Mark Few found some good in Gonzaga's relatively low NCAA tournament seed.

A reminder for Bulldogs fans that a trip to the NCAAs, as he put it, isn't a "birthright."

"This year taught all of us you don't take anything for granted and you have to earn your way into it," the Gonzaga coach said in a conference call on Sunday night. "And this group definitely earned their way into it."

The West Coast Conference champion Bulldogs will be making their 13th straight NCAA appearance and are the 11th seed in the Southeast Regional. Gonzaga will face No. 6 seed St. John's (21-11) in the second round of the tournament on Thursday (approximately 6:45 p.m. PDT, KREM 2) in Denver. The winner will face the BYU-Wofford winner in the third round on Saturday.

The Bulldogs had to wait until the very last matchup was revealed to find out where they were headed. Their low seed, combined with conference foe Saint Mary's being left out of the field, raised the possibility that had Gonzaga not won the WCC tournament, its streak of NCAA appearances could have ended.

The No. 11 seed is the second lowest Gonzaga has received in its run of 13 straight appearances.

"I feel strongly with how we schedule, and how we play and who we beat. I felt pretty good about our chances especially when we made it into the (WCC) final," Few said. "When it's not in your hands you can't control your destiny, then it's always scary, and it seems this year it was really kind of crazy."

It has been nearly a week since the Bulldogs (24-9) outlasted Saint Mary's 75-63 in the conference tournament final to wrap up the automatic bid. Few expressed surprise at the Gaels not making the tournament, but leading scorer Steven Gray didn't think the conference needed to have another team in the tournament.

"We're happy to see that they didn't make it," Gray said.

Gonzaga's victory over Saint Mary's in Las Vegas, its second over the Gaels in less than two weeks, capped a late-season charge during which the Bulldogs won 11 of their final 12 games. Gonzaga's only loss during the stretch was a 62-58 loss to Conference USA tournament champion Memphis.

It was a needed charge just to get back into the NCAA discussion despite a loaded schedule earlier in the season.

"No question it was always in the back of our minds. That's why we played so hard in Vegas and wanted it so bad," center Robert Sacre said. "... We didn't want to wait today and see if we were in or not."

Gonzaga and St. John's have met once before in the NCAAs with Gonzaga pulling out an 82-76 win as a No. 10 seed over the Red Storm in the 2000 tournament. Few will be matched up against good friend Steve Lavin. The pair became friends long ago as assistants scouting the West Coast.

"Everybody that knows Steve is really happy for him," Few said.