No. 2 seed UCLA opens NCAA Tournament vs. UNC Asheville

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.

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.”