they got in). The problem is if theyre competing against teams such as Illinois, Memphis, Wazzu, or Kansas State – they lost to ALL of those teams. Doesn’t help. St. Marys has really played poorly lately. You can forgive the loss to Utah State, maybe to Gonzaga, but losing to San Diego is inexcusable.

Wait a minute, San Diego didn’t finish in last? How was this possible? How is Loyola that bad? Speaking of Loyola, I just finished watching “The Guru of Go,” 30 for 30 for the first time. Simply put, its pretty awful. It broke a lot of rules about documentaries. For one, the director let himself be heard (which I know Michael Moore breaks in all of his films, but is really against the rules). Second, it had two subjects, which wouldn’t be awful, but they were pretty disparate. Hank Gathers and Westhead. Is it about Westhead and his system, or about Gathers? You could say, well, Gathers played for Westhead…..but that really is about it. If it was more than that, he didn’t do a good job showing that. It ended up being about nothing. It contained stupid title cards, which occurred much too frequently. Despite all being Shakespeare quotes, they were all corny. Finally, and worst of all, the documentary taught me NOTHING. I wasn’t a Loyola Marymount historian or a Hank Gathers biographer, but I knew everything they talked about already. You watch a documentary to learn about something. This didn’t teach me anything. If you wanted me to sum it up, I could sum up an hour in two minutes: Westhead ran this fast paced offense, they scored tons of points, he won the NBA title with the Lakers, he went to Loyola, they recruited Gathers, he was awesome, they were a great team, Gathers died on the court, they lost to UNLV in the Elite Eight. The End. Good documentaries, and films for that matter, you can explain what its about in 30 seconds, but you can’t retell the whole story. So in the example of Hoop Dreams, the best documentary ever, I can say: “its about two kids from Chicago who want to play in the NBA, and go to St. Joes high school, Isiah Thomas’ alma mater.” That took 10 seconds. But what is it about and what makes it so much more? Well, you have to watch it, but I could talk about it and the themes involved for hours.

Trivia: San Diego is the only team not named Gonzaga or St. Marys to win the tournament since 1998. San Diego did it in 2003 and 2008. In 2008, San Diego went on to upset UConn, but in 2003, they lost to Stanford. Whenever I meet anyone who went to San Diego, I bring up the 2008 game vs Connecticut. This usually results in them wondering how I knew that happened, what is wrong with me, and then not talking to me anymore, (to be fair, this only happened like 3 times). Don’t expect St Marys or Gonzaga to not win it this year. Once they’re in, don’t expect them to do as much damage in the tourney as they both have in the past.