| Year: | 2021 |
| Conference: | West Coast Conference |
| Division: | I |
| Gender: | Men's |
| Teams: | 10 |
| Arena: | Orleans Arena |
| City: | Paradise, Nevada |
| Champions: | Gonzaga |
| Titlecount: | 19th |
| Coach: | Mark Few |
| Coachcount: | 17th |
| Mvp: | Jalen Suggs |
| Mvpteam: | Gonzaga |
| Television: | ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, Stadium |
The 2021 West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball tournament for the West Coast Conference during the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season.[1] The tournament was held from March 4 through March 9, 2021 at the Orleans Arena in Paradise, Nevada. Gonzaga won the tournament, giving it the conference's automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA tournament, in the process becoming the 16th team to enter the Division I tournament unbeaten.[2] [3] For the third consecutive year, the Los Angeles-based University Credit Union was the title sponsor of the tournament.[4]
For the thirteenth consecutive year, the 2021 WCC Tournament was held in the Orleans Arena. When the Orleans Arena is set up for basketball games, the seating capacity is 7,471.[5] The tournament is scheduled to be held at the Orleans Arena at least until 2022.[6] The Orleans Arena is located at the 1,886 room Orleans Hotel and Casino about 1 mile west of the Las Vegas Strip.[7] The tickets for the WCC Tournament typically sell out quickly.[8] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no fans were permitted to attend this tournament.[9]
All 10 WCC schools were eligible to participate in the tournament. Teams are typically seeded by conference record, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with identical conference records.[10] However, due to numerous regular-season game cancellations, the WCC announced on February 16 that the seeding for the 2021 edition would be determined using an adjusted conference winning percentage. Developed in partnership with Ken Pomeroy, the adjusted conference winning percentage takes into account the strength of the opponent and the location where each game was played. The final report was released on February 28.[11]
| February 16[12] | February 19 | February 21 | February 23 | February 26 | February 28 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gonzaga (0.978) | Gonzaga (0.979) | Gonzaga (0.960) | Gonzaga (0.960) | Gonzaga (0.960) | Gonzaga (0.962) | |
| 2 | BYU (0.789) | BYU (0.811) | BYU (0.801) | BYU (0.798) | BYU (0.796) | BYU (0.810) | |
| 3 | Pepperdine (0.786) | Pepperdine (0.800) | Pepperdine (0.697) | Pepperdine (0.638) | Saint Mary's (0.590) | Pepperdine (0.590) | |
| 4 | Saint Mary's (0.517) | Saint Mary's (0.490) | LMU (0.493) | Saint Mary's (0.562) | Pepperdine (0.575) | Saint Mary's (0.580) | |
| 5 | Santa Clara (0.498) | LMU (0.485) | Saint Mary's (0.486) | Pacific (0.508) | LMU (0.559) | LMU (0.557) | |
| 6 | Pacific (0.481) | Pacific (0.482) | Pacific (0.485) | LMU (0.502) | Pacific (0.479) | Pacific (0.504) | |
| 7 | LMU (0.423) | Santa Clara (0.370) | Santa Clara (0.451) | Santa Clara (0.446) | Santa Clara (0.457) | Santa Clara (0.453) | |
| 8 | San Francisco (0.384) | San Francisco (0.289) | San Francisco (0.332) | San Francisco (0.330) | San Francisco (0.328) | San Francisco (0.306) | |
| 9 | San Diego (0.137) | San Diego (0.288) | San Diego (0.281) | San Diego (0.242) | San Diego (0.244) | San Diego (0.228) | |
| 10 | Portland (0.008) | Portland (0.006) | Portland (0.008) | Portland (0.008) | Portland (0.008) | Portland (0.008) |
| Session | Game | Time* | Matchup# | Score | Television | Attendance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First round – Thursday, March 4, 2021 | |||||||
| 1 | 1 | 6:00 pm | No. 8 San Francisco vs. No. 9 San Diego | 67–51 | Stadium | 0 | |
| 2 | 9:00 pm | No. 7 Santa Clara vs. No. 10 Portland | 95–86 | ||||
| Second round – Friday, March 5, 2021 | |||||||
| 2 | 3 | 6:00 pm | No. 5 Loyola Marymount vs. No. 8 San Francisco | 70–66 | Stadium | 0 | |
| 4 | 9:00 pm | No. 6 Pacific vs. No. 7 Santa Clara | 76–81 | ||||
| Third round – Saturday, March 6, 2021 | |||||||
| 3 | 5 | 6:00 pm | No. 4 Saint Mary's vs. No. 5 Loyola Marymount | 52–47 | ESPNU | 0 | |
| 6 | 9:00 pm | No. 3 Pepperdine vs. No. 7 Santa Clara | 78–70 | ESPN2 | |||
| Semifinals – Monday, March 8, 2021 | |||||||
| 4 | 7 | 6:00 pm | No. 1 Gonzaga vs. No. 4 Saint Mary's | 78–55 | ESPN | 0 | |
| 8 | 9:00 pm | No. 2 BYU vs. No. 3 Pepperdine | 82–77OT | ESPN2 | |||
| Championship – Tuesday, March 9, 2021[14] | |||||||
| 5 | 9 | 6:00 pm | No. 1 Gonzaga vs. No. 2 BYU | 88–78 | ESPN | 0 | |
| |||||||
* denotes overtime period