2019 West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament

The 2019 West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball tournament for the West Coast Conference during the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, held March 7–12 at the Orleans Arena in Paradise, Nevada.^[1] Saint Mary's upset top-ranked Gonzaga 60–47 in the championship game and received the conference's automatic bid to the 68-team NCAA tournament.

2019 West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	2018–19
Teams	10
Site	Orleans Arena Paradise, Nevada
Champions	Saint Mary's (4th title)
Winning coach	Randy Bennett (3rd title)
MVP	Jordan Hunter (Saint Mary's)
Television	BYUtv, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU
West Coast Conference men's basketball tournaments ← 2018 2020 →

2018–19 West Coast Conference men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 4 Gonzaga	16	–	0		1.000			33	–	4		.892
Saint Mary's †	11	–	5		.688			22	–	12		.647
BYU	11	–	5		.688			19	–	13		.594
San Francisco	9	–	7		.563			21	–	10		.677
Loyola Marymount	8	–	8		.500			22	–	12		.647
Santa Clara	8	–	8		.500			16	–	15		.516
San Diego	7	–	9		.438			21	–	15		.583
Pepperdine	6	–	10		.375			16	–	18		.471
Pacific	4	–	12		.250			14	–	18		.438
Portland	0	–	16		.000			7	–	25		.219
† 2019 WCC tournament winner Rankings from AP poll

It was the fourth WCC tournament title for Saint Mary's, their first since 2012, and the Gaels were seeded eleventh in the South regional of the NCAA Tournament. With the loss, Gonzaga fell to fourth in the national rankings, but was still the top seed in the West regional.

Seeds

All ten WCC schools teams participated in the tournament, seeded by conference record, with a tiebreaker system for identical conference records. The tournament returned to a format similar to that used from 2003 to 2011, with slight changes to the terminology used for the rounds prior to the semifinals. The 7 through 10 seeds will play in the "first round", the 5 and 6 seeds will start play in the "second round", and the 3 and 4 seeds will start in the "third round". The top two seeds will receive byes into the semifinals.

As the regular-season champion, Gonzaga clinched a semifinal spot, and technically secured a place in the NIT.^[2] However, the Bulldogs were all but certain to receive an NCAA Tournament bid regardless of results in the conference tournament, given that they entered the final week of the conference season as the top-ranked team in the AP poll.

Saint Mary's also clinched a semifinal berth as the regular season runner-up. BYU and San Francisco clinched double byes, while LMU and Santa Clara had single byes. San Diego, Pepperdine, Pacific and Portland played in the first round.^[1][3]

Seed	School	Record	Tiebreaker 1	Tiebreaker 2
1	Gonzaga	16–0
2	Saint Mary's	11–5	1–1 vs. BYU	0–2 vs. Gonzaga, 1–1 vs. USF
3	BYU	11–5	1–1 vs. SMC	0–2 vs. Gonzaga, 0–2 vs. USF
4	San Francisco	9–7
5	Loyola Marymount	8–8	2–0 vs. SCU
6	Santa Clara	8–8	0–2 vs. LMU
7	San Diego	7–9
8	Pepperdine	6–10
9	Pacific	4–12
10	Portland	0–16

Schedule

Session	Game	Time*	Matchup^#	Score	Television	Attendance
First round – Thursday March 7, 2019
1	1	6:00 pm	8 Pepperdine vs. 9 Pacific	61–53	TheW.tv
	2	8:00 pm	7 San Diego vs. 10 Portland	67–47
Second round – Friday March 8, 2019
2	3	6:00 pm	5 Loyola Marymount vs. 8 Pepperdine	65–68	TheW.tv
	4	8:00 pm	6 Santa Clara vs. 7 San Diego	45–62
Third round – Saturday, March 9, 2019
3	5	7:00 pm	4 San Francisco vs 8 Pepperdine	72–89	ESPN2
	6	9:00 pm	3 BYU vs 7 San Diego	57–80
Semifinals – Monday, March 11, 2019
4	7	6:00 pm	1 Gonzaga vs 8 Pepperdine	100–74	ESPN
	8	8:30 pm	2 Saint Mary's vs 7 San Diego	69–62	ESPN2
Championship – Tuesday, March 12, 2019
5	9	6:00 pm	1 Gonzaga vs. 2 Saint Mary's	47–60	ESPN
*Game times in PT. #-Rankings denote tournament seeding.

Bracket

	First round Thursday, March 7					Second round Friday, March 8					Third round Saturday, March 9					Semifinals Monday, March 11					Championship Tuesday, March 12
																1	Gonzaga	100
																8	Pepperdine	74
											4	San Francisco	72
											8	Pepperdine	89
						5	Loyola Marymount	65
	8	Pepperdine	61			8	Pepperdine	68
	9	Pacific	53																		1	Gonzaga	47
																					2	Saint Mary's	60
																2	Saint Mary's	69
																7	San Diego	62
											3	BYU	57
											7	San Diego	80
						6	Santa Clara	45
	7	San Diego	67			7	San Diego	62
	10	Portland	47

References

1. "West Coast Conference Official Athletic Site". wccsports.com. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
2. "NIT bracket 2019: Printable .PDF for the National Invitation Tournament". ncaa.com. 2019 NIT: How the bracket is filled. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
3. "WCC Standings - 2018-19". ESPN. Retrieved February 27, 2019.