COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Zags a 5 seed in Salt Lake; seventh-seeded Cougars assigned to Omaha; Gonzaga women will host

From local reports and news services

Gonzaga’s men knew they were headed to their 25th straight NCAA basketball tournament.

The Zags just didn’t know where.

GU (25-7) found out Sunday, when it was sent to Salt Lake City as a fifth seed in the Midwest Region, and will play 12th seed McNeese (30-3) on Thursday (4:25 p.m., TBS) in a first-round game at the Delta Center.

Washington State’s men earned an NCAA bid for the first time since 2008. The Cougars (24-9) were sent to Omaha, Neb., as a seventh seed in the East Region, and will open against 10th-seeded Drake (28-6) on Thursday (7:05 p.m., truTV) at CHI Health Center.

The winner will advance to face the winner between No. 2 Iowa State (27-7) and No. 15 South Dakota State (22-12) on Saturday.

Gonzaga’s women (30-3), despite losing in the West Coast Conference title game, were given a fourth seed and will host the first two rounds of the NCAA tourney at the McCarthey Athletic Center in Spokane. The Bulldogs, a 4 seed, will face No. 13 UC Irvine (23-8) on Saturday (4:30 p.m., ESPN2). No. 5 Utah will face No. 12 South Dakota State in the other game at GU (Saturday, 7 p.m., ESPNU), with the two winners meeting next Monday.

Eastern Washington’s women (29-5), which won the Big Sky tournament and earned an NCAA bid for just the second time ever, and first since 1987, are a 14 seed and will play No. 3 Oregon State (24-7) on Friday (5 p.m., ESPNU) in the first round in Corvallis, Ore.

Washington State, in line for an NCAA women’s tournament bid before losing eight of its last 11 games following a season-ending knee injury to star guard Charlisse Leger-Walker, accepted a berth to the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament. The Cougars (18-14) will play host to Lamar (24-6) on Thursday at 6 p.m. at Beasley Coliseum in Pullman. WSU is one of four No. 1 seeds in the inaugural 32-team tournament.

Eastern Washington’s men (21-11), who won the Big Sky regular season title before losing their first game in the conference tournament, were not selected for the NIT.

Boise State was one of six Mountain West Conference teams to earn NCAA bids, but also one of two from the conference to have to go the play-in route for the No. 10 seed. The Broncos (22-10) will play Colorado (24-10) on Wednesday (6:10 p.m., truTV) in Dayton, Ohio. 

Boise State is coached by former Gonzaga assistant Leon Rice, now in his 14th season in Boise. Bill Grier, another former Zags assistant, is in his eighth season as an assistant at Colorado. The two were assistants together at Gonzaga for eight seasons (1999-2007).

Virginia (23-10), which includes freshman Blake Buchanan of Lake City High, also received a play-in bid to the NCAAs as a No. 10 seed. The Cavaliers will face Colorado State (24-10) on Tuesday (6:10 p.m., truTV) in Dayton. Jack Payne (Boise High, Owyhee) is a redshirt freshman at Colorado State.

Buchanan has played in all 33 games, starting six, and is averaging 3.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and has 30 total blocked shots and is averaging 15 minutes per game.

Also, the eight men’s teams assigned to Spokane for the first and second rounds were announced.

On Friday, in the East Region, it will be No. 5 San Diego State vs. No. 12 UAB at 10:45 a.m. (TNT) and No. 4 Auburn vs. No. 13 Yale at 1:15 p.m. (TNT). In the West Region, it will be No. 4 Alabama vs. No. 13 College of Charleston at 4:35 p.m. (truTV), and No. 5 Saint Mary’s vs. No. 12 Grand Canyon at 7:05 p.m. (truTV).

Winners will meet in the second round on Sunday, at times to be announced.

Also assigned to the Salt Lake City site were West No. 2 seed Arizona (25-8) and No. 15 Long Beach State (21-14), which will meet Thursday (11 a.m., TBS). Former Zag assistant Tommy Lloyd is in his third season as Arizona head coach. Former Gonzaga head coach Dan Monson, who guided the Zags to the NCAAs in 1999 (the first year of the current run) before leaving to take the Minnesota job, was told last week he would not be returning next year after 17 seasons as Long Beach State coach. He opted to continue to coach the Beach in the Big West tournament, which Long Beach State won.

