Our free College Basketball picks are out for Monday, March 7th, 2022! Make sure you check our expert College Basketball picks before the action kicks off.
Look below to find our free College Basketball picks for the best games on today’s schedule!
San Francisco @ #1 Gonzaga – 9pm ET
West Coast Conference Tournament- Semifinals
In the first semi-final for a trip to the West Coast Conference tournament finals, the San Francisco Dons will take on the Gonzaga Bulldogs. The Dons will look to get an upset of the number one team in the nation and potentially steal a bid to the NCAA tournament.
Marko Nadin
The Gonzaga Bulldogs are the top-ranked team in the nation and will start their chase for the NCAA title with a game against San Francisco. The Bulldogs finished the regular season with a 67-57 loss to St. Mary’s. That was Gonzaga’s first loss since December 4th and they finished the season with a 24-3 record. The Zags are the best offensive team in the nation scoring 88.3 points per game on 52.4% shooting from the field. They have defeated San Francisco the last 23 times these two schools played each other.
The San Francisco Dons are coming off a 75-63 win over BYU which put them in a situation to play for the conference title. The Dons finished the regular season with a 24-8 record as the fourth seed in WCC and are on the way to get to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1998. The school that won the NCAA title in 1955 and 1956 with Bill Russell and KC Jones in the lineup will face Gonzaga in the conference semifinals, a team that they last defeated in 2013 and lost both games this season by 16 points differential each.
Marko’s College Basketball Pick: Gonzaga (-1000)
Tony Battalio
The San Francisco Dons are coming into this game with a record of 24-8 as they could be a potential at-large team in the NCAA tournament. That is only if they don’t win the West Coast Conference tournament championship. In two earlier games this season against the Gonzaga Bulldogs, San Francisco has been greatly outmatched as they have been outscored by a total of 167-135. Their road to the semifinals has been easy thus far as they scored a 75-63 victory over BYU in the quarterfinals.
ⓋⒺⒼⒶⓈ 📍 pic.twitter.com/L1ln2VFtgP
— Gonzaga Basketball (@ZagMBB) March 7, 2022
The Gonzaga Bulldogs come into this game as the number one team in the nation. They started the season at number one and will likely finish the season as number one, although they didn’t remain there from wire to wire. Regardless of what happens in this one, the Gonzaga Bulldogs are going to the NCAA tournament and they will also likely be a number one seed in said tournament. Gonzaga ended their regular season with a shocking loss to Saint Mary’s as another game between the two is potentially going to go down in the finals if they both win their semi-finals matchups. As for the result of this one I’m taking the Bulldogs.
Tony’s College Basketball Pick: Gonzaga (-1000)
Noah Dunlap
We’ve finally reached the part of the West Coast Conference tournament that we all care about, the semis, where we get Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s in action. This matchup gives us the best team in the country, the Gonzaga Bulldogs, taking on a good, but not elite-level San Francisco Dons team. Apart from a shocker last Saturday that saw the Zags drop a contest to Saint Mary’s, they ran through conference play by simply destroying teams, and I don’t know why you’d expect any different in the conference tournament. They have two guys that are likely to be taken high in the first round of the NBA draft in Chet Holmgren and Drew Timme, and I think that just proves to be too much for this San Francisco team, a program that Gonzaga has taken the last 23 matchups against. Give me the Zags with real ease in their diet game of this WCC tournament.
Noah’s College Basketball Pick: Gonzaga (-1000)
Santa Clara @ #19 Saint Mary’s – 11:30pm ET
West Coast Conference Tournament- Semifinals
In the second semi-final for the West Coast Conference tournament, Santa Clara will take on 19th ranked St. Mary’s. Santa Clara will also look for a top 25 upset in this one and a chance to steal an automatic bid from Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga both.
Marko Nadin
The St. Mary’s Gaels finished the regular season with an impressive 67-57 win over the top-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs. That was Gales’ only second win against the Zags in school history. With that one, St. Mary’s finished second in the WCC with a 24-6 record. Their confidence is sky-high after their biggest win of the season but just a month ago, the Gaels lost 77-72 to Santa Clara. Still, they are favorites in the conference semifinals as they have won 7 of the last 10 games with the Broncos.
The Santa Clara Broncos finished the season third in the WCC with a 21-10 record. They won 8 of the last 10 games of the regular season to be able to reach the conference playoffs. Santa Clara is a great shooting team as they are ranked 6th in the nation with 49.2% shooting from the field and 14th with 38.3% from the three-point line. The Broncos have covered the spread in 8 of the last 9 games following the spread win and the last 5 games after scoring more than 90 points in their previous game.
Marko’s College Basketball Pick: Saint Marys (-210)
Tony Battalio
Santa Clara comes into this game with a record of 21-10 on the season. They will almost certainly need a victory in this game and the finals if they want to make the NCAA tournament. In their quarterfinals match, they defeated Portland for the second straight game by a score of 91-67. Now they will play Saint Mary’s for the third time this season as both teams hold a win apiece heading into the rubber match.
St. Mary’s Logan Johnson epitomizes `gritty not pretty’ mentality https://t.co/L1zQcxqiNh
— Bay Area Sports HQ (@BayAreaSportsHQ) March 4, 2022
The Gaels finished off their regular season with a huge upset win of the Gonzaga Bulldogs. They come into this game currently ranked 19th in the nation. Their record of 24-6 on the year will likely put them in the NCAA tournament no matter what happens in this game and potentially in the finals of the West Coast Conference, conference tournament. The Gaels finished off the regular season on a four-game winning streak. They will be looking to end the season series with Santa Clara with a big victory, as for the result of this game that is exactly what I expect to happen as I have Saint Mary’s winning.
Tony’s College Basketball Pick: Saint Marys (-210)
Noah Dunlap
The second WCC semi features the other mainstay of the conference, the Saint Mary’s Gaels, taking on a Santa Clara team that is decent, at 21-10, but I’m not sure has the talent to get them over the edge in a conference semifinal game.
They have split the season series over the Gaels, but when push comes to shove, I think this one comes down to the fact that one of these programs has had real success over the past few years, while the other hasn’t, for the most part. I think most people all year long have been looking at a Gonzaga/Saint Mary’s WCC final, and I think that’s exactly what we all get. Look for Santa Clara to fight for 40 minutes, and keep this one extremely close, but in the end, I’m still riding with the Gaels in this one.
Noah’s College Basketball Pick: Saint Marys (-210)
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*Odds and spreads correct at time of publication, courtesy of FanDuel.
