Free College Basketball Pick

Loyola Marymount Lions vs. Gonzaga Bulldogs

Sunday, March 7, 2010 at 8:30 PM ET on ESPN 2

Number 14 regular-season West Coast Conference title winners and top-seeded, Gonzaga, will take on the fifth-seeded Loyola Marymount Lions tonight in the conference tournament at the McCarthey Athletic Center in Spokane this evening.  Even with the loss of four starters from last season’s team, and a young team on the court this year, Gonzaga managed to go 12-2 in the conference and 25-5 overall.  One of their conference losses this season, however, was to the same team they’ll be playing tonight.  Gonzaga took a 66-74 road loss to the Lions on February 18th.  The Bulldogs will be at home tonight, and hope to see an ending scoreboard similar to the one they did when they took on the Lions in late January and won by 16 points.   Gonzaga has won the WCC tournament ten times.

Loyola Marymount comes off an 84-76 victory against San Francisco in the second round of the WCC tournament that took place on Saturday night.  This came after 2 losses against USF in the regular season.  Their 20 of 25 on the foul line was key.  Having 4 double-digit scorers didn’t hurt either.  A win tonight would speak volumes for a team that only managed to win 2 conference games last year (3 overall), and who fought hard just to earn a .500 conference record this season.  Loyola Marymount has 3 WCC tournament titles but is in a 20 year drought.  Their last tournament title win came in 1990. 

Tonight’s winner will face third-seeded Portland or second-seeded Saint Mary’s in the WCC title game on Monday.  Gonzaga, although favored by 12 points, won’t be looking past the Lions this evening. Before they can play in the conference title game, they’ll have to beat the team that took ‘em down just a couple weeks ago. The total for this game is listed at 150.

Current streaks:
Loyola Marymount has won 2 straight games.
Gonzaga has won 4 straight games.

Team records:
Loyola Marymount: 18-14 SU, 17-11 ATS
Gonzaga: 25-5 SU, 13-11-2 ATS

Other stats to consider:
Gonzaga has a 53-21 advantage in the series

Pick:  Although Loyola Marymount will probably walk away with a loss, expect the Lions and their recent momentum to keep this one close.  Take Loyola Marymount +12.