BRACKETOLOGY: Projecting Gonzaga's NCAA Tournament seed after WCC Tournament title! Who to root for

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With 3 days until selection Sunday, a consensus has begun to form around where Gonzaga will

be seated for March Madness.

You are Lockdown Zags, your daily podcast on the Gonzaga Bulldogs, part of the Lockdown

Podcast Network, your team, every day.

What is going on y'all?

Happy Thursday and welcome into the Lockdown Zags Podcast, it's all part of the Lockdown

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or Andy Patton, here to bring you news and updates on all things Zag Athletics.

Well the coaching carousel is in full swing already.

We haven't even gotten into the NCAA tournament and already we're seeing coaches in and out

the door.

We're going to talk about a big move for a Pac-12 rival, we're also going to talk about

where Gonzaga is currently sitting in the NCAA tournament picture.

We saw a bunch of Bracketology updates this morning as I'm recording this live on Thursday

morning, around 10 a.m. Pacific time.

So we're going to talk about where Gonzaga is currently projected and then we're going

to talk about who Gonzaga should be rooting, not rooting for, rooting against in the conference

tournaments this week to kind of keep Gonzaga locked in at that spot.

Who are some teams that we maybe need to see lose or at least would like to see lose

to feel a little bit more comfortable with where Gonzaga is probably going to land on

Selection Sunday, which as we're recording this is just over three days away Selection Sunday.

This Sunday, March 15th, 3 p.m. Pacific time on CBS.

I will be in Dallas, Texas getting ready for the Bracket Breakdown show on Amazon TV.

Did this last year with my co-hosts for Locked on College Basketball Isaac Shade along

with Kylin Mills and Gordon Hayward.

This year we're being joined by Jesse Hawley as well, former North Carolina Tar Eel who's

on the 2005 national champion team.

Also former White receiver for the Dallas Cowboys, going to be a lot of fun this year to look

out for that.

And Amazon Fire TV, if you don't have it, get it because it's going to be really really

fun couple of shows.

Right now we're going to talk about what we think is going to happen on Sunday, four

marks few in the Gonzaga Bulldogs.

They finished the season 33 overall.

That's after beating Santa Clara in the WCC tournament championship game on Tuesday night.

Another 30 win season going into the NCAA tournament as challenging and as frustrating as

this season has been at times and believe you me, I know that.

I feel that.

I felt that when Gonzaga got taken into overtime by Seattle University, when Gonzaga basically

watched a potential loss rim out from Barry Wong on a three point shot by San Francisco.

When they slogged their way through a home game against Pacific, like it's been a challenge.

But this team is heading into the NCAA tournament with 30 wins and just three losses.

And that's with their second best player.

Their second leading score, one of the most efficient scores in the country.

Only playing 18 of their 33 games.

That is with the player who replaced him in the starting lineup, playing on a bad leg

for the last half of the season, quarter of the season.

That's with their star player and likely all American Grammike missing three games.

The amount of adversity that this team battled to be a 30 win team heading into the tournament

is remarkable.

And should not go unnoticed.

The Michigan loss was a debacle.

The Portland loss is one of the worst of the Markfew era.

You kind of accept a road loss at St. Mary's, like it was not a fun game to watch, but

it's at least like not an unreasonable loss.

But that's it.

That's the only losses they had in considering the amount of stuff that they dealt with.

Truly, truly remarkable job by Markfew and the coaching staff to get this team in this

position heading into selection Sunday.

Right now, again, as we're recording this live at 1004 on Thursday, March 12, Gonzaga

is sixth in the net.

They have a seven and two record in quad one games, 11 and, or excuse me, 4 and 0 in quad

two.

11 and 1 and quad three.

That's, of course, their Portland loss there and then 8 and 0 in quad four wins above

bubble, which is a very valuable metric by the selection committee.

It basically determines how many more wins would you have with your schedule based on the

average bubble team.

It functions somewhat similar to like war in baseball, where you're evaluating a player

based on how they do above a replacement player.

Gonzaga's got the 9th highest wab or wins above bubble in the country.

