NCAA Tournament March Madness

#42 UCLA

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Projected seed: 11 (last four in)

UCLA’s résumé reads like a classic borderline case because the Bruins pair a signature home victory over Purdue and resume-building road wins at Oregon and Penn State with a pile of easy nonconference blowouts, yet those positives are undercut by damaging setbacks such as the lopsided defeat at Michigan and tough neutral-site losses to Arizona and Gonzaga. The team has proven it can beat quality opponents away from home but has also shown inconsistency in hostile settings, which makes the resume fragile. Home wins over Maryland and Northwestern and the road bounce at Oregon give the committee reason to respect the profile, while the steady stream of soft victories does little to offset the bad losses. Upcoming high-leverage chances against Michigan State and Illinois and the matchups with USC and Nebraska, including the road date at USC, are the clearest paths to move the résumé out of the precarious spot it occupies.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/3E Washington210W80-74
11/7Pepperdine284W74-63
11/10West Georgia319W83-62
11/14(N)Arizona2L69-65
11/18CS Sacramento253W79-48
11/21Presbyterian285W86-46
11/25(N)California65L80-72
12/3@Washington47W82-80
12/6Oregon101W74-63
12/13(N)Gonzaga10L82-72
12/17Arizona St70W90-77
12/19Cal Poly236W108-87
12/23UC Riverside275W97-65
1/3@Iowa23L74-61
1/6@Wisconsin30L80-72
1/10Maryland126W67-55
1/14@Penn St123W71-60
1/17@Ohio St41L86-74
1/20Purdue9W69-67
1/24Northwestern68W71-64
1/28@Oregon101W73-57
1/31Indiana35L98-97
2/3Rutgers160W98-66
2/7Washington47W77-73
2/14@Michigan1L86-56
2/17@Michigan St1319%
2/21Illinois628%
2/24USC5069%
2/28@Minnesota8060%
3/3Nebraska1238%
3/7@USC5047%