The Gonzaga Bulldogs (30-2, 17-1) battle the Pepperdine Waves (18-12, 10-8) in the semifinals of the West Coast Conference Tournament on Monday night. The game begins at 9:00 pm ET from the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada and will be shown on ESPN. Gonzaga is currently a 14 point favorite in this contest. http://www.march-madness-basketball-picks.com/ncaa-basketball-odds/

Pepperdine is coming into this game winners of 3 out of there last 4 including a 50-47 win in the quarterfinals against San Diego. The Waves rank in the top 50 in the nation in points allowed per game and prefer to play at a slower tempo resulting often times in lower scoring games. On the season, the Waves are 19-7-2 against the spread and have covered 5 consecutive times the game after holding an opponent under 50 points.

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Gonzaga enters the semifinals of the West Coast Conference Tournament essentially playing for NCAA Tournament seeding. After dropping only their second contest of the year to BYU on February 28th, the Bulldogs rebounded with a win their last time out against San Francisco 82-71. The Bulldogs are an offensive juggernaut and currently have the highest field goal scoring percentage in the country at 52.4%. However, Gonzaga is only 3-7 against the spread in their last 10 conference games and 0-5-1 against the spread in their last 6 neutral site games.

Free pick on Pepperdine -14

The betting public likes Gonzaga. As evidenced though by the Bulldogs record against the spread in their last 10 conference games (3-7), smart money should go against them. Pepperdine, on the other hand, has had a knack this year to cover. Extending this a little further, the Waves are 37-18-2 in their last 57 games against the spread. In addition, though Gonzaga beat Pepperdine twice this year the margins of victory were only 2 and 8 points respectively. The betting public may love Gonzaga but the smart money is on Pepperdine in this game.