So there's 6th in the net, 9th in the wab, 11th at Kenpom.

Their strength, the schedule is not great.

It's 86th in the country.

It's never great for Gonzaga, even with a strong non-conference this year again.

Some of those teams kind of fell apart.

Nathan, wasn't as good as anticipated Oklahoma, was not as good as anticipated those, those

hurt Gonzaga Kentucky has been very influxed this year, but certainly wouldn't consider them

having been as good as people expected that they would be UCLA, Oregon, like Maryland,

like it was not a good schedule for things that were kind of outside of Gonzaga's control.

But for the most part, from a resume perspective, you're looking at a team that's borderline

top 10.

And the selection committee is coming around to the idea that Gonzaga should be in that

conversation.

For a long time, they were projected as a foreseed.

After the Portland loss, most of the projections have been a foreseed for Gonzaga.

They were kind of starting to sneak back into the three seed conversation, and then they

lost the same marries, and it kind of fell back into the foreseed conversation.

But now, again, as of Thursday, still a lot of games to be played between now and selection

Sunday, Gonzaga's overwhelmingly projected to be a three seed.

I pulled projected, projected brackets from six different sources, all which were updated

since Gonzaga's win over Santa Clara, and five of those six have Gonzaga's a three seed.

We'll go through them in order here at ESPN, Joe Lanardi, not always the most accurate

bracketologist, but certainly the most discussed, the most commonly referenced bracketologist.

Lanardi has Gonzaga's a three seed right now in the West region, squaring off against

UC Irvine is the 14 seed.

Most of the places that I have brackets for don't say the actual region, so we don't know

the location.

I'm making the assumption that if Gonzaga gets a three seed, they will very, very likely

play at the Motocentering Portland, Oregon.

It is not a guarantee, but it is very likely that that is where they will play.

So if you're thinking about trying to make some travel plans, again, don't walk it

in unless you get some insurance so you can cancel that flight.

But that feels like a pretty likely outcome for Gonzaga.

So Lanardi has Gonzaga's a three seed, taking on UC Irvine.

He has Wisconsin as the sixth seed in Texas as the 11 seed, so should Gonzaga advance

they play one of those two teams, match up with Wisconsin and their high octane offense

would be very fun.

Match up with Texas would be a rematch against Sean Miller.

That would be fun as well.

I also threw in where these where these brackets have St. Mary's and Santa Clara too, just

for reference.

Lanardi has same Mary's as a seven seed and has Santa Clara as a 10 seed no longer on

the bubble, more safely in the field at that 10 seed spot.

Fox Sports by Mike DeCorsi has Gonzaga also as a three seed and also square and off against

UC Irvine, the projected winner of the big West Conference.

DeCorsi has BYU as the sixth seed and Missouri as the 11 seed.

I think that would be a play in game there.

So for this one, obviously, again, the same first match up, likely also in Portland.

BYU would be an incredible, incredible second round game.

It would be a tough match up.

I'll tell you right now, Jalen Worley better be as close to 100% as possible because he

will have the very unenviable task of dealing with AJ DeBanza.

And I say dealing with like you're not going to lock him down, dude, hangs 40 on teams regularly

this year.

He's averaging 33 points per game through the big 12 tournament.

As we're recording right now, BYU about to tip off remarkable stuff from DeBanza this

year.

That would be an extraordinary match up against BYU.

Missouri would be a fun one as well.

Former Pepperdine Wave, Javan Porter on the roster, although he had been dealing with injury

a lot of the year.

Fox Sports also has St. Mary's as a seven seed and Santa Clara.

They have him down as an 11 seed.

There's still some hesitation with Santa Clara.

I feel personally like the Broncos are going to be a 10 seed.

I think they have deserved to be further off of the bubble with the fact that they continue

to win games and the teams on the bubble continue to lose games.

Auburn, Texas, Indiana, Cincinnati, Cal, like everybody who's kind of

borderline bubble has been losing left and right.

I think Santa Clara deserves the benefit of the doubt as a 10 seed, but hey, I'm just

happy to see them in every single one of these brackets, at least field of 68.

