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The West Coast Conference on Wednesday announced modifications to its 2014 Men's and Women's Basketball Championships, which will again be contested at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
After previously announcing a format change and three-year extension that will keep the tourney at the Orleans through 2016, the league has now moved the dates of the event, changing it from a Wednesday through Monday game slate, to a Thursday through Tuesday fixture list.
At the same time, the conference has widened its broadcast scope, with five tournament games scheduled to be televised on either ESPN 2 (three games) or ESPN (two games). Last year, of the five tourney games televised on the ESPN family of networks, two games were seen on ESPNU, two were shown on ESPN2, with the title game appearing on ESPN.
As noted by the WCC, today's news puts the league in exclusive company, as last season, only four conferences had multiple tournament games televised on ESPN.
ESPN's tournament game selections are complete with the five games confirmed on ESPN/ESPN2; television plans for the four remaining men's games (two quarterfinals and two first round games) will be determined at a later date. In the last two years, BYUtv has televised men's tourney games not shown on ESPN networks, but the league is considering all broadcast options for its remaining contests.
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The tourney's format and schedule adjustments were made with the addition of Pacific to the WCC fold, effective July 1st.
In recent years, the top two men's seeds received a double-bye to the Saturday semifinals, with an 8 v. 9 opening round game on Wednesday followed by second round games featuring seeds 5,6,7 and the 8/9 survivor on Thursday. Seeds 3 and 4 began play in the quarterfinal round on Friday against the two surviving second round participants, with the winners advancing to face the top two seeds in the semis. The title game was contested on Monday night.
The 10-team tourney format does away with double byes, with seeds 1 through 6 opening play in the quarterfinals on Saturday. The 7 v. 10 and 8 v. 9 first-round games will now be contested on Thursday, with the survivors getting an off-day Friday before the Saturday quarterfinals. Teams advancing to the semifinals will have on off-day Sunday, with the semis now set for Monday, and the championship game moving to Tuesday.
2014 WCC Men's Basketball Championship - Orleans Arena, Las Vegas (all times Mountain)
| Day | Date | Game | Time | TV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday | March 6 | First Round | 7:00 p.m. | TBD |
| Thursday | March 6 | First Round | 9:30 p.m. | TBD |
| Saturday | March 8 | Quarterfinal | 1:00 p.m. | TBD |
| Saturday | March 8 | Quarterfinal | 3:30 p.m. | TBD |
| Saturday | March 8 | Quarterfinal | 7:00 p.m. | ESPN2 |
| Saturday | March 8 | Quarterfinal | 9:30 p.m. | ESPN2 |
| Monday | March 10 | Semifinal | 7:00 p.m. | ESPN |
| Monday | March 10 | Semifinal | 9:30 p.m. | ESPN2 |
| Tuesday | March 11 | Championship | 7:00 p.m. | ESPN |
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Seeds are not currently connected to game time slots, so the bracket framework will not be formalized until after the regular season is over and team placements are known.
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In two years of WCC tournament play, BYU has been eliminated in the semifinals (by St. Mary's in 2012) and quarterfinals (by San Diego in 2013). Gonzaga and St. Mary's have met in each of the last five WCC Championship games--every year that the tourney has been contested at the Orleans Arena.
All-time, Gonzaga has won 12 of 26 WCC tournaments, with St. Mary's and Pepperdine having won three apiece. Santa Clara, San Diego and Loyola Marymount have each won two tourney titles, while Portland and San Francisco have claimed one title each.
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Photo: Courtesy BYU Photo
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