UCLA and Arizona are the top teams in the Pac-12 conference. They figure to battle down to the wire for the league title and a higher seed in the NCAA basketball tournament. But it appears NCAA tournament committee might have it in for the gutty little Bruins.
UCLA routed Cal on Saturday night 78-43 for their 23rd straight home victory. Then they had an even bigger laugh after seeing the NCAA “Way Too Early” bracket reveal show on ESPN. The committee actually had the Arizona Wildcats receiving a better seed than UCLA, despite the fact that they trail the Bruins by two games in the conference loss column
In fairness, UCLA did lose their only head to head meeting in January. Still, Mick Cronin’s team is ranked fourth nationally to the Wildcats #8 spot. The Bruins are No. 3 in the highly respected Ken Pomeroy’s ratings, while the ‘Cats are 9th. And in the all-important NCAA Evaluation Tool or NET, UCLA is 4th, Arizona is 11th.
Geographically Desirable
Staying in the West is huge. It means the regional games would be played in Las Vegas where the PAC-12 team would enjoy basically home court advantage. Why then is Arizona getting the edge?
According to the committee, it has to do with quality wins. The ‘Cats are 6-2 in the important Quad 1 category while the Bruins are 4-4. Those are games in which the opponents enjoy a NET ranking of 1-15 at home, 1-50 at a neutral site and 1-75 on the road.
Keep in mind there’s plenty of time left in the regular season and there’s still a Pac-12 tournament to be played. UCLA needs to beat Arizona in the rematch on March 4 at Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins will likely need to win the Pac-12 tourney or at very least beat the Wildcats again to claim the season series.
History Favors UCLA
As far as the Bruins’ seeding goes, Cronin said fans need to keep in mind what happened two years ago. In 2021, UCLA as a No. 11 seed went from the First Four to the Final Four.
The committee ranked Alabama as the top overall seed with Houston, Purdue and Kansas garnering the other three #1 seeds.
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