Their updated bracket has Gonzaga as a three seed playing against drum roll UC Irvine.

There is definitely a consensus, like I said, around where Gonzaga is going to land here

again.

I'm assuming any match up with UC Irvine likely is pitting Gonzaga in Portland in the West

region.

New 68 also has Wisconsin as the projected six seed, as well as Miami Ohio.

As the 11 seed, Miami Ohio is currently playing right now in their semi-final game of the

Mac tournament, and they are winning, but it is a very, very close game right now against

UMass.

We'll see if they lose that game for the record.

I'm not going to go into a full tangent about this.

They deserve to be in the NCAA tournament, even if they lose this game.

100% still deserve an at large bid.

I think they'll still get one, but we'll see what ends up happening there.

Field of 68 also has the same areas as the seven seed, Santa Clara as a ten seed.

Bracketeer, my good buddy, Rocco Miller runs that site over there, got to talk to him in

Vegas this week.

He has Gonzaga as a three seed playing against UC Irvine, and I was not kidding about there

being a consensus here.

He has BYU as the six seed, San Diego State as the 11 seed, so it either be a former

Pac-12 or a former conference foe or a future conference foe in that second round match-up.

Not a lot of people still haven't San Diego State in the field, but Rocco is a believer

in the Aztecs.

Also again, the bubble has completely collapsed, so they are a team that still deserves to

be in that conversation.

Rocco has the same areas as the seven seed and Santa Clara as a ten seed, basket under

review.

Bracketology done by the great Lucas Harkins has Gonzaga as a three seed taken on UC Irvine

five out of these six.

Not only have Gonzaga as a three seed, but have them taken on the same opponent in the

first round game, BYU as the six seed, NC State is the 11 seed, NC State currently in

a battle right now with Virginia, early in the second half as I'm recording this, if

NC State pulls off a win here, they probably are going to move up closer to the ten seed

line.

Good news for Gonzaga.

In multiple ways, we'll talk about that later in the show.

Harkins also has the seven seed and Santa Clara as a ten seed.

And last, and I'm going to say least, last and least is CBS.

And I say least tongue in cheek because they're the only bracket out of these six that does

not have Gonzaga as a three seed.

They have Gonzaga as the four seed.

They have them taking on Utah Valley, the projected winner out of the Western Athletic Conference.

And they have Gonzaga potentially scoring off against number five seed, North Carolina,

or number 12 seed, McNeese in the second round.

McNeese would be a match up of the first round tournament two years ago, first round

game for Gonzaga two years ago, North Carolina would of course be a rematch of the 2017

national championship game there without their star player Caleb Wilson, which makes them

a little bit more vulnerable potentially.

CBS not only is lower on Gonzaga, they are lower on both of the other WCC teams as well.

They have St. Mary's down as a nine seed, surprising to me to see them that low.

And they have Santa Clara as they play in 11 seed.

The only bracket that has Santa Clara, not safely in the field.

The only bracket that has St. Mary's lower than a seven seed, the only bracket that

has Gonzaga lower than a three seed.

CBS clearly hates the WCC.

There is no other determination than that.

Maybe their Mad ESPN's got most of the rights to the West Coast Conference who knows, but

certainly a bit of a aberration compared to all of the other brackets that we pulled

here.

Not that there aren't other brackets that have Gonzaga as a four seed.

I don't want to imply that every other person who talks about March Madness has Gonzaga

as a three seed.

But it is pretty clearly the majority at this point and seems like the likely thing we're

going to see happen on Sunday.

In Wagon's Aga may seem fairly safe as a three seed.

There are still a handful of teams that are worth rooting against this week.

And for some of those teams, it's not going to be that hard for us Gonzaga fans to feel

like rooting against them.

We're going to talk more about that coming up here in just a second.

I'm Clea Butler, host of Lockdown Women's Basketball.

And this is Mazda's Women's Basketball Snapshot, celebrating the work no highlight reel

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With a resume that includes 18 quad won wins and one of the toughest schedules in the country,

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All right, folks.

