UCLA Bruins Selected as Number Two Seed in West
The Bruins will face UNC Asheville on Thursday in Sacramento.
The UCLA Bruins have been selected as the number two seed in the West Region. They will face the 15 seed UNC Asheville Bulldogs on Thursday in Sacramento.
A Sweet Sixteen appearance should be a relatively easy task as the Bruins will face the winner of the 7 seed Northwestern Wildcats and the 10 seed Boise State Broncos on Saturday.
Every year, I seem to write that the NCAA Selection Committee really has a weird sense of humor. It isn’t any different this year.
Three of the five potential opponents UCLA could face in the Sweet Sixteen are fellow Pac-12 school Arizona State, Gonzaga, or the Steve Alford-led Nevada Wolfpack. Personally, I think it would be nice to beat the crap out of Nevada, but the reality is that I expect that the Bruins will face the Zags rather than ASU, Nevada, or the other two teams in UCLA’s portion of the bracket, TCU and Grand Canyon University.
Assuming the Bruins make it to the Elite Eight, they will likely face either Kansas or UConn. From there, the West winner will face the Midwest winner in the Final Four.
Overall, I like how the Bruins are positioned. To be sure, the Bruins are likely disappointed that they weren’t chosen as a number one seed, but there are definite question marks surrounding UCLA due to the injuries to Clark and Bona. I do like the fact that this will give Coach Cronin and his guys a bit of a chip on their shoulder, motivating them to prove the “experts” wrong.
They were given the 5th overall seed, which means that last night’s bad calls could have cost them more than the game. They could have cost them a number one seed.
Regardless, they should go deep in this year’s tournament. I don’t usually make predictions this early, but I’m expecting the Bruins to make it to at least the Elite Eight and I think a Final Four appearance (or better) is possible.
Get ready. The madness is about to begin.
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.
Buckle up, it’s gonna be wild! I don’t think there’s any dominant teams this year, so it will come down to matchups and mental preparedness I think.
For the Bruins, Bona’s status might be key, but it was good to see both Nwuba and Mac step up, so I’m much more comfortable. I’m guessing they’ll limit Bona’s minutes in the first couple of games as long as we’re in control. [As an aside, we desperately need to recruit a big or 2, probably from the portal. If Bona leaves, we only have Mac, and even if he stays we need the depth]
It will be interesting to see how Jaime goes, I was really scared when he rolled his ankle the other day, but he seems ok. I don’t know that he needs to go on a massive scoring run for us to do well, but I think it’s the senior leadership that is key - showing the Freshman how to handle the tournament.
Secondl weekend could be interesting, but I don’t want to look too far ahead, just want to take it a game at a time.
So funny how they are touting Lunardi as getting 67 of 68 correct. Like 64 of those were baked in. He basically had to choose 4 out of 10 bubble teams to get in and he picked 3. Big Deal. A lot of his seedlings (also not that hard) are way off. They acting like he picked an entire bracket perfectly.