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UCLA received the second seed in the West Region in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and will face 15th-seeded UNC-Asheville in a first-round game Thursday in Sacramento.
Oddsmakers have made the Bruins (29-5) a 17 1/2- to 18 1/2-point favorite. The ABC News-owned data prediction website FiveThirtyEight gives UCLA a 95% chance of winning.
Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, the second seeds have a 121-7 record against the 15th seeds in the first round. One of the losses came last year when St. Peter’s upset Kentucky, 85-79, in overtime, then advanced to the Elite 8, the furthest a 15th-seed has advanced.
UCLA is the overall fifth seed in the 68-team tournament, while the Bulldogs (27-7) are seeded 62nd.
UNC-Asheville qualified for the tournament for the first time since 2016 and the fifth time in school history when it defeated Campbell, 77-73, in the Big South Tournament championship last Sunday, its 18th victory in 19 games. The Bulldogs were also the conference’s regular-season champion with a 16-2 record.
UNC-Asheville is led by 6-foot, 11-inch senior forward Drew Pember, the Big South Conference’s leading scorer, averaging 21.2 points per game, and rebounder, averaging 9.4.
Bruins junior guard Jaylen Clark will miss the tournament because of a lower leg injury suffered March 4 in an 82-73 victory over Arizona, coach Mick Cronin said Sunday at a media briefing coinciding with the release of the brackets.
Cronin said he had a “much more optimistic” outlook for the availability of freshman center Adem Bona, who missed the last 1 1/2 games because of a left shoulder injury.
The approximately 7:05 p.m. game will be televised by truTV. The winner will advance to play the winner of the game between seventh-seeded Northwestern and 10th-seeded Boise State Saturday.
USC received the 10th seed in the East Region in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and will face seventh-seeded Michigan State in a first-round game Friday in Columbus, Ohio.
Oddsmakers have made the Trojans (22-10) a 1 1/2- to 2-point underdog. The ABC News-owned data prediction website FiveThirtyEight.com gives USC a 36% chance of winning.
Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, the 10th seeds have a 52-75 record against the seventh seeds in the first round. One of the victories by 10th seeds occurred last year when Miami defeated the seventh-seeded Trojans, 68-66.
USC is the overall 39th seed in the 68-team tournament, while the Spartans (19-12) are seeded 26th.
The Trojans were among four Pac-12 Conference teams selected for the tournament Sunday. Michigan State is among eight teams from the 14-team Big Ten Conference in the tournament.
Tyson Walker, a 6-foot, 1-inch senior guard averaged 14.6 points to lead the Spartans while graduate student Joey Hauser, a 6-foot, 9-inch forward, is second, averaging 14.2 points per game.
This is the third consecutive tournament USC has participated in and 20th all-time. Michigan State will be participating in its 25th consecutive tournament, the third longest streak behind Kansas’ 33 from 1990 to the present and North Carolina’s 27 from 1975-2001.
The tournament was not played in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Spartans coach Tom Izzo will be coaching in his record 25th consecutive tournament. He had shared the record with Mike Krzyzewski, who coached Duke to the tournament 24 consecutive times from 1996-2019.
The 9:15 a.m. game will be televised by CBS. The winner will advance to play the winner of the game between second-seeded Marquette and 15th-seeded Vermont Sunday.