Hey, if you've been thinking about joining me every day or club, now is the perfect time.

Again, you don't only get ad free episodes of the show and access to our group chat on

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Well folks, like we said, we're going to continue to talk about what Gonzaga needs to do to get

a 3C.

There's nothing else in their control that they can do, but what we need to see happen over

the next couple of days.

And before we get into that, I do want to mention quickly.

I just checked the score and it turns out, my am you how I did not win their quarter final

game or semi final game in the Mac tournament.

They lost to UMass.

Look, I will stand by it.

They absolutely unquestionably should be in the tournament.

It would be a huge travesty if a team that went undefeated in the regular season went 31

and won and lost one game did not make the tournament.

I will step off the soapbox on that.

I just wanted to make sure we get that out there.

Here are the four teams.

There are others that are kind of in this three, four seed range that in theory them winning

or losing could be a positive or negative thing for Gonzaga in terms of where they end

up seeded win selection Sunday rolls around on Sunday, March 15th at 3PM, but these four

teams in particular feel significant on pretty much every bracket out there, every projection

for this field of 68.

These teams are around Gonzaga.

And if any of them stumble early in their conference tournament and we're talking about

teams from four of the five power conferences we got an SEC team, a big 10 team, a big 12

team and an ACC team represented here, if any of them stumble, that likely pushes those

teams down closer to the four seed line or prevents them from climbing into the three seed

line and kind of clears a path for Gonzaga to be a more obvious kind of iron clad number

three seed.

Again, I think they're going to end up there regardless, but if all four of these teams

were to win an extra game in their respective tournament, pull off an upset that they're

not expected to win.

That could be enough to swing the tide slight pun intended there and push Gonzaga down to

a four seed.

We'll start with Alabama.

Hence the pun there with the Crimson Tide, Alabama is 17th in the net, so 11 spots lower

than Gonzaga.

They are 19th at Kenpom, 15th in wins above bubbles, so excuse me, 14th in Kenpom, excuse

me, either way, three spots lower than Gonzaga and Kenpom, one spot lower than them in wins

above bubble, 11 spots lower in the net and yet a lot of places, so Gonzaga also beat them

in a head to head match up this year on a neutral floor, despite all that, there are

still some brackets that have Alabama ahead of Gonzaga and they have some metrics that

are positive for them, a higher strength of schedule, more quad one wins, etc.

But I think right now, Alabama is one of those teams vying for one of those last three

seeds with Gonzaga.

They feel like kind of direct comparison with Gonzaga right now.

Their next game, the only team on here that is not playing on Thursday, they will play

on Friday because they got to, I think it's a triple buy in the SEC tournament and they're

going to play the winner of tonight's game between number 7C, Georgia and number 15

seed Ole Miss and the SEC tournament.

That game is at 4pm tonight on the SEC network if you want to check it out.

Either of those games, either of those teams, if Alabama were to lose to them, would probably

push them to a four seed.

The best case scenario for Gonzaga fans is that Ole Miss picks up a win here over Georgia.

It's also probably a good scenario for St. Mary's fans because Georgia would probably drop

to an 8-9, which would probably keep St. Mary's cemented in that 7-seed conversation.

St. Mary's fans would also probably love that Jordan Ross transferred from St. Mary's

to Georgia and then gets a lower seed in the tournament.

I digress, anyway, if Ole Miss beats Georgia and then Ole Miss somehow beats Alabama,

which I do not think will happen, Ole Miss is not good, but here they are already advanced

farther than they were expected to.

That would be a situation where Alabama would almost certainly fall to a four seed.

If Georgia wins and then Georgia beats Alabama, that's going to be a little bit closer.

It's going to be Gonzaga and Alabama are going to be tight.

I still think Gonzaga would have the benefit of the doubt with Alabama losing to Georgia,

but it would be close.

If Alabama wins this game, if they beat Ole Miss, it doesn't move the needle much at all.

If they beat Georgia, it moves the needle a little bit, but it's an out game they're expected

to win, so it doesn't really help them all that much.

It does set up a matchup in the semifinals.

