Gonzaga’s most favorable potential matchups in the NCAA Tournament

Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs wrapped up the regular season with a win over Santa Clara in the WCC Tournament championship on Tuesday night, finishing 30-3 on the year.

Now they await the results of Selection Sunday to find out when, where, and who, they will play in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

While a lot could change over the next 48 hours - especially with every power conference tournament still ongoing - Gonzaga is widely projected to land either a No. 3 or No. 4 seed in the big dance.

The difference between a three and a four seed may seem minimal, but this year it's incredibly advantageous to end up on the No. 3 line to avoid having to play one of the projected No. 1 seeds - Duke, Michigan, Arizona, and Florida - in the Sweet 16.

Gonzaga's path to the Sweet 16 will be hard enough regardless, but even more so with coach Few reporting that star forward Braden Huff, who has been out since mid-January with a knee injury, is doubtful to return before next weekend's games.

Still, the Zags are entirely capable of getting to the Sweet 16 - and beyond - without Huff in the mix, although a friendly draw certainly wouldn't hurt.

A No. 3 seed in the west region is the best-case scenario for Gonzaga from a pure seed and location perspective, and below we'll take a look at the ideal potential matchups for the Zags in their pod:

14 Seed: Wright State Raiders

Most bracketologists are lining Gonzaga up against UC-Irvine - the projected winner of the Big West - and while that does seem like a likely outcome, it's not the ideal scenario for Gonzaga.

Irvine is a top 25 defensive team in the country that also ranks just outside the top 100 at KenPom. While the Anteaters lost their only three matchups against KenPom top 100 teams, they do have enough talent and defensive chops to make life interesting for the Zags - especially compared to another projected No. 14 seed in Wright State.

Wright State won the Horizon League with a 66-63 win over Detroit Mercy on Tuesday. The Raiders are No. 140 at KenPom and really struggle on the defensive end of the floor, allowing opponents to shoot 52.9% on two pointers - ranking just 235th in the country. While they are better at defending the three, Gonzaga would unleash Graham Ike against this undersized team (251st in CBB in average height, per KenPom) and should be able to secure a win and a shot at the Sweet 16.

11 Seed: VCU Rams

VCU is a solid team, going 24-7 on the year heading into Friday's A-10 quarterfinal matchup against Duquesne. The Rams are an efficient offensive club that shoots it well from the perimeter (36.4%) and has a balanced scoring lineup that averages a hair over 82 points per game.

However, they didn't perform all that great defensively this season, particularly in a handful of matchups against top-tier opponents. Utah State (80), NC State (85), Vanderbilt (89), New Mexico (81), George Mason (86) and Saint Louis (88) all eclipsed 80 points against the Rams, and only Vanderbilt among those teams is as good or better than Gonzaga offensively.

Plus, VCU lacks size on the interior, making a potential round of 32 matchup against Ike and Gonzaga a difficult one for the Rams - assuming they get past the No. 6 seed.

6 Seed: North Carolina Tar Heels

All of the projected six seeds have enough talent to match up well with Gonzaga. Tennessee has been excellent with star freshman Nate Ament taking over, while BYU is a problem thanks to future NBA superstar AJ Dybantsa. Wisconsin's backcourt duo of John Blackwell and Nick Boyd is really tough to stop, while Louisville's reliance on the outside shot could be a major issue against Gonzaga.

While Bracket Matrix currently projects North Carolina as a No. 5 seed, they seem likely to fall to the 6-seed line after losing to Clemson on Thursday night. The news that star freshman Caleb Wilson is out for the rest of the year with a broken thumb is a crushing blow for the Tar Heels, forcing them to rely heavily on center Henri Veesaar while getting inconsistent scoring from the backcourt.

Sound familiar?

UNC and Gonzaga have followed a very similar path this year, which is why Veesaar and Ike are both Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award finalists as the best center in CBB. No Wilson is a bigger loss for North Carolina than Huff is for Gonzaga, simply because Wilson was the team's best offensive and defensive player.

UNC doesn't shoot it all that well from three (34.5%) or from the free throw line (68.4%) and they generate very few steals or blocks. They also force very few turnovers overall, although they are very strong at ball security on the offensive end.

Still, this is a matchup I'd feel confident in picking Gonzaga, with the Veesar-Ike matchup among the most tantalizing frontcourt battles we could see in the entire NCAA Tournament.

Selection Sunday begins on Sunday, March 15 at 3:00 PM PT on CBS.

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