Gonzaga

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.

Although Gonzaga's Adam Morrison and Duke's J.J. Redick are very fine basketball players, Diane Pucin's feeble efforts to make Morrison out as the better player is an insult to any knowledgeable sports fan. Duke plays the toughest schedule in college basketball, according to the RPI. Gonzaga is ranked ninth and it plays in a conference full of patsies. Until Morrison has to consistently play against top teams, like Redick, he is undeserving of any collegiate MVP awards. JACK ALLEN Pacific Palisades

All hail Gonzaga, undisputed king of the West Coast Conference. In Malibu, eyes roll. Conference awards were announced this week, apparently to the tune of "Who Let the Bulldogs Out?" Player of the year: Casey Calvary of Gonzaga. Coach of the Year: Mark Few of Gonzaga. Defensive Player of the Year: Mark Spinks of Gonzaga. Newcomer of the year: Blake Stepp of Gonzaga. If there was an award for locker room custodian of the year, the winner undoubtedly would be from Gonzaga.

Mike Penner dismisses Gonzaga as an "overrated West Coast wannabe." Tell that to Washington, Oklahoma State and Georgia Tech, all of whom fell to the Zags this year. Contrary to Penner's view, Gonzaga does deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the hoop elite such as Wake Forest, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Kansas and Syracuse, all also absent from the round of 16. Pretty good company, huh, Mike? Larry Lasseter Brea OK, so it's game day, Thursday, hours before tipoff on KCBS, and it is the only major CBS affiliate that has not published on its website for its viewers what NCAA games it plans to show tonight.

Senior center David Cooke scored a game-high 29 points and had nine rebounds to lead St. Mary's to a 76-71 victory over Pepperdine in West Coast Athletic Confernce action Saturday night. The loss snapped Pepperdine's eight-game winning streak and dropped the Waves to 14-7 overall and into a first-place tie with Gonzaga in the WCAC at 3-1. St. Mary's improved to 10-8 overall.

Maybe Robert Sacre isn't so irrelevant after all. The rookie center out of Gonzaga might make the Lakers' roster after showing some muscle and ability in the exhibition season. Sacre was the 60th and last player taken in the NBA draft in June, a position known in the much longer NFL draft as "Mr. Irrelevant. " If Sacre is still on the roster for the Oct. 30 season opener against Dallas, it's not a sure thing he'll be on it the rest of the season. He has a non-guaranteed contract that pays him $474,000 and becomes guaranteed the rest of the season only if he is on the roster in early January.

Perhaps the clearest indication of the Lakers' hopes for their draft picks came earlier this week when the team signed undrafted rookies Reeves Nelson and Greg Somogyi before either of the players they had taken in the second round in June. The Lakers finally signed Gonzaga forward-center Robert Sacre on Friday, though it was unclear if the contract was non-guaranteed and amounted to little more than an invitation to training camp. Sacre's agent, Keith Kreiter, would not divulge the terms of the contract.

  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.

In the last three weeks of the West Coast Athletic Conference basketball race, Pepperdine is jockeying for better position. But the Waves may be riding the wrong horse this week. The Waves, 3-6 in conference play and 8-14 overall, are on the road, where they are 0-9 this season. They are at Portland (5-4, 13-9) tonight and go against Gonzaga (6-3, 15-7) on Saturday night.