NET Rankings update: Gonzaga ranked top 10 heading into Selection Sunday

The Bulldogs find out their seed and who they'll take on in the first round of the NCAA Tournament during Selection Sunday

Gonzaga Bulldogs center Ismaila Diagne (24) and guard Ryan Nembhard (0) celebrate against the Saint Mary's Gaels during the second half in the final of the West Coast Conference tournament at Orleans Arena / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

The Gonzaga Bulldogs will head into Selection Sunday ranked inside the top 10 of the NET Rankings, the NCAA's primary sorting tool for evaluating tournament teams.

The Zags (25-8, 14-4 WCC) checked in at No. 8 in the latest version of the NET that released in the final hours leading up to the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Selection Show, set for 3 p.m. PT on CBS. After taking down Saint Mary's in the West Coast Conference tournament championship game last week, Gonzaga secured an automatic bid and clinched its 26th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament with a 58-51 win over the Gaels in Las Vegas.

In addition to locking up a spot in the big dance, that victory over Saint Mary's bolstered Gonzaga's resume to include five wins in quadrant 1, which the NET defines as being the highest-quality games on a team's schedule. The four other quad 1 wins on the Bulldogs' resume are wins over San Diego State, Santa Clara, San Francisco and Baylor, the latter of which moved up to No. 30 in the latest NET despite being eliminated from the Big 12 tournament in a 76-74 loss to Texas Tech on Thursday.

Even with the slight boost to their resume thanks to the Bears, the Bulldogs checked in at No. 35 in the NET's "wins above bubble" — a measurement of how an average bubble team would fare against that team's schedule. That's the second-lowest WAB ranking among teams ranked inside the top 30 of the NET (Baylor, 39th).

Over the last three seasons, all but one team that ranked inside the top 10 of the NET heading into Selection Sunday earned a 4-seed or better from the selection committee. The lone exception was Houston in the 2021-22 season, when the Cougars were No. 3 in the NET coming off their American Athletic Conference Tournament championship win, but were put on the 5-seed line, likely because they had just one quad 1 win and a borderline top-100 strength of record ranking that season.

Gonzaga could join the 2021 Cougars as one of the few highly-ranked NET teams to not earn a 4-seed or better on Selection Sunday. Based on the latest bracketology updates, the Bulldogs could fall anywhere in the 7-10 seed range. The latest projections from ESPN's Joe Lunardi had Gonzaga on the 7-seed line in the East Region and going to Cleveland for the first round; CBS Sports' Jerry Palm had the Zags in the same region as Lunardi but on the 8-seed line, pitting them against 9-seed Oklahoma with a chance to face 1-seed Duke in the second round from Raleigh, North Carolina.

Here's one last look at the WCC through the lens of the NET heading into Selection Sunday.

Gonzaga Bulldogs

NET Ranking: No. 8
Record: 25-8, 14-4 WCC    Q1: 5-5  Q2: 5-3  Q3: 5-0  Q4: 10-0 
Best wins: Q1 neutral vs. Saint Mary's (21), Q1 vs. Baylor (30), Q1 at San Diego State (52)

Saint Mary’s Gaels

NET Ranking: No. 21
Record: 28-4, 17-1 WCC    Q1: 4-3  Q2: 6-2  Q3: 7-0  Q4: 10-0 
Best wins: Q1 at Gonzaga (8), Q1 vs. Gonzaga (8), Q1 at Santa Clara (57)

Santa Clara Broncos

NET: No. 57
Record: 20-12, 12-6 WCC    Q1: 2-4  Q2: 4-3  Q3: 5-4  Q4: 9-1
Best wins: Q1 at Gonzaga (8), Q1 at McNeese (58), Q2 vs. San Francisco (64)

San Francisco Dons

NET: No. 64
Record: 24-9, 13-5 WCC    Q1: 1-6  Q2: 3-3  Q3: 8-0  Q4: 11-0
Best wins: Q1 vs. Saint Mary's (21), Q2 vs. Boise State (44), Q2 vs. Santa Clara (57)

Oregon State Beavers

NET: No. 85
Record: 20-12, 10-8 WCC    Q1: 1-7  Q2: 2-2  Q3: 4-1  Q4: 12-2
Best wins: Q1 vs. Gonzaga (8), Q2 vs. Santa Clara (57), Q2 vs. UC Irvine (62)

Washington State Cougars

NET: No. 112
Record: 19-14, 8-10 WCC    Q1: 1-7  Q2: 3-5  Q3: 4-0  Q4: 11-2
Best wins: Q1 neutral vs. Boise State (44), Q2 vs. San Francisco (64), Q2 at Nevada (79)

Loyola Marymount Lions

NET: No. 162
Record: 17-15, 8-10 WCC    Q1: 0-7  Q2: 1-4  Q3: 7-1  Q4: 8-3
Best wins: Q2 vs. Santa Clara (57), Q3 vs. Nevada (79), Q3 vs. Oregon State (85)

Pepperdine Waves

NET: No. 227
Record: 13-22, 4-14 WCC    Q1: 0-9  Q2: 2-4  Q3: 1-3  Q4: 9-6
Best wins: Q2 neutral vs. Santa Clara (57), Q2 neutral vs. Oregon State (85), Q3 neutral vs. New Mexico State (144)

Portland Pilots

NET: No. 288
Record: 12-20, 7-11 WCC    Q1: 0-6  Q2: 0-4  Q3: 2-6  Q4: 8-4
Best wins: Q3 vs. Oregon State (85), Q3 at Pepperdine (227), Q4 vs. LMU (162)

Pacific Tigers

NET: No. 295
Record: 9-24, 4-14 WCC    Q1: 0-6  Q2: 1-6  Q3: 3-3  Q4: 3-9
Best wins: Q2 at WSU (112), Q3 vs. WSU (112), Q3 at LMU (162)

San Diego Toreros

NET: No. 324
Record: 6-27, 2-16 WCC    Q1: 0-6 Q2: 0-6  Q3: 0-5  Q4: 5-10
Best wins: Q4 vs. Idaho (269), Q4 vs. Portland (288), Q4 vs. Boston U. (290)

MORE GONZAGA NEWS & ANALYSIS

• How to watch Selection Sunday: March Madness schedule, bracket reveal for 2025 NCAA Tournament

• Gonzaga's Ryan Nembhard enters NCAA Tournament on a historic passing rate

• How should the NCAA Tournament selection committee seed Gonzaga? 'Lower than where they should be'

• What Gonzaga's Mark Few said after WCC championship win vs. Saint Mary's

• NCAA Tournament bound: Gonzaga beats Saint Mary’s to clinch automatic bid

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