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The San Francisco Dons take on the Gonzaga Bulldogs. Check out our college basketball odds series for our San Francisco Gonzaga prediction and pick. Find how to watch San Francisco Gonzaga.
The San Francisco Dons have watched the Gonzaga Bulldogs and Saint Mary's Gaels rule the West Coast Conference for a very long time. Gonzaga and Saint Mary's have won each of the past 21 West Coast Conference regular season championships. The last non-GU, non-SMC team to win the WCC regular season title was Pepperdine in 2002. Before that: Santa Clara in 1997. Other than Santa Clara and Pepperdine, no WCC team outside of Gonzaga and Saint Mary's has won the league since Loyola Marymount back in 1990. Over the past 30 years, dating back to its first WCC championship in 1994, Gonzaga has won or shared 26 WCC titles. All of this has left San Francisco at the altar.
Interestingly enough, for the younger college basketball fans reading this article, San Francisco is second to Gonzaga on the list of all-time WCC champions. The Dons have 15 WCC titles to their credit because they were the best program in the league in the 1950s and 1970s. They won two NCAA national championships in the mid-1950s thanks to basketball legend Bill Russell. They continued to dominate the WCC in the 1970s. From 1972 through 1981, a stretch of 10 seasons, San Francisco won or shared the WCC title eight times, missing out only in 1975 and 1976. Imagine being a WCC basketball fan in 1981 and being told San Francisco would not win another league championship for the next 42 years. It would be like having someone tell you Gonzaga won't win the WCC for the next 15 years.
San Francisco was unbeaten in WCC play heading into a massive game last Saturday against Saint Mary's, which was also unbeaten. The Dons had a huge opportunity to take control of the WCC, but they got blown out by the Gaels. Now they face the WCC's other powerhouse, Gonzaga, which is going through a rare down year under Mark Few. If San Francisco is to have any chance of snapping a drought which has lasted more than four decades, winning this game is an absolute must.
Here are the San Francisco-Gonzaga College Basketball odds, courtesy of FanDuel.
College Basketball Odds: San Francisco-Gonzaga Odds
San Francisco Dons: +8.5 (-102)
Gonzaga Bulldogs: -8.5 (-120)
Over: 152.5 (-110)
Under: 152.5 (-110)
How To Watch San Francisco vs Gonzaga
Time: 9:00 pm ET / 6:00 pm PT
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TV: ESPN2, ESPN Plus
Stream: fuboTV (click for a free trial)*
Why San Francisco Could Cover the Spread
The Gonzaga Bulldogs simply aren't that good. Gonzaga is not a lock to make the NCAA Tournament this season, which seems unfathomable but is definitely true. The Zags just don't have a superstar. They just don't play elite defense. They just don't have someone who can take over a game and dramatically alter the competitive balance in a contest. San Francisco should be able to score a high number against GU, and with the spread being a surprisingly large 8.5 points, that gives USF ample opportunity to cover.
Why Gonzaga Could Cover the Spread
The San Francisco Dons went off as 1.5-point favorites for their huge game last Saturday at home versus Saint Mary's. They got absolutely torn to pieces by the Gaels, 77-60. It would have been ludicrous to make Saint Mary's a huge favorite for that game, given how inconsistent the Gaels have been this season, but SMC beat USF by 17 points on the road. That's the reason Gonzaga is getting a large spread here. Given how unreliable San Francisco has been in its biggest WCC games versus Saint Mary's and Gonzaga, why would you trust USF with this spread, even though it seems like a terrific opportunity to cash a spread ticket? There's a reason this spread is as big as it is.
Final San Francisco-Gonzaga Prediction & Pick
The betting public is putting more money on San Francisco versus the spread than on Gonzaga, but as noted above, USF's inability to rise up and win the biggest WCC games on its schedule — Saint Mary's and Gonzaga — is hard to ignore. The conventional wisdom says take USF plus the points. We think you should stay away from a pregame bet and wait for a live play.
Final San Francisco-Gonzaga Prediction & Pick: San Francisco +8.5
