UCLA Men's Basketball Earns #7 Seed in the East Region; Will Face UCF Friday
The Bruins are headed to Philadephia where they will face the Knights, and possibly UConn on Sunday.
The NCAA Men’s Tournament seeds have been announced and the UCLA Bruins are seeded seventh in the East. The team will face the #10 seed UCF Knights in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Friday. It’s the second year in a row that UCLA is seeded seventh.
The Bruins’ road struggles were too much for them to overcome to get a higher seed despite a strong showing in the Big Ten Tournament which saw them make it to the semifinals before falling to Purdue, who won the Big Ten Tournament today by upsetting top-seeded Michigan, 80-72.
It’s hard to argue that UCLA should have been seeded higher than some of their fellow Big Ten teams who put together better regular season records.
At the same time, as seems to happen every year, the NCAA Selection Committee seemed to exhibit a good sense of humor. Assuming the Bruins can defeat UCF on Friday, they could face UConn on Sunday. Of course, UConn’s women’s team defeated UCLA’s women’s team in the Final Four last season, and former Bruin football coach Jim Mora had rebuilt the Huskies football program before leaving for Colorado State after the 2025 football season.
If UCLA can make it to the Sweet 16, there is a decent chance we’ll see a Big Ten tourney rematch against the 3 seed Michigan State Spartans, whom the Bruins beat on Friday night, 88-84.
But, first, they must come out strong against Central Florida before they can think about anyone else. If they can’t win their first game, none of the other ones matter.
Here’s the complete 68-team bracket.
Next up, the UCLA women’s basketball team will find out where they are going when the Women’s Selection Show begins at 5 pm PT on ESPN.
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.
We cannot, for my sanity, lose to UCF.
(UConn is by far the worst 2 seed, that is an incredibly winnable game considering we beat a better team in Michigan State and hung with Purdue without our two best players just this week.)