Ashley Hamilton of Loyola takes a shot while defended by Cole Dickerson of San Francisco during the West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament in Las Vegas, Thursday, March 7, 2013.
Ravell Call, Deseret News
LAS VEGAS — For the first time in its history, Gonzaga is the No. 1 team in the nation, and the Bulldogs are looking to lock down a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
But so far, the biggest story of the West Coast Conference tournament is lowly, last-place Loyola Marymount.
The No. 9 seed Lions, who won only one WCC game during the two-month regular season, have doubled that win total in two days at the Orleans Arena.
LMU snapped a 14-game losing streak by knocking off No. 8 seed Portland Wednesday. Then Thursday, the Lions upset No. 5 San Francisco in overtime, 61-60.
That propelled LMU into the quarterfinals Friday against No. 4 Santa Clara. The Lions are one victory away from meeting top-seed Gonzaga in the semifinals Saturday night.
The Zags, meanwhile, won't make an appearance at the WCC tournament until the semifinals.
Gonzaga (29-2) is riding a 12-game winning streak.
"They're good. They're one of the best teams we've played since I've been here," BYU coach Dave Rose said last week after falling to the Bulldogs at home, 70-65. "It's kind of comparable to the North Carolina team we played in Vegas a few years ago that ended up winning the national championship. … I hope we get a chance to play them again in Vegas."
The Bulldogs have won 12 regular-season WCC titles in 13 years.
However, the top seed in the WCC tournament has won the championship just twice in the last five years (Gonzaga in 2009 and Saint Mary's in 2012).
WCC AND THE RPI: The Ratings Percentage Index is a factor considered by the NCAA selection committee to determine the NCAA tournament field.
Every Monday, the NCAA releases an official updated RPI ranking for all Division I teams.
Here's where WCC ranked as of last Monday: Gonzaga (9), Saint Mary's (37), BYU (59), Santa Clara (93), San Francisco (154), San Diego (182), Pepperdine (207), Portland (222) and Loyola Marymount (255).
WCC HOSTING NCAAS: For the first time in league history, the WCC will host NCAA tournament games.
The WCC plays host to the second and third rounds of the NCAA tournament March 21 and 23 at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.
DeseretNews.com encourages a civil dialogue among its readers. We welcome your thoughtful comments.
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Jeff Call has been a sportswriter for the Deseret News since 1997. He is the BYU beat writer and has been covering Cougar sports since 1993, when he served as sports editor at the Daily Universe. Call has written several more ..
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You are right. Any really bad team can make a good showing for a game or two against good teams. Utah did it against BYU only to get blown out shortly after by another terrible team. That's college b-ball.
Just goes to show that bad teams can make a one game push in crunch time. Look at Utah.
LMU has struggled this season, certainly. But they have a lot of talented players on that team. I was especially impressed with Hamilton the last time they faced BYU. Ireland is a pretty talented player as well. But every team has talented More..