Feb. 26, 2012

2012 WCC Bracket

SAN BRUNO, Calif. - The West Coast Conference has announced the brackets and game times for the 2012 Zappos.com West Coast Conference Basketball Championships at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. The tournament will begin with a women's first round match-up at 3:00 p.m. PST on Wednesday, February 29 and continue through the men's championship game on Monday, March 5.

The LMU women's team will get the 2012 Zappos.com West Coast Conference Basketball Championships underway at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday with the opening round games against San Francisco. At 6 p.m., the men's tournament begins when No. 8 Portland battles No. 9 Santa Clara.

The LMU men earned the No. 4 seed thanks to their third best conference win total in school history, going 11-5 in WCC play. They finished at 19-11 overall, the best win total since 1989-90. THe Lions, along with No. 3 seed BYU earn a bye to the quarterfinals. The Lions will play at 6 p.m., followed by BYU 30 minutes later. They will play the winner of the two first round games played on Thursday.

For the first time since 1989, Saint Mary's won the WCC men's regular season title outright with a 14-2 conference mark. Both the Gaels and the second seed Gonzaga Bulldogs earn byes into the conference semifinals on Saturday evening.

On the women's side, Gonzaga posted a 14-2 conference mark, capturing its eighth straight WCC regular season crown. The Bulldogs will occupy the top seed. With a 12-4 WCC record, BYU and San Diego tied for second place. By virtue of their sweep over the Toreros, the Cougars earn the second seed and will open in the semifinals. San Diego and fourth seed Saint Mary's earn byes and will compete in Friday's quarterfinal rounds.

For the first time, all four quarterfinal games will be nationally televised. Friday's women's quarters will air live beginning at Noon on BYUtv. At 6:00 p.m., the men's quarterfinals will be televised on ESPNU. Saturday's women's semifinals will also be shown on BYUtv at Noon, with the men's semis airing nationally at 6 p.m. on ESPN2. On Monday, the women's championship game will be shown nationwide at Noon on ESPNU. Later that evening, at 6 p.m., the West Coast Conference men's championship game will air live on ESPN.

The men's and women's winners of the 2012 Zappos.com West Coast Conference Basketball Championships will each receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.