Again, there's a lot of situations that could develop, but the most likely outcome is

that they end up playing Arkansas.

It could be Texas A&M, it could be Oklahoma, but it's likely going to be Arkansas.

Then if Alabama beats Arkansas, then I think they're very likely to be a three seed, and

that could be at the expense of Gonzaga.

They are a team to keep a close eye on as the SEC tournament gets underway.

Number two going over the big 12 is the J-Hawks of Kansas, their 19th and the net, 19th

at Kenpom, 15th in wins above bubble.

Again, Gonzaga has a better resume by those metrics than Kansas does.

Their next game is tonight 6.30 pm against number 6 seed, TCU, Kansas is the three seed

in the big 12th tournament.

A loss probably keeps them in the four seed, that mostly it's showing up as a four seed

right now.

The Alabama might be ahead of Gonzaga right now, at least in some places.

The committee probably has Gonzaga ahead of Kansas right now, so if Kansas loses this

game to TCU, I don't think they're much of a threat to a three seed for Gonzaga, but

if they win, they then will play either Houston or BYU, and either of those games, a win

for Kansas could push them into the three seed territory.

So for Alabama, we're rooting for them to lose.

For Kansas, it's more of like their team, it's probably already behind them, they just can't

go on a heater.

They can't pull an upset.

And beating BYU would not be an upset, but if they beat TCU and then BYU, that might

be enough to put them in that three seed conversation.

I think they might still need one more win to like cement it, but that would at least

make it a lot closer for the J-hawks.

Next up in the ACC is Virginia.

We talked about them already, they're playing an NC state right now.

A few minutes into the second half is a four point game, so it could go either way.

Virginia 13th in that 20th at Kenpama, 12th in wins above bubble.

If they lose this game, I think they drop to a four seed.

If NC state is the winner here, I think because Virginia not only loses this game, they

do not get another opportunity to play a team like Louisville or Miami, which is who they

would play, if they win this game.

So I think that probably puts Virginia on the four seed.

If they win this game, I think they stay in the three seed conversation.

And then if they play either Louisville or Miami and win that game, then I think they're

very much locked in to a three seed because after that, they would probably play Duke

most likely and even a loss there is not going to hurt them very much.

So Virginia is a team that if they win two games, I think that they're a lock as a three

seed.

If they win one game, they're probably going to end up a three seed.

But if they lose in the next 45 minutes as I'm recording this to NC state, I think you

feel pretty good as a Gonzaga fan that they're not a major threat to them on the three line.

Last but not least, although the way they've been playing as of late, they might be least

is the Boilermakers of Purdue, Matt Painter's team, 10th in the net, 8th at Kenpom, 14th

and wins above bubble.

Their next game is today, 3.30 p.m. against Northwestern, Purdue, the seven seed in the big

10 tournament, seven seed.

They've finished seventh in the big 10, a disastrous end to the year for the Boilermakers.

This was supposed to be their year.

They had a bunch of seniors, a very veteran laden team with a player of the year candidate

and Braden Smith, and here they are not even finishing top five in the big 10.

They only beat Northwestern by four last week on March 4th.

Now they play them again.

Northwestern's already won a couple of games in this tournament, just completely popped

the bubble for Indiana on Wednesday.

Now they have a chance to pull off a stunner and beat Purdue.

Purdue has been training as a two three for a long time, but they have played so bad

as of late that now they're pretty much locked in as a three assuming they win.

If they lose to Northwestern, I think there's a chance they fall to a four.

I think they probably should fall to a four.

I think they might get the benefit of the doubt, but I don't think they would get it over

Gonzaga.

I think a loss by Purdue to Northwestern puts Gonzaga ahead of Purdue in that three seed

conversation.

Should Purdue win this game, it does not move the needle for them in a positive way.

Even a blowout win does not help them all that much, but it does set up a following match

up against Illinois, which is a game that if they do win that, if Purdue beats Northwestern

and beats Illinois, they will be ahead of Gonzaga on Selection Sunday.

I feel very confident in projecting that.

