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The UCLA Bruins will take their chase of a No. 1 seed within the NCAA males’s basketball event to the Pac-12 event.
The Bruins are the highest seed for the annual occasion inside T-Cell Enviornment in Las Vegas.
UCLA enters Nevada on a 10-game profitable streak. The Bruins moved that run to double digits with a win over the Arizona Wildcats on Saturday. Arizona is the No. 2 seed within the Pac-12 event.
The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds received six of the final eight Pac-12 tournaments. Arizona received as the highest seed final yr with a championship recreation conquer second-seeded UCLA.
Arizona and UCLA have been the category of the Pac-12 all season, and it will come as no shock if each groups land in Saturday’s closing.
UCLA’s chase of a No. 1 seed is one in every of two pursuits that can happen in Las Vegas. The Arizona State Solar Devils and Oregon Geese will attempt to do sufficient to land spots on the fitting aspect of the NCAA event bubble.
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UCLA must win the Pac-12 event to make the perfect case potential to land a No. 1 seed within the NCAA event.
The Bruins have been listed because the fifth general workforce on the most recent bracket projection from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. UCLA is ranked second general on KenPom and it’s fourth within the NET rankings.
The one high quality win that UCLA can achieve in Las Vegas is in opposition to Arizona within the closing. Arizona and the USC Trojans, who’re on the underside aspect of the bracket, are the 2 different projected groups within the discipline of 68 from the Pac-12.
UCLA suffered 4 losses all season, one every to Arizona and USC in Pac-12 play, and to the Illinois Preventing Illini and Baylor Bears in nonconference play.
Mick Cronin’s workforce has not confronted many challenges from groups exterior the highest three in Pac-12, and that probably means it should make a run to the ultimate.
Oregon should beat UCLA to really feel extra snug about its place on the NCAA event bubble. The Geese reside on Lunardi’s “Subsequent 4 Out” line as of Saturday.
Dana Altman’s workforce misplaced twice to the Bruins by a mixed 16 factors within the common season, so which may be an excessive amount of of a problem to cope with.
Arizona State has to play an additional recreation in Las Vegas because the No. 6 seed. The Solar Devils are on Lunardi’s “First 4 Out” line.
ASU misplaced to USC by three factors on Saturday evening. The Solar Devils have to beat the Trojans within the quarterfinals to really feel considerably protected on the bubble.
Consecutive wins over USC and Arizona would get Arizona State into the sector of 68, however it’s 1-5 in opposition to the Pac-12’s finest groups, and the one win got here on a buzzer-beater in opposition to Arizona.
The underside six groups within the Pac-12 completed with a league report of .500 or below, and it appears unlikely that any of these applications will make it previous the quarterfinal spherical.
The Pac-12 appears to have the perfect probability of any league to stay to chalk and have the highest two seeds meet within the closing, which has occurred six occasions since 2014.
UCLA flexed its dominance in opposition to Arizona within the regular-season finale at Pauley Pavilion, and we might see extra of the identical from the Bruins as they attempt to land on the highest seed line on Choice Sunday.
Prediction: UCLA over Arizona
