Gonzaga

Matt Bouldin had 18 points and five assists to help No. 13 Gonzaga defeat Pepperdine, 72-54, Saturday night at Malibu. Elias Harris scored 13 points and Steven Gray scored 12 for the Bulldogs (22-5, 10-2 in West Coast Conference play), who won for the 14th time in 16 games. The Bulldogs need one more victory to secure the top seeding in the WCC tournament and clinch at least a tie for their 10th consecutive regular-season title. Keion Bell had 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Waves (7-21, 3-9)

Wichita State Coach Gregg Marshall can't wait to get the Shockers to Los Angeles for the West Regional at Staples Center. His ninth-seeded team meets No. 13 La Salle in Thursday night's battle of NCAA overlooked underdogs. Two wins in the West earns one team a trip to the Final Four. You might expect Marshall to be nervous staring into the bright lights of our city, but, truth be told, he's already been front-page news here. His face graced the cover of this Sports section March 16, 1999.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Was this the day a No. 16-seeded team finally defeated a No. 1 in the NCAA tournament? No, but the final word on it was "whew. " Top-ranked Gonzaga had to dig deep and hold on tight until the end to defeat Southern University, 64-58, at EnergySolutions Arena. PHOTOS: 2013 NCAA tournament Gonzaga, the No. 1 team in the nation and the top-seeded team in the West Regional, earned a Saturday match against Wichita State. The winner of that game advances to next week's regional finals at Staples Center.

Scratch No. 1 Gonzaga out of your bracket and replace it with the Shockers. It was a real shocker, all right. Ninth-seeded Wichita State hit the bull's eye when it came to knocking out the top-seeded Bulldogs, scoring a thrilling 76-70 victory in front of a crowd of 16,060 at EnergySolutions Arena. The win sends Wichita State to next week's West Regional semifinals at Staples Center. The Shockers will face the winner of Sunday's game between Mississippi and La Salle. “This feeling is unimaginable,” said freshman guard Ron Baker, one of Wichita State's heroes.

Ashley Hamilton scored 17 points and Drew Viney had 16 points, 10 rebounds and five assists to lead Loyola Marymount to a 74-66 upset of No. 13 Gonzaga on Thursday. The victory was the first for the Lions (14-13, 5-6 West Coast Conference) over a ranked team since the 1990 NCAA tournament, when they defeated Alabama in the West Regional semifinals. Gonzaga (21-5, 9-2) had won 13 of 14. Portland 83, at Pepperdine 62: Jared Stohl and T.J. Campbell each scored 18 points for the Pilots (17-8, 8-3 WCC)

LAS VEGAS - Back in the day, when Gonzaga was the epitome of the cuddly underdog, it could show up in a gym and count on unconditional love from everybody in the house and anybody holding a TV remote. Saturday night in the West Coast Conference semifinals, the Bulldogs became part of the Vegas glitterati, sporting their freshly conferred No. 1 ranking in the polls. Tough business, then, trying to cop an underdog role. And for half the night, the Bulldogs played like they were better the old way, with Gonzaga trailing by one point at the half.

Pepperdine, which defeated Portland, 81-66, Thursday night for its first road win of the season, meets Gonzaga tonight in a West Coast Athletic Conference game at Spokane, Wash. The Waves, 9-14 overall and 4-6 in conference play, are tied for fifth place with Santa Clara and the University of San Francisco. Teams that finish in the top four in the conference will play at home in the first round of the WCAC tournament on Feb. 28.

Sophomore forward Jim McPhee scored 27 points to lead Gonzaga to an 84-70 victory over Pepperdine in a West Coast Athletic Conference game Saturday night. The victory ensured Gonzaga, 17-7 overall and 8-3 in the WCAC, of a home berth in the first round of the conference tournament. Pepperdine fell to 9-15 and 4-7. Sophomore guard Doug Spradley was 3 of 3 from three-point range in scoring 21 points for Gonzaga. Eric White and Ed Allen each scored 21 for Pepperdine.

Scratch No. 1 Gonzaga out of your bracket and replace it with the Shockers. It was a real shocker, all right. Ninth-seeded Wichita State hit the bull's eye when it came to knocking out the top-seeded Bulldogs, scoring a thrilling 76-70 victory in front of a crowd of 16,060 at EnergySolutions Arena. The win sends Wichita State to next week's West Regional semifinals at Staples Center. The Shockers will face the winner of Sunday's game between Mississippi and La Salle. “This feeling is unimaginable,” said freshman guard Ron Baker, one of Wichita State's heroes.

Gonzaga, seeded 11th, took advantage of playing on its home court with a 92-86 upset of No. 6 Iowa on Saturday at Spokane, Wash., on the first day of the NCAA women's tournament. Led by Courtney Vandersloot's 34 points, the Bulldogs (29-4) shot 57% in the second half to beat the Hawkeyes (22-9) in the Spokane Regional. No. 1 Stanford 86, No. 16 UC Davis 59: The Cardinal (30-2) beat the pesky Aggies (24-9) and ran their school-record winning streak at home to 62 games. No. 4 Kentucky 66, No. 13 Hampton 62 (OT)

SALT LAKE CITY  -- Arizona is thrilled to be playing Harvard on Saturday on its way to next week's West regional in Los Angeles. No one can say that, but it's only human Tucson nature. Wanting to play No. 14 instead of No. 3 to reach the Sweet 16 is a no-brainer. Arizona in its head is thinking, "We get Harvard instead of a New Mexico team some had penciled for the Final Four. " Arizona is thrilled, but it should also be terrified. Have you been paying attention?