I don't know that that knocks Gonzaga all the way to a three seed or excuse me to a four

seed, but it certainly puts Purdue ahead of them.

If that happens and Alabama wins a few games, suddenly Gonzaga's spot on the four line gets

a little bit more tenuous.

So to recap, SEC Tournament Root Against Alabama, Big 12 Tournament Root Against Kansas,

ACC Tournament Root Against Virginia, Big 10 Tournament Root Against Purdue, Big East

Tournament Root For Whoever You Want, St. John's and Yukon, St. John's is not going to

be a three or four seed, Yukon's already locked in as a two seed, Villanova is not a threat,

Root For Whoever You Want, Root For Whoever You Want, Michael Jai is already out of the

tournament, but they're lost, so we can't root for him.

So it's whatever direction you want to go in that tournament.

Well folks, a former Gale just got a head coaching job in the new look, Pack 12, adding fuel

to a budding rivalry for Gonzaga.

We're going to talk about that and more coaching news all coming up here in just a second.

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I'll write folks, segment three, still any patent?

Still locked on Zach's podcast, so we're closing out the show, moving away from Bracketology

projections.

We'll get more into that on Friday's show as well.

To instead talk about some coaching changes going on in the college basketball space.

We're going to start with a new conference foe.

I say new.

We've been in the conference for the last couple of years, Oregon State, the beavers.

We knew when Gonzaga beat Oregon State on Monday in the semifinals of the West Coast

Conference tournaments, that that was the final game for Wayne Tinkle.

He had been told prior to the conference tournament, beginning that he was going to

be let go at the end of the season.

Athletic director Scott Barnes did not want another situation like 2021 when he was apparently

planning to fire Wayne Tinkle.

Tinkle then won the Pac-12 tournament and made it all the way to the elite eight.

He got an extension.

He went three and 28 the following year.

He said, Nope, not going to deal with that again.

We're going to let you go regardless of what happens in this tournament.

It's a crappy situation all around.

Certainly not going to get into all of the weeds about this, but it does not sound like

it has been handled particularly well on the Oregon State side of things.

But they have their new man.

It had been widely speculated and rumored that this is the direction they were going to

go.

They have hired Justin Joyner.

Justin Joyner was the head assistant coach under Dusty May and Michigan for the last

two years.

As you may know, Michigan's been pretty good.

The last couple of years in the Big 10 Joyner, prior to his two years at Michigan, spent

seven years as an assistant coach at St. Mary's.

So he is familiar with Gonzaga.

He is familiar with the West Coast.

He is familiar with a lot of the teams out here.

He's a recruiter in California.

He was the reason that Aiden Mahaney ended up at St. Mary's in the first place and part

of the reason that Mahaney transferred when was when Joyner left because that was kind

of his guy on the coaching staff.

Here is a well-respected up-and-coming assistant coach.

This seems like a big time hire for Oregon State.

A big swing carrying somebody with no prior D1 coaching experience.

But again, hiring high-level assistant coaches from top programs has worked out well.

Ask Arizona.

They know how it works.

Sometimes this goes really, really well.

I like this move.

It makes sense for Joyner.

His wife is actually the headwomen soccer coach at the University of Oregon.

He's going to be a heck of a lot closer to Eugene in Corvallis than he was in Ann Arbor.

So that's a nice move for him and his family.

And the Bennett coaching tree is electric.

Todd Golden comes from the Randy Bennett tree.

He played for St. Mary's.

He played under Bennett like he's familiar with him.

Kyle Smith, who was the head coach at San Francisco, then the head coach at Washington

State.

Now the head coach at Stanford.

He took Wazoo to the tournament.

He was very close to taking Stanford to the tournament.

He comes from the Randy Bennett coaching tree.

Aaron Gano, who's the head coach at Hawaii, who's over 60% of his games for a program that's

been historically kind of tough to recruit at.

He comes from the Bennett coaching tree.

And so does Rick Croy, who's 157% of his games at Cal Baptist, who was a D2 program until

Croy got there.

That's a really successful group of coaches coming out of Randy Bennett.

