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LAS VEGAS — Just over a week removed from BYU's last meeting with Gonzaga — a 71-68 home loss to the Bulldogs on Feb. 27 — the Cougars and Zags will meet again in Monday night's West Coast Conference Tournament semifinals.
That part isn't new — BYU and Gonzaga have met four times in the past five seasons with Gonzaga winning each matchup.
This week's game will be a little bigger than ending the regular season with a bang, even if it did guarantee the Zags a share of the conference regular-season title.
Monday night's loser is likely eliminated from NCAA tournament consideration.
The Cougars (23-9) will tip against Gonzaga (24-7) at 8:30 p.m. PT at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, and for the loser of that contest, nothing is guaranteed. But that doesn't make things any easier for the Bulldogs, who are looking to continue their incredible run of 18 straight WCC tournament final appearances.
"They are a tough, tough out, and always have been. (BYU coach Dave Rose) gets his guys to play so hard across the board, and they come at you in waves," said Gonzaga coach Mark Few, whose team last missed the conference tournament final in 1997. "They play with so much confidence on offense, and we'll have to have that same mentality as we did a week ago. We were pretty darn resilient in Provo … and did a good job matching their intensity and matching their desire."
Sure, the game gives the Zags confidence going into Monday night. But Zags big man Domantas Sabonis said the team's win over BYU must be taken as its own entity, and not the continuation of the regular-season finale. After all, having a short memory was part of the revenge factor in Provo.
"We've got to forget about the game in Provo," said Sabonis, moments after posting 24 points and four rebounds in Gonzaga's quarterfinal win over Portland. "It's a different game, and we've got to come in and fight."
WCC defensive player of the year Erik McClellan agreed with his teammate — to an extent. The senior Vanderbilt transfer had a season-high 26 points, four rebounds and four assists in the Bulldogs' win over the Pilots, and he isn't overly concerned about what happened the last time the two teams met.
Gonzaga knows it can be beaten, especially by a BYU team that has won two in a row in Spokane, Washington — an unprecedented move before the Cougars joined the WCC five years ago.
And yet, some things have to remain equal, he added. The Zags have a run of 17 straight NCAA Tournament appearances on the line.
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KSL.com's Sean Walker will provide live coverage of the West Coast Conference Tournament in Las Vegas all weekend. Follow along, and check back regularly for the latest updates."It's a different game, but the mentality has to stay the same: come out aggressive, and come out confident," McClellan said. "Pay attention on both sides of the ball."
Neither team can be certain of its position with the NCAA selection committee without the security of the league's automatic berth given to the conference tournament winner. The Zags are currently No. 66 in the RPI and 143rd in strength of schedule. Even more rare, the Bulldogs are without a win over a top-50 opponent, although a 73-70 win over Connecticut last November gives them a top-53 RPI win. Spoiling BYU's Senior Night is one of just three top-100 RPI victories on the Zags' resume to pair with top-50 losses to Texas A&M, Arizona, Saint Mary's and SMU.
BYU's resume, as has been detailed multiple times, isn't any better. The Cougars currently rank No. 76 in the RPI with one top-50 win, a 70-59 victory over Saint Mary's on Feb. 4. They add top-100 wins over Belmont, Northern Iowa and Gonzaga, but also add three losses to teams outside the top-150 in Harvard, Portland and Pacific.
In other words, Monday's matchup is likely a winner-take-all event in a city known for its heavyweight prize fights.
"They're a really, really good program," Few said of BYU. "They come at you, and you have to beat them. They don't beat themselves, because of the way they attack you in a lot of different areas."