SALT LAKE CITY -- Was this the day a No. 16-seeded team finally defeated a No. 1 in the NCAA tournament? No, but the final word on it was "whew. " Top-ranked Gonzaga had to dig deep and hold on tight until the end to defeat Southern University, 64-58, at EnergySolutions Arena. PHOTOS: 2013 NCAA tournament Gonzaga, the No. 1 team in the nation and the top-seeded team in the West Regional, earned a Saturday match against Wichita State. The winner of that game advances to next week's regional finals at Staples Center.

SALT LAKE CITY - What a sight it was seeing Gonzaga star center Kelly Olynyk consoling a distraught opponent who fell just short of pulling off one of the great upsets in NCAA tournament history. Southern guard Derick Beltran was bent over at half court at EnergySolutions Arena when Olynyk passed by to give him a great-effort pat. Gonzaga needed every lifeboat dropped Thursday to survive upstart Southern, 64-58, and avoid becoming the first top-seeded team to lose to a No. 16. PHOTOS: 2013 NCAA tournament No. 1's record against 16 going into this tournament was 112-0.

SALT LAKE CITY - Top collegiate athletic directors need many things but should not live without a back-door office exit or a secret list of coaching candidates in advance of their next football and basketball openings. It doesn't matter if your coach just won a national title. He could leave for the pros. Your coach could appear to be upstanding one day and the next day fall off a motorcycle with his mistress. It doesn't matter if Coach X just led his school to the regular-season Pac-12 championship.

It couldn't be better. That's how UCLA women's basketball Coach Cori Close described what happened Monday after the NCAA women's college basketball tournament draw was revealed. The Bruins (25-7) received a No. 3 seeding, which is the best they have ever received. They will play their first game, against 14th-seeded Stetson (24-8), and, if they win, their second game against either sixth-seeded Oklahoma or 11th-seeded Central Michigan, at what is a neutral site, in Columbus, Ohio.

  Join Times college basketball writer Chris Dufresne and college basketball editor Mike Hiserman at 11 a.m. today for a live video chat as they discuss the upcoming NCAA men's tournament. As Dufrense wrote on Sunday , "Louisville deservedly and emphatically garnered this year's top overall seeding after elbowing its way to the Big East tournament title. "This turned out to be a not-very-controversial Selection Sunday in a wide-open year when it was tough to find 68 qualified applicants.

A look at UCLA's second-round NCAA tournament game against Gonzaga on Monday. Gonzaga; Ht; Stats; P; UCLA; Ht; Stats Kayla Standish; 6-2; 17.0 ppg; F; Jasmine Dixon; 6-0; 11.9 ppg Kelly Bowen; 6-0; 5.0 rpg; F; Markel Walker; 6-1; 8.5 ppg Janelle Bekkering; 6-0; 11.3 ppg; F; Atonye Nyingifa; 5-11; 8.9 ppg Courtney Vandersloot; 5-8; 19.1 ppg; G; Darxia Morris; 5-8; 12.0 ppg Katelon Redmon;6-1 ; 17.0 ppg; G; Doreena Campbell;...

This is why college basketball is better than college football: Gonzaga. Gonzaga against Pepperdine is as meaningful as Duke against Maryland. Why? Because Pepperdine gets to see if it is tournament-ready against a national power. When Fresno State and Brigham Young threatened to have undefeated seasons and begged for bowl champiosnhip series respect, they got jealousy instead from the big schools. But in NCAA basketball, Gonzaga can exist. Gonzaga's national success--going to the NCAA tournament's Elite Eight and Sweet 16, playing a national schedule and beating such teams as Texas, New Mexico, Fresno State, Washington and Washington State--brings the West Coast Conference national recognition and respect.

Kentucky is the top-seeded team entering this year's NCAA tournament that tips off Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio, and ends on a Monday in Atlanta. Check that: A team from Kentucky, coached by a former Kentucky coach, is top-seeded entering the NCAA tournament. Sorry, it's easy to mix that up. Louisville deservedly and emphatically garnered this year's top overall seeding after elbowing its way to the Big East tournament title. Kentucky, the defending national champion, didn't make the cut. But the Wildcats did get a No. 1 seeding for the NIT. We will dearly miss the in-tournament dynamic of a rivalry that last year produced a fan fight in a dialysis center before the Final Four matchup won by Kentucky.

Seeded teams 1 GONZAGA: Coach Mark Few's West Coast Conference-champion Bulldogs have a 14-game winning streak. Their only losses came against Illinois and Butler. 2 OHIO STATE: The Buckeyes defeated Wisconsin to win the Big Ten Conference tournament title. Now they will try to win their first NCAA championship since 1960. 3 NEW MEXICO: Steve Alford won an NCAA title as an Indiana player and has coached his team through one of the nation's toughest schedules in terms of RPI. 4 KANSAS STATE: Three of the Wildcats' seven losses came against Kansas, seeded No. 2 overall.