And now you have Justin Joyner getting his shot at Oregon State.

I love this hire.

I love that it adds a little juice to this rivalry.

Again, I don't know that we can fully call it a rivalry.

Yet, Gonzaga has blasted Oregon State in three of the four games they have played against

each other.

But the other game, Oregon State won in overtime and Corvallis.

And if you were there, it was a hostile environment.

There is some juice between these two teams.

And Joyner, again, I don't think he's going to come in being like, ah, screw Gonzaga because

I was an assistant at St. Mary's.

Like, I don't know if that is going to necessarily develop.

But like, it adds to it a little bit.

Like it adds a little bit to this rivalry already.

And I think that it's going to help make Oregon State a better basketball program, which

is the most important thing for a rivalry to develop is both teams got to be pretty good

for it to matter.

And I think that the fact that he did come from there is going to help a little bit with

his rivalry as well.

Speaking of other former WCC moving into the Pac-12 schools, while Oregon State is making

a move, Washington State is not.

They are planning to keep David Riley around.

I'm not surprised by this.

He's only been there two years.

You hire a young coach, like a very young coach, and you've got to give him a couple of

years.

But I've got to tell you, it hasn't been good for Washington State.

I mean, he's got 31 and 35, so it's not like he's been horrible.

He was 19 and 15 in his first year.

And then last year, or this most recent season, 12 and 20, dealt with a ton of injuries, though.

So you've got to give him the benefit of that now with all the injuries.

He's clearly able to identify talent.

Ace Glass is one of the most talented freshmen in the conference, one of the best scoring

freshmen in the country.

And he found him.

He was not even a top 100.

I think he's like 140th or something, 130th in the recruiting class comes in, average

is 16 points per game.

Like, he can find talent.

He identified some key talent in the transfer portal.

And I know it's a budget issue at Waza.

They're just not allocating a lot of money to the men's basketball program.

So I think you've got to give Riley more time.

You've got to give him the infrastructure to at least give him a chance to succeed.

But I have a feeling they're going to come to the Pac-12 as one of the lowest budget

schools in the conference.

And who's going to win with that?

Like, it's just impossible to win if you're getting out spent.

I mean, Wayne Tickle, again, going back to Oregon State, he said in an interview with

John Kanzano of The Walled Face Truth that his team was eighth in the WCC and spending.

I mean, that's horrendous.

That means, I mean, I am full of teams, probably Pepperdine, Portland, San Diego.

San Diego actually was probably ahead of them.

Pepperdine, Portland, maybe Pacific, maybe Seattle, you were the only teams behind

Oregon State in spending, Washington State's probably not that far ahead of them in spending

if they are even ahead of them.

So these program members, at such a disadvantage, and now they're going to go into a Pac-12,

where they're going to get out spent by San Diego State.

They're going to get out spent by Boise State and Utah State and Colorado State.

Like, I don't know by how much.

Those programs all have football, obviously, that they have to pay as well.

But it's a tough deal when you're competing against teams that are all spending more money

than you.

And I think it's unfair to fire a coach for that when they're doing the best they can.

It's also why I'm not surprised that Shantay Legons is being retained at the University

of Portland, not just because he beat Gonzaga, but because he has done a lot with very little

resources.

And firing that coach, if you're not going to give them more resources, just means you're

going to bring in another coach who's going to be hamstrung by the same issues.

So we'll see if Portland tries to allocate some more money or gets some more money to

spend on their basketball team before they make a move with Legons, but I'm not surprised

to hear he's sticking around.

I don't expect any other coaching changes here.

We already saw the Oregon State move, Wazoo already said they're keeping their coach.

Obviously, Gonzaga's not doing anything.

San Diego State's not going to make a move.

They're holding on to Brian Dutcher, Boise State's not going to make a move.

Fresno State's got a young coach, Colorado State, Allie Farouk, Manesh is a young coach.

None of those programs are making moves.

Texas State has announced they're retaining their head coach, Taren Shonson, which I'm

surprised they made this announcement of like, hey, he's sticking around like, yeah, he

went 19 and 13 last year.

