Inland Northwest college basketball fans will have plenty of excitement to carry them through the week.
The Gonzaga and Washington State men’s teams will play their first round NCAA tournament games Thursday.
The Bulldogs earned a fifth seed in the South Regional with a 25-7 record. They will play McNeese State Thursday in Salt Lake City. McNeese State is the champion of the Southland Conference with a 30-3 record.
Washington State claimed the seventh seed in the East Regional with a 24-9 record. The Cougars will play Thursday in Omaha against the Drake Bulldogs, Missouri Valley Conference champions with a 28-6 record.
Other men’s notes: Gonzaga will play in its 25th consecutive NCAA tournament. That first team was coached by Dan Monson, whose Long Beach State team will play Arizona on Thursday in Salt Lake City. One final note: Monson was fired by his athletic director last week before the Big West tournament, then his team went out and won the tournament.
In the NCAA women’s tournament, the Gonzaga women, with a 30-3 record, will start their NCAA tournament at the McCarthey Athletic Center in Spokane. The Bulldogs, the regular season champion in the West Coast Conference, earned a fourth seed, which allows them to host the first and second round subregional. Their first round opponent will be Cal Irvine from the Big West Conference.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Washington University were given a 14th seed. The Big Sky Conference regular season and tournament champion was sent to play Oregon State from the Pac-12 Conference on the Beavers’ home court in Corvallis. The Eagles are 29-5.
Spokane will host not only the first and second rounds of the women’s tournament at Gonzaga, it is also the host of the men’s NCAA subregional’s first and second rounds. The games will be played Friday and Sunday at the Arena. The University of Idaho is the host school.
The Friday matchups feature the fifth seed in the East Regional, San Diego State, which played in the national championship game last year, versus 12th-seeded Alabama-Birmingham. The Ivy League tournament champion, 13th-seeded Yale, which played Gonzaga in Spokane earlier this season, will play fourth-seeded Auburn from the Southeastern Conference. A familiar team, the St. Mary’s Gaels, Gonzaga’s big rival and the regular season and tournament champion in the West Coast Conference, earned the fifth seed in the West Regional and will play 12th-seeded Grand Canyon University from the Western Athletic Conference. The final matchup features fourth-seeded Alabama against 13th-seeded College of Charleston.
The Washington State women did not make the NCAA tournament, but will play in the post-season. The Cougars are one of four number one seeded teams in the inaugural 32-team Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament. They will host Lamar University on Thursday at Beasley Coliseum on the WSU campus. If WSU wins, it would play a second-round game on Sunday against the winner of Thursday’s Santa Clara-BYU game; the site has not yet been announced.