Hawaii’s women (20-10), which included Brooklyn Rewers (Lake City), will play California (18-14) on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Berkeley, Calif., in the first round of the WBIT.

Rewers, who began her collegiate career at Michigan State, has played in 19 games, starting 16. She averages 6.7 points and 5.6 blocks.

Wyoming’s women (16-14) are playing in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, and earned a first-round bye. Wyoming will play the winner between Texas-San Antonio (17-14) and Northern Colorado (15-15), who meet Thursday. 

Madi Symons (Coeur d’Alene High) is a freshman at Wyoming. She has played in all 30 games, totaling 28 points and 36 rebounds.

Washington's women (16-14) will play host to Georgetown (22-11) on Thursday in the first round of the WBIT. Katie (Baker) Faulkner, the former Lake City High star, is in her first season as associate head coach at Washington, and third overall as a Husky assistant.

Gonzaga’s men are making their 25th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and 26th in program history (1995). The 25 straight berths to the tournament field ranks as the third-longest current streak in the nation (Kansas 34 and Michigan State 26). The Zags are 44-25 all-time in the 25 previous NCAA Tournament appearances with 13 trips to the Sweet 16, six trips to the Elite Eight, two Final Fours and two appearances in the national championship game.

The Zags receive a 5-seed for the first time in program history. GU plays in Salt Lake in the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time in program history. GU has played more NCAA Tournament games in Salt Lake City than any other site, winning eight of the 11 games played there.

McNeese State won the Southland Conference regular season and tournament titles and rides the nation’s third-longest win streak into the matchup at 11 straight victories. McNeese captured its first Southland Conference Tournament title and NCAA bid since 2002, and just the third in school history, after defeating Nicholls, 92-76, this past Wednesday. The Cowboys top the nation in scoring margin (18.9) and eighth in three-point percentage (38.8). One the best defenses in the country, McNeese State is third in field goal percentage defense (38.5), steals (10.4), and turnover margin (6.7), and fifth in scoring defense (61.5).

The winner of the GU and McNeese State first-round game will advance to a second-round game against the winner of No. 4 Kansas versus No. 13 Samford.

WSU’s men earned their seventh NCAA berth in program history and first since Tony Bennett and the Cougars reached the Sweet 16 in 2008. WSU coach Kyle Smith, the John R. Wooden Pac-12 Coach of the Year, nabbed his first bid as a head coach in his 14th overall season after guiding the Cougs to their best season in the Pac-12 era and a 20-win regular season for the first time since 2007-08.

The Cougars finished the Pac-12 with a 14-6 Conference record, matching the WSU all-time league wins record set in 1979-80 and 1982-83. The Cougs knocked off Arizona twice this season, marking the first time in school history with two top-10 wins in the same season. WSU won eight straight league games for just the third time in program history (1946-47) and earned its highest AP Top 25 ranking since March 2008.

Six new faces headline the Cougar lineup, with only two returning players in the primary rotation, led by Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Myles Rice and All-Pac-12 First Team selection Isaac Jones, who played at Idaho last season. Rice, a seven-time Pac-12 Freshman of the Week, averages 15.1 points per game and leads the time in steals and assists. Jones is Wazzu's leading scorer and rebounder with 15.4 points per game and 7.4 rebounds per game.

Drake, champions of the Missouri Valley Conference, knocked off top-seeded Indiana State to win the conference title. The Bulldogs, led by sixth-year head coach Darian DeVries, reached their third NCAA Tournament in the last four seasons.

Boise State is making its third straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament, a program first, and it is seeking its first win in March Madness. 

This is Boise State’s third appearance in the First Four (2013, 2015).

The Broncos will play Colorado for the second time in program history. Boise State defeated the Buffaloes last season in the fifth-place game of the Myrtle Beach Invitational last season, 68-55 (Nov. 22, 2022).

Gonzaga’s women are making their seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance under head coach Lisa Fortier. The fourth seed is the best ranking in program history, with the previous best being the No. 5 seed. UC Irvine beat UC Davis, 53-39 in the Big West tournament championship game. The Anteaters are led by Deja Lee, who averages 13.9 points per game.

Preliminary WBIT games are being televised on ESPN+, while the semifinals will be on ESPNU, and the finals will be on ESPN2. 

Washington State earned an unprecedented fourth-straight postseason bid.

Lamar finished the year as regular season champions in the Southland Conference with a 17-1 conference record.