The one upside of UCLAs six seed is that they were unprotected (meaning, they were not guaranteed a spot close to home). The Bruins traveled to Philadelphia, the longest distance traveled by any single team in the tournament. I made it up to Philadelphia for the first round versus Virginia Commonwealth. Tomorrow, UCLA plays Villanova. [...]
There’s no doubt in my mind that the Big East was the best conference in college basketball this season. With that said, there should never be an instance where one conference has 3 number one seeds. While it’s a problem bigger than just this tournament, the Big East needs to be cut in half. 16 [...]
In many ways, UCLA basketball in recent years has a number of parallels with the collapsing global economy. The mid 2000s showed promise of a new day with limitless potential. 2007 came with a slow down (a final four instead of a national championship game birth) and the late-2008 collapse of this year’s Bruin team [...]