The UCLA men’s basketball team is headed back to the NCAA Tournament in pursuit of the team’s goal of a national championship after being seeded the No. 2 in the West Region where it will play UNC Asheville in a first-round game Thursday at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
The 15th-seeded Bulldogs (27-7), who won the Big South Tournament title last week, are led by Drew Pember’s 21.1 points and 9.4 rebounds per game.
The Bruins (29-5) are headed to the dance again but might have some question marks looming about the health of Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year Jaylen Clark and Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Adem Bona.
UCLA’s seeding puts it in the conversation for a national title, but with the run potentially starting without Clark and Bona, it dampens the hopes of Bruins fans who haven’t seen the program win a NCAA title since 1995.
UCLA won the Pac-12 regular-season title by four games over Arizona, which edged the Bruins 61-59 in the conference tournament final Saturday night in Las Vegas. Bona did not play in the game due to a shoulder injury he suffered in Friday night’s semifinal win over Oregon. Clark has not played since suffering a lower leg injury March 4 in the regular-season finale win over Arizona.
However, the recent play of freshman Amari Bailey has been a good sign for UCLA. Bailey scored a career-high 26 points in Thursday night’s conference quarterfinal win over Colorado and notched 19 points and seven rebounds in the loss to Arizona.
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It’s the third consecutive season UCLA has earned a national tournament bid under fourth-year coach Mick Cronin. The Bruins were likely to earn a bid in 2020, but the pandemic canceled the Pac-12 and NCAA tournaments. In 2021, Cronin took UCLA from the First Four to the Final Four, and last year his team reached the Sweet Sixteen.
The reigning Pac-12 Coach of the Year has his work cut out for him this postseason.
“They call it March Madness for a reason,” Cronin said last week. “They don’t call it March Normal.”