College Basketball Game of the Week: Gonzaga at Santa Clara

This weekend game of the week takes us to the West Coast Conference where the top two teams Gonzaga and Santa Clara will battle for first place. Both teams are 12-1 in conference and both already have over 20 wins. Gonzaga was the preseason favorite as usual to win the conference and currently hold the 22nd ranked KenPom offense and 12th defense. Gonzaga  recently lost on the road to Portland, a team outside of a top 200 offense but have followed up their last two games against Oregon State and Washington State winning by 20+. Santa Clara comes in with an 8 game win streak with their last loss being at Gonzaga 89-77. In that game Graham Ike had 34 points and 11 rebounds dominating Santa Clara’s 55th ranked KenPom offense. 

Santa Clara is looking to make their first NCAA tournament since 1996 when they were led by eventual NBA legend Steve Nash. They come into this game having an offense that's top 50 in points per game and assists. The Broncos are coming in with the 39th most efficient offense in the nation according to KenPom and are looking to avoid losing twice to Gonzaga and giving them sole possession of 1st place in the WCC. This team is trending at the right time and will be up against the ultimate test against Gonzaga. The Bulldogs have shown how dominant they could be but also how poor they could play on a given night. Their home game against Seattle University went into overtime showing how bad they could be at times. With this being a home game for Santa Clara we look for it to be closely contested considering what's at stake.