Preview: BYU vs. Gonzaga

• Two of the best teams in the West Coast Conference meet on the hardwood, as the Brigham Young Cougars head to Spokane to face the Gonzaga Bulldogs.

• These are two teams looking for signature wins to improve their standing with the NCAA tournament. This also has the potential to seal the West Coast Conference regular-season title for Gonzaga.

• The Bulldogs are the 4.5-point road favorites with the over/under listed at a healthy 159 points.

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BYU

A strong case could be made that the BYU Cougars have emerged as the 2nd-best team in the West Coast Conference. They are 22-7 on the season with an 11-3 conference record. The Cougars are ranked 23rd in the latest Associated Press Top 25 Poll. BYU will make the NCAA Tournament with ease, as they are currently projected to be a six or seven seed in the final draw. The Cougars have high-quality wins over Houston, Utah State, and St. Mary's. Every single loss they have on their schedule is respectable. Three of their seven losses came against teams that are projected to be one-seeds in the NCAA tournament (Gonzaga, San Diego State, and Kansas). Three of their losses came in road overtime battles (Boise State, Utah, St. Mary's). The only other defeat they suffered came against San Francisco when they lost a nailbiter, 83-82, on the road. BYU is 2nd on the West Coast Conference leaderboard behind Gonzaga. They are 2.5 games behind the Bulldogs in the conference standings, but they are 1.5 games ahead of the St. Mary's Gaels. Forward Yoeli Childs has averaged 20.8 points and 8.6 rebounds this season, despite missing significant chunks of time. Childs has played in just 16 of their 29 games, but he is fully healthy now. Additionally, Jake Toolson, T.J. Haws, and Alex Barcello all average double-digit points per game. BYU is riding a seven-game win streak, but they will surely be tested against Gonzaga.

Gonzaga 

The Gonzaga Bulldogs are trying to cement their place as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Gonzaga is ranked No. 2 in the most-recent Associated Press Top 25 Poll, a spot that they've held for the last five weeks. The Bulldogs have an overall record of 27-1 and a conference record of 13-0. They are first place in the West Coast Conference standings and they would clinch another regular-season conference championship with a win over BYU. This is familiar territory for Mark Few's Bulldogs, as Few has led Gonzaga to at least a share of the regular-season conference title in 18 of his 20 years as the head coach of this team. Gonzaga has quality wins over teams like Oregon, Arizona, BYU, and St. Mary's. The only loss on their resume is an 82-64 November loss at the hands of the Michigan Wolverines. The Bulldogs have won every game since that defeat, currently riding a 19 game win streak into this upcoming match-up. They lead the West Coast Conference in scoring offense, scoring defense, and point differential. The Bulldogs average 87.2 points per game while giving up just 65.0 points per game. It was natural to expect Gonzaga to take a step back this season after losing guys like Rui Hachimura and Brendan Clarke to the NBA draft. The Bulldogs entered the season ranked 8th in the preseason poll. They were expected to be good, just not this good. Gonzaga was able to rely on depth to make up for lost production. Filip Petrusey leads the team in scoring and rebounding, averaging 17.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. Corey Kispert and Killian Tillie score 13.9 and 13.5 points per game, respectively. Additionally, Gonzaga has four more players (Admon Gilder, Joel Ayayi, Ryan Woolridge, and Drew Timme) who score between 10-11 points per game. This is clearly a team with a lot of talent on its roster, so we should expect them to make another solid run in the NCAA Tournament.

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