College Basketball Conference Tournament Betting Preview - Missouri Valley and West Coast Conference

The countdown to the NCAA Tournament is less than two weeks away, and Selection Sunday is March 16. The top teams are preparing for March Madness, and the small conference tournaments are in full swing this week as the most intense and exciting time of the college basketball season has arrived. Conference tournaments and the NCAA Tournament produce the most live bet games of the season with wall-to-wall media coverage and memorable moments. 

It's nothing but college hoops and we'll break down the conference tournaments with similar start dates and provide odds, selective stats and information you can bet when wagering at your online sportsbooks. As the tournaments progress, we'll try to add game odds into the semi's and championship games with select picks and additional stats, trends and insight. 

It's a fluid situation of action-packed college basketball, and we'll shoot to cover more than 10 conference tournaments noting that the most watched and wagered tournaments are the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Big East and SEC as those conferences also send the most teams to the NCAA Tournament. 

Know too that while regulated sportsbooks across the U.S. in nearly 40 states offer sports betting to residents or visitors within the state borders, there are still benefits to wagering offshore. And the three most populous states in the U.S. - California, Texas and Florida, still do not offer sports betting from U.S. sportsbooks, and neither does Georgia, Alabama or South Carolina for SEC faithful fans, or Minnesota and Missouri, with the Show Me State pushing hard to change that yet this year.

But as a sports bettor, handicapper, analyst and longtime supporter of Off Shore Gaming Association, who also supports betting on U.S. elections, political odds and entertainment events like the Oscars, I am okay advocating for other options and top online sportsbooks like BetOnline, which I use for these events and others in my coverage in Forbes. 

In Joe Lunardi's Bracketology for ESPN, these conferences will have multiple bids to the 2025 NCAA Tournament. We'll be covering these conferences in the days ahead of major conference tournament action with more than half of the 68 team field for March Madness coming from the five power conferences. 

SEC (11-12)
Big Ten (9)
Big 12 (7-8)
Big East (4)
ACC (3-4)
Mountain West (2)
West Coast (2) 

The Big South, Northeast, Ohio Valley and Summit League tournaments tipped-off March 5. 

All odds provided by BetOnline, the largest gaming company in Panama. 

West Coast Conference

Starting out West where I'm based in Las Vegas, I can be at the Orleans Hotel & Casino and host site Orleans Arena in minutes to check out the West Coast Conference action. St. Mary's finished 17-1 in conference play to run away with the regular season title over perennial kingpin Gonzaga (14-4). Yet the Gaels continue to be the stepchild by fans and oddsmakers, who have made Gonzaga the tournament favorite. Recall last year when St. Mary's beat Gonzaga 69-60 in the conference championship game to snap the Zags four-year run of winning the conference tournament title. In fact, Gonzaga or St. Mary's has won the WCC each year since 2009. 

Odds to win the conference tournament provided, along with each teams offensive and defensive efficiency ratings from KenPom.

Oregon State and Washington State are two-year affiliate members of the WCC until the the Pac-12 is re-established in 2026 with five Mountain West teams joining the Pac 12 along with Gonzaga as a non-football member. 

WCC Stats, Trends and Notes 

St. Mary's head coach Randy Bennett was voted WCC Coach of the Year for the 4th straight season and 7th overall. The Gaels swept the Zags in both regular season meetings this season. St. Mary's (27-4) has matched their program-best with 27 wins so far this season, and both St. Mary's and Gonzaga are seeded into the tournament semifinals starting Monday, March 10. 

St. Mary's senior point guard Augustas Marciulionis (14.4 points, 6.1 rebounds) repeated as the WCC Player of the Year and senior center Mitchell Saxen (10.4 points, 8.0 rebounds, 79 combined steals and blocked shots) did the same as the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. The Gaels are a defensive dominator, ranking No. 11 in KenPom's defensive efficiency ratings while allowing just 60.8 points per game to rank No. 5 nationally and No. 1 nationally in rebound margin (+10.1).

Gonzaga (23-8) has won the West Coast CCT 10 of the past 12 years. The Bulldogs are the nation's second-highest scoring team (87.6 ppg) this season, and senior forward Graham Ike (17.0 points, 7.4 rebounds) is a dominant low-post big man who led the WCC in FG shooting (59.9%). 

