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Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
Come early March, Orleans Arena in Las Vegas transforms into Spokane South.
Basketball is religion at the Gonzaga campus and Zags basketball fans dressed in their red and blue shirts make their spring pilgrimage to Las Vegas to watch their powerhouse college basketball team waltz into the finals of the West Coat Conference tournament championship game.
Gonzaga typically plays its pesky West Coast nemesis, Saint Mary’s College, a small, scenic campus of 4,000 students or so in a scenic area of Contra Costa County outside Oakland, California.
It happened again tonight, with the ninth-ranked Bulldogs (28-5) demolishing the No. 16 Saint Mary’s Gaels, 77-51, to win an automatic berth in the NCAA national college basketball tournament’s Big Dance. Perhaps Las Vegas will see Gonzaga again when T-Mobile Arena hosts the NCAA tournament’s regional semifinals March 23 and 25.
It was a big night for Gonzaga’s Drew Timme and Julian Strawther, who is from Las Vegas. Timme has now scored the most points in Gonzaga history with 2,210 with his 18-point night.
Gonzaga is the monster of the WCC, winning four straight conference tourney titles after Saint Mary’s upset the Bulldogs in the final in 2019.
The West Coast Conference receives $300,000 in the form of sponsorship money to stage its tourney at the Orleans Arena, while the Mountain West Conference (UNLV’s conference) also receives $300,000 from Las Vegas Event to have it tournament at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center. The Pac-12 gets $500,000 from Las Vegas Events for having the men’s tourney at T-Mobile Arena and the women’s event at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob Ultra Arena.
The Gonzaga fans who travel from Spokane mean heads in beds and hotel room tax revenues, which are paying off the public debt on helping build Allegiant Stadium for the NFL Raiders. Southern Nevada has to raise another $1 billion in hotel room tax revenues to pay off the debt on the $750 million contributed to building the NFL domed stadium.
In the Mountain West Conference, UNLV’s women’s basketball team shook off an upset attempt by San Diego State to advance to the women’s final at Thomas & Mack Center at 7PM Wednesday.
The UNLV’s men’s team plays Air Force Wednesday, too. That game is 1:30PM.