FACTS & STATS: Site: Rose Garden (19,980) -- Portland, Oregon. Television: CBS. NCAA Tournament Record: Akron 0-1, Gonzaga 12-11. Series Record: First-ever meeting.

GAME NOTES: Making their 11th straight NCAA Tournament appearance, the Gonzaga Bulldogs stay close to home in the first round of the South Regional as they contend against the Akron Zips at the Rose Garden in Portland.

While the fourth-seeded Bulldogs didn't necessarily need it in order to earn a place in yet another postseason tourney, the squad went ahead and locked up their ninth West Coast Conference Tournament title in the last 11 years by dismantling the Saint Mary's Gaels 10 days ago in a lopsided 83-58 final. The victory was the 18th in the last 19 games for Gonzaga, the team's lone defeat during that stretch coming against nationally-ranked Memphis in Spokane on February 7th. Once the popular underdog pick in this event, the Bulldogs enter the 2009 version with a tourney record of 12-11.

As for the 13th-seeded Zips, they needed to win the Mid-American Conference Tournament to earn an invite to the "Big Dance". Alternating wins and losses over the course of the final eight games of the regular season, Akron put all the pieces together in the league tournament by dismissing Toledo, Miami-Ohio, Bowling Green and Buffalo to finish with a record of 23-12. This is just the second appearance in the tournament all-time for the Zips, the first taking place in 1986 and resulting in a 70-64 setback to Michigan in the first round.

The winner of this first-ever meeting will be back in action two days from now in the second round versus the survivor of the Western Kentucky/Illinois battle.

Anything but an offensive juggernaut in 2008-09, the Zips were lucky to come up with 66.8 ppg seeing as how there are just two players on the team averaging double digits in scoring. Brett McKnight, a starter in just two games who is averaging barely 21 minutes per outing, accounts for a team-best 11.4 ppg as a woeful 29.9 percent shooter from behind the three-point line. Nate Linhart checks in with 10.1 ppg and is only slightly better than McKnight out on the perimeter at 31.9 percent. However, the difference between the two is that Linhart has made a bigger impact in the paint with a team-best 6.2 rpg. The team doesn't have a regular contributor shooting better than 38.5 percent beyond the arc, which is why the Zips as a whole are credited with making good on only 32.9 percent of their chances. Clearly, the team has done its best work at the defensive end of the floor where it has held opponents to just 40 percent success from the floor, 28.9 percent beyond the arc and a collective 59.8 ppg. More than that, Akron has averaged almost 18 forced turnovers per game which is one of the highest marks in all of college basketball this season.

Although the Bulldogs failed to make one of their own the West Coast Conference Player of the Year for the first time in nearly a decade, what the program did have was a pair of All-WCC First Teamers in Josh Heytvelt and Matt Bouldin. Heytvelt led the program in scoring with his 15.3 ppg and was listed as sixth in the league in that department, shooting 54.4 percent from the floor and logging 6.8 rpg along the way to place seventh in the WCC as well. Bouldin, who made good on 50.5 percent of his shots from the field and was also the most accomplished three-point shooter with his 52-of-116 (.448), finished with 13.7 ppg. Bouldin was second on the team with better than 3.3 apg and captured almost four rebounds per outing, not to mention coming up with a team-high 49 steals. Austin Daye (12.9 ppg) and Jeremy Pargo (9.8 ppg, 5.1 apg, 3.5 rpg) also earned all-conference recognition for the Bulldogs. In the case of Daye, he provided Heytvelt with plenty of support in the post with his 6.9 rpg and two blocked shots per contest and his presence in the middle was significant in terms of shot selection by the opposition. Gonzaga was second in the nation in field goal percentage defense, allowing just a 36.9 percent success, which was more than enough to provide the program with a scoring margin of +17.2 ppg (second-best in Division I).

This is destined to be one of the more lopsided decisions in the tournament, a seasoned squad like the Bulldogs picking apart an overmatched Akron program that will have a tough time keeping up.

Predicted Outcome

Gonzaga 88, Akron 62