Like, that's pretty good.

In the sunbelt, he's 171 overall in his time at Texas State.

So he seems like a solid coach to stick around.

The only school I didn't mention is Utah State.

Utah State is not going to fire Jared Calhoun.

There's no chance of that 0.0% chance.

The reason Utah State might have a coaching chain though is that Jared Calhoun could

go somewhere else.

He is an alum of Cincinnati.

Cincinnati just had an incredibly embarrassing loss to Central Florida in the big 12 tournament.

And that killed their very small bubble chances.

That's Miller.

Now, in his sixth year at Cincinnati has yet to sniff the NCAA tournament.

I think there might be a move made there.

And if they can hire Calhoun, who again went to Cincinnati, who has been wildly successful

at Utah State, I think they're going to do it.

I think Kansas State is going to look very hard at Jared Calhoun.

There are other programs, Syracuse, Providence, like Arizona State, like a lot of places

that could look at Jared Calhoun, which would mean that Utah State might have to make

a move.

Hopefully, they're hoping they do not have to.

A couple of other WCC moves, Justin Joyner was not the only high major assistant coach

to get a head coaching job in the WCC.

Jared Blunt was hired by San Diego, lead assistant coach at Iowa State for a long time, very,

very well respected young coach, getting an opportunity to coach a program in San Diego

that a lot of people are considering a sleeping giant with the amount of resources that they

have in a new practice facility could be a team to keep an eye on in the WCC, Ed Schilling

and let go by Pepperdine.

I only got two years.

It's kind of the opposite of the David Riley-Sante-Leggins thing of like, why bring in a coach if you're

not going to give many resources and then fire him for failing when he did not have the

resources to compete?

Also, I don't know if Pepperdine has somebody in mind, but their last hire, Schilling,

was a 20-year assistant coach.

He was an older guy.

He was a mid-major assistant coach, he was a assistant coach of Grand Canyon.

If the best you can get, when this is not to be disrespectful to Schilling at all, but

if the best coach that you could get in the cycle two years ago was a 50-something-year-old

career assistant coach who wasn't even at a high-major, why are you canning him and

going back into the coaching market unless you have somebody in mind?

Maybe they do.

Maybe they do.

The good news for Gonzaga fans, we don't have to pay that much attention to Pepperdine anymore

because they have not been relevant in a very long time and they will no longer be

in Gonzaga's conference going forward.

Another high-major coaching change is Bobby Hurley out at Arizona State.

Not a huge shock to see that.

Yes, I see the rumors swirling around Randy Bennett.

I don't think it's going to happen.

If I'm wrong, I'll eat pro on the show.

Randy Bennett has reportedly turned down Arizona State multiple times in the past.

He's like, oh, Gonzaga's out of the WCC.

The resources I think Randy Bennett has locked in, I do not think he is going to Arizona

State.

I will say that now.

Here is where Bobby Hurley ends up, though.

Damon Stautamire, former head coach at Pacific, former WCC coach of the year actually is

out at Georgia Tech.

It was a disaster from the get-go for him at Georgia Tech lost their last 12 games this

year.

Curious where Stautamire ends up, I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up back in the NBA.

And then Red Otri let go at Syracuse, the coach who is a hard-to-replace legend.

He replaced Jim Beheim who was there since the Gerald Ford era.

Tough, tough job.

Three years didn't make the NCAA tournament.

Otri now out the door for Curious.

All right, folks, that's going to wrap it up for me today.

I will be live again on Friday at noon Pacific time.

We'll talk more about Bracketology.

We'll do some fun stuff on Friday show, the last show before Selection Sunday.

And of course, I'll have a recap show after that, after I'm done with the Bracket breakdown

stuff for Amazon Fire TV.

Thanks again, folks.

Have a fantastic rest of your day.

And remember, we're rooting against Virginia, Purdue, Kansas, and Alabama.

So to check out those games today, root against those teams, see if we can get Gonzaga onto

the three line.

Thanks again, folks.

Have a fantastic rest of your day.

And of course, as always, go Zags.

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