NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament: How to Watch and Game Thread - #7 Seed UCLA Bruins vs. #2 Seed Tennessee Volunteers
The Bruins face the Vols with a Sweet Sixteen berth on the line tonight.
This weekend continues to be a great one for UCLA sports fans. After last night’s 38-point win by the UCLA women’s basketball team, the Bruin men’s basketball team is back in action tonight against the #2 seed Tennessee Volunteers.
This year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has been all SEC this and SEC that. Well, for all the talk — and it has been just talk — the SEC went just 8-6 in First Four and First Round games. Meanwhile, the Big Ten, the conference Bruin legend Bill Walton once called a “truck stop league” has been anything but that. Big Ten teams are off to a 9-0 start in this year’s tournament.
Now, the Bruins will have an opportunity to knock off the #2 seed in the Midwest and help cement the Big Ten’s superiority over the SEC in the process.
Last Time Out
On Thursday, UCLA easily defeated the #10 seed Utah State Aggies, 72-47. In that game, Eric Dailey, Jr. and Skyy Clark led the Bruins with 14 points each. Aday Mara added 10 more.
The game was effectively over when Dailey scored what proved to be the winning basket with about 15 minutes left in the game. That bucket put the Bruins up 49-36, and they cruised from there.
Meanwhile, the Volunteers had a pretty easy go of it against the #15 seed Wofford Terriers, winning 77-62. That said, it still took them longer to finish off the Terriers than it did for the Bruins to close out the Aggies. There was about nine minutes left when Jordan Gainey made a layup that put the Vols up 63-50. That shot proved to be the gamewinner for Tennessee as the Terriers could only muster 12 points in the time remaining.
Tennessee Volunteers
Tonight’s game is an interesting matchup. In part, one of the things that makes this game interesting is the fact that Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes almost left the Vols to come be the head coach of the Bruins.
In fact, Outkick.com has an article discussing the fact that Barnes nearly took the UCLA job five years ago. Ultimately, it came down to the fact that UCLA would not pay for Barnes’ buyout that kept him from becoming the head coach of the Bruins.
The fact is that UCLA’s athletic department, probably rightly so, couldn’t afford to pay the buyout at the time. The Bruins had recently fired former football coach Jim Mora when Steve Alford got the axe. Both of those contracts had large amounts due as a result of those firings.
In hindsight, it might have been a blessing in disguise for the Bruins. Not only did UCLA head coach lead the Bruins to several Final Fours, but a year later, COVID shut down all sports, cratering the athletic department budget even more.
Would UCLA men’s basketball been significantly different if Barnes had been hired instead? Absolutely. Would the Bruins have made the Final Four in 2021? Maybe, but we’ll never know.
Now, Barnes and his Volunteers will look to send the Bruins home while Cronin and his UCLA team will look to do the same to Barnes.
Tennessee Volunteers’ Starting Five
Barnes will start a three guard, two forward lineup.
The Vols are led by fifth year senior Chaz Lanier. Lanier averages 18.0 ppg and he is the best three-point shooter on the team. His 40.3% three-point percentage is the best on the team with the exception of Felix Okpara who made his only three-point attempt.
Zakai Zeigler, the senior from Long Island, NY, will be another starting guard for Tennessee. In addition to averaging 13.7 ppg, Ziegler’s 254 assists is almost as many as the rest of the Vols combined. He also leads the team in steals with 66.
The third and final starting guard will be Jahmai Mashack. The Fontana native is averaging just 6.1 ppg.
At the forwards, expect to see Okpara and senior Igor Miličić, Jr. get the start. Miličić is Tennessee’s top rebounder, grabbing an average of 6.8 rpg in addition to his 9.9 ppg. Meanwhile, Okpara grabs 6.2 rpg while averaging 7.3 ppg. Okpara also leads Tennessee in blocks with 60.
It’s worth mentioning that senior Jordan Gainey actually averages 11.3 ppg, making him the Vols’ third-best scorer despite the fact that he has only started one game all season.
Analysis
UCLA’s schedule gets much tougher tonight as they play a higher-seeded opponent for the first time in this year’s tournament.
Tennessee averages 74.8 points per game as a team while the Bruins average 74.7. Defensively, the Volunteers also hold a slight advantage, averaging 63.0 ppg given up to opponents while UCLA averages 65.2 ppg.
Now, the key thing here is that, much like football, the SEC doesn’t play as many conference games as a school in the Big Ten like UCLA. The SEC played 12 conference games this season while the Big Ten played 14.
Playing two fewer conference games will certainly make the stat lines look a lot prettier. If Tennessee managed to leverage two fewer conference games, then their stats, and the stats from the entire season are not good points of comparison.
This game won’t be easy. Ultimately, it will likely depend on which Bruin team shows up. Will it be the Bruins who couldn’t defeat Wisconsin in the Big Ten tournament or will it be the UCLA squad which looked ferocious against Utah State on Thursday.
If the Bruins come out on fire and maintain that, then UCLA will win. If they come out soft, then look for them to be a one-and-done.
The winner of tonight’s game will play the winner of tomorrow’s game between the #3 seed Kentucky Wildcats and the #6 Illinois Fighting Illini.
This is your UCLA men’s basketball vs. Tennessee Volunteers NCAA Tournament First Round game thread. Here’s how to watch, listen and stream today’s game.
NCAA Men’s Tournament Second Round
Teams: #7 Seed UCLA Bruins (23-10) vs. #2 Seed Tennessee Volunteers (28-7)
Series Record: UCLA leads, 1-0
When: Approx. 6:40 pm PT, Saturday, March 22, 2025
Where: Rupp Arena, Lexington, KY
TV: TBS/truTV with Brian Anderson, Jim Jackson and Allie LaForce
Live Stream: MarchMadness.com, the March Madness app and the Max app
Radio/Audio
Local Radio: AM 570 with Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray
Satellite Radio: SiriusXM Ch. 201
Live Stats: NCAA Gamecenter
Tournament Notes:
UCLA
Go Bruins!!!
Thanks again for supporting The Mighty Bruin. Your paid subscriptions make this site possible. Questions, comments, story ideas, angry missives and more can be sent to @TheMightyBruin on Twitter.
You guys will be getting a postgame tomorrow morning likely - don’t think I’ll be home in time to get it out in a reasonable time tonight, so I’ll set it for the morning likely.
The last 1:00 of the first half changed the game. Down 2 and took TO. Then gave up 5 straight points after 2 turnovers and the game was never again competitive.