The NCAA plaques and photos are covered this week in Gonzaga's locker room. They have been for a few weeks, ever since the Bulldogs lost their first and only West Coast Conference game this season at Pepperdine last month.

Gonzaga coach Mark Few replaced the hardware with a piece of card board, putting up names like "Santa Clara" and "San Diego" instead of "Virginia", "Minnesota", "Michigan State" and anyone else the Zags have faced in their run to three straight Sweet 16 appearances.

Few wanted the players to re-focus on the WCC title, instead of all the talk of what seed the Bulldogs would receive in March.

"We covered it all and still have it up," Few said. "Each game we get out the felt pen and put up the next league opponent to focus on winning the league."

Few didn't waste any time, either. The staff got to work on the makeover Jan. 19, the day after the Bulldogs returned from the Pepperdine loss in Malibu.

Nearly a month later, the Waves come up to Spokane for a monster meeting Saturday night at the Kennel on ESPN2 (10 p.m. ET). Lose to the Waves and the WCC regular-season title will be locked up for Pepperdine. Win and a tie could be had, but even that isn't a given. Pepperdine gets Santa Clara and San Diego at home next week to conclude the conference season. Gonzaga has to travel to San Francisco and Saint Mary's.

Of course, Pepperdine has to win at beat Portland prior to the Gonzaga game and the Bulldogs must knock off Loyola Marymount this week, too.

"The reason I did it was I felt like we let down after our tough schedule in the non-conference," Few said. "We had a run of big-name schools and after we played New Mexico (an overtime win Jan. 7), we seemed like we were running out of gas. We weren't focused on how important it is to win our league championship. Since then, we've been pretty good."

Gonzaga has won seven straight games since the loss to Pepperdine. But for the first time the Bulldogs do have a cushion -- at least outside of the WCC. Sure, it's important to beat Pepperdine (17-6, 10-0), but the Bulldogs (22-3, 9-1) are about as safe for an at-large bid as they ever have been at this point in February.

Beating Pepperdine could ensure a piece of the WCC title and a potential top seed in the WCC tournament, which will be played at San Diego the first week of March. The Bulldogs have won three of the last four conference titles. The importance of this game, the final home game for the Bulldogs hasn't been lost on the fans. Students began camping out last Saturday night to get tickets for this Saturday's game. The Bulldogs greeted the students with pizza Sunday while they were waiting in line.

"We've never had that before," Few said. "And we should have had a game like this on before on ESPN. It's a great game and it should be on every year. We missed the boat in our conference because we should have been pushing for this for a long time."

To set this game up, both teams must win earlier this week. That should happen. But getting to this point was tougher for the Zags, as San Diego nearly took them out Saturday night. Senior point guard Dan Dickau had to hit another key 3-pointer late to win a close game.

"We're the team that everybody wants a piece of, and it just makes us tougher and more resilient," Few said. "This team has been in tougher situations in this league more than any other."

And Dickau, one of 20 finalists for the Naismith College Basketball Player of the Year Award and whose NBA stock is rising with the scouts with each game, is usually there in the end to bail out the Zags. He's shooting 48.4 percent on 3s.

"That's a heck of a stat, especially when you see that he gets picked up fullcourt and has only a split second to usually take a shot," Few said.

Pepperdine will harass him, too. And the Waves will have to contend with forward Cory Violette, who has been on a tear since injuring his ankle two weeks ago. Violette scored 25 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in the win over the Torreros.

But Gonzaga's and Pepperdine's roles could be reversed Saturday. Gonzaga could actually be the hungrier team in this matchup. The Bulldogs need this one more than Pepperdine within the WCC.

On the national scene, however, a Waves would be combined with wins over USC and UCLA, meaning the Waves would not only be a lock for the NCAA Tournament, but might get a decent seed. First-year Pepperdine coach Paul Westphal said he expects this to be one of the best atmospheres in college basketball this week, although he's never coached a game at the Kennel.

Win or lose, he doesn't see how the Waves won't be in the NCAA Tournament. He's right, but the talk and at least the visuals in either locker room will be strictly about the WCC title, not the NCAA Tournament.

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.