Gonzaga falls out of No. 1 entering West Coast Conference tournament at Orleans

The West Coast Conference men’s basketball tournament, which begins Friday at The Orleans, lost a little bit of its luster.

Conference champion Gonzaga, which suffered its only regular-season loss on Saturday, fell to No. 4 in Monday’s final Associated Press poll before the WCC event.

Gonzaga (29-1) was No. 1 in the nation prior to losing its first game of the season, an 79-71 upset by BYU on Saturday. The Bulldogs, who had been No. 1 for the last four polls, received two first-place votes.

St. Mary’s (26-3), the WCC’s No. 2 team, was ranked No. 20 in the latest poll. The Gaels are expected to be the Bulldogs’ toughest competition at the tournament, where Gonzaga’s appears to have affected ticket prices on the secondary market.

Last week, tickets were going Tickets for nearly $500 each for the March 7 finals at re-seller Stubhub.com While two pair tickets are priced at $1,189 and $385 each as of Monday, all but 18 other tickets are priced less than $200.

Kansas, which won a record 13th consecutive Big 12 regular-season title, is the new No. 1 in the AP poll. The Jayhawks (26-3) moved up two places to the top spot, receiving 58 first-place votes Monday from the 65-member national media panel .

Kansas is the sixth school to be No. 1 this season. Villanova (27-3) remained second despite losing to Butler last week.

No. 3 UCLA (26-3) moved up to No. 3, one week before the Bruins visit Las Vegas for the Pac-12 Men’s Tournament. The event at T-Mobile Arena also will include No. 6 Oregon (26-4) and No. 7 Arizona (26-4).

The finals for the Pac-12 Tournament, though, hasn’t lost its shine on the secondary market. Premium tickets for the finals are priced between $1,153 and $500 with only a handful of tickets available in the lower bowl for less than $150 as of Monday.

Associated Press contributed to this report. Bill Bradley can be reached at bbradley@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2909. Follow @billbradleyLV on Twitter.