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Bracketologist Updates Gonzaga's NCAA Tournament Seed After WCC Championship

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Andy Patton | Last updated Mar 12, 2025 11:50 AM ET

Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs secured a spot in the 2025 NCAA Tournament with a gritty 58-51 win over the Saint Mary's Gaels in the WCC championship game on Tuesday night in Las Vegas.

The win gave the Zags four Quad 1 victories on the year, three which have come in the past two weeks. And while Gonzaga won't play any more games until the big dance, they could pick up two more Quad 1 wins if Baylor (33 in the NET) and Indiana (52 in the NET) can move up three and two spots, respectively.

Baylor faces Kansas State in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament on Wednesday, while Indiana faces Oregon on Thursday in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament.

Either way, a top ten placement in both the NET and KenPom, plus a WCC championship, should get Gonzaga off the dreaded 8-9 seed line heading into March Madness.

ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi agrees, moving Gonzaga up to a No. 7 seed in the midwest region where they are projected to face No. 10 seed Drake in Lexington. The No. 2 seed, Alabama, is in the quadrant as well alongside No. 15 seed Wofford.

Drake won the Missouri Valley Conference in head coach Ben McCollum's first season, going 30-3 overall with significant non-conference victories over Vanderbilt, Kansas State, Miami, and Florida Atlantic. Led by star guard Bennett Stirtz, Drake plays at a glacial pace (364th in tempo at KenPom) and possesses a top 50 defense in the country whole shooting 35% from three and 54.6% on twos.

Elsewhere in the WCC, Saint Mary's is still projected as a No. 6 seed in Lunardi's updated bracket, in the West Region against No. 11 VCU out of the Atlantic 10. A win could pit them against Mark Pope and No. 3 seed Kentucky.

Other Gonzaga opponents from this year in Lunardi's updated bracketology include Kentucky (3 seed), UCLA (6), UConn (8), West Virginia (9), Baylor (10), and San Diego State (10). Indiana remains just on the right side of the bubble, projected to face Oklahoma in a play-in game to earn a No. 11 seed, where the winner would face No. 6 seed Kansas in Providence.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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