Perhaps for the first time in over a decade, the Gonzaga Bulldogs will have to head to the East Coast for the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Following its 69-60 loss to Saint Mary's in the West Coast Conference Tournament championship, Gonzaga (25-7, 14-2 WCC) is projected to play in a loaded East Region by some notable bracketology experts.
ESPN's Joe Lunardi has the Zags on the 7-seed line facing 10-seed Oklahoma in Charlotte for the first round. The last time the programs faced each other was in the second round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament in Indianapolis, where Drew Timme dropped 30 points in an 87-71 win over Austin Reeves (27 points) and the 8-seeded Sooners. Timme and the undefeated Bulldogs would march their way to the National Championship game before falling short to Baylor in the title game.
Based on Lunardi's projections, Gonzaga would likely square off with No. 2-seed North Carolina in the second round. The Bulldogs and Tar Heels notably met in the 2017 title game and more recently at The Kennel in 2019.
CBS Sports' Jerry Palm also projects the Bulldogs and Sooners to square off in the first round as 8- and 9-seeds, respectively, with the winner likely facing 1-seed UConn in the second round. Mark Few's and Dan Hurley's programs have become quite familiar with one another over the past year, as the Huskies downed the Zags in the Elite Eight last March and again in Seattle this past December. UConn has won five of the previous seven head-to-head meetings.
The Selection Committee will have an interesting time weighing Gonzaga's NET ranking against its at-large resume on Selection Sunday. Its NET ranking (17th) would indicate it being either a 5- or 6-seed, though its number of Quad 1 and Quad 2 wins (seven) doesn't even match that of the 8- or 7-seeds in last season's NCAA Tournament. It's quite possible the Zags will set a new precedent if Lunardi's or Palm's predictions hold true.
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