San Francisco (23-8/13-5) is led by the WCC leading scorer, senior guard Malik Thomas (19.1 ppg), and Marcus Williams (15.1 ppg) joins him on the All-WCC back court. The Dons 23 wins is their highest conference victory total since 1977 as they shoot for the CCT upset and try to make the NCAA Tournament for the second time since 1998 with their most recent March Madness appearance in 2022. 

Santa Clara (20-11/12-6) is a darkhorse with a sold profile, but they did lose to St. Mary's in both meetings this season and now have lost 8-straight to the Gaels while beating Gonzaga each of the past two seasons. Still, the Broncos’ 12 conference victories are their most since winning 12 back in the Steve Nash era of the mid-1990s. That was also the last time Santa Clara advanced to the NCAA tournament. 

Trends 

- West Coast teams that had a bye in earlier round(s) are on a money-making 26-5 SU and 19-11-1 ATS (63.3%) run, per VSiN.
- WCC favorites in the semifinal and championship rounds are on a 21-12 ATS (63.6%) run.
- WCC tourney totals of 147 or higher are 20-11 OVER with those games averaging 155 points per game. 

WCC Tournament schedule 

First Round: March 6
Second Round: March 7
Third Round: March 8
Quarterfinals: March 9
Semifinals: March 10
Championship: 9 p.m. March 11 on ESPN 

Update: No. 2 Gonzaga (-3.5) wins another WCC tournament title with an ugly 58-51 win over No. 1 St. Mary's, who had 15 turnovers and Zero made 3 pointers (0-for-16) in defeat with the 109 combined points more than 30 below the game total. Both teams will be in the NCAA Tournament with Gonzaga automatic qualifier and St. Mary's at-large bid. 

Select matchups and game odds with any additional information you can bet on provided as able as the conference tournaments progress.

Missouri Valley

Top-seeded Drake begins defense of their MVC tournament title in the early game Friday, March 7.

🚨Ties broken. Bracket released🚨#ValleyHoops pic.twitter.com/JHZHW9aQC2

— MVC Basketball (@ValleyHoops) March 3, 2025

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Missouri Valley Stats, Trends and Notes 

Drake (27-3) won the regular season title at 17-3 under first-year head coach Ben McCollum, the MVC Coach of the Year. Bulldogs forward Bennett Stirtz was MVC Player of the Year leading the nation in minutes per game and finished the regular season as the only player in the NCAA to lead his league in scoring, assists and steals. Drake's three losses came against teams in the other side of the CCT bracket - Bradley, Murray State and Illinois-Chicago. Drake won last year's MVC tournament to make the NCAA Tournament, and 42 of the previous 48 MVC tournament winners were seeded in the top-3 with the top-2 seeds combining to win 35 titles. Drake is ranked No. 60 in the country, according to KenPom's ratings, and the Bulldogs play at the slowest pace in the country and the only team to average fewer than 60 possessions per game (59.4). But Drake's stats profile and slow pace makes them vulnerable to play in closer games with a 2-point defense that ranks 299 in the country and a similar rating for turnover rate. Northern Iowa is the MVC darkhorse that could pull of the MVC tourney title. NIU lost to Drake in overtime in late Feb., but had the game in hand late in regulation with in-play showing better than an 85% chance of winning.  

- MVC tournament favorites of 6.5 points or more have dominated, going 40-2 SU with only two underdogs winning outright since 2014. Those favorites of 6.5 or more points are 29-13 ATS. 
- Over the past 10 seasons, MVC game totals of 131.5 or higher have gone 21-39 Over/Under with more lower scoring games.
- Prior to the Indiana State (-3) 84-80 losing to Drake in last year's MVC title game, favorites in the MVC tournament championship game had won the prior 12 games outright and were 11-0 ATS since 2013.

Missouri Valley Tournament schedule 

Arch Madness is at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Mo., its home since 1995.

First Round: March 6
Quarterfinals: March 7
Semifinals: March 8
Championship: 2:10 p.m. March 9 on CBS

Update: No. 1 seed Drake (-4) beat Bradley 63-48 to win the Missouri Valley Tournament and return to the NCAA Tourament as defending MVC champions.

Follow along and check out more conference tournament betting odds and futures at BetOnline.ag. 

You can bet on it. 

FairwayJay is a proven sports handicapper and insightful analyst. He chips college basketball and additional sports betting coverage and reporting on industry news and events. Read more great insights from FairwayJay and follow him on  X: @FairwayJay