UCLA has been to the last two Final Fours. Will the third time yield a championship for coach Ben Howland and his Bruins? Maybe, but the journey won’t be easy. UCLA will have a warm-up act against Mississippi Valley State. Play time will then be over for the Bruins.
Let’s look at the dreaded 8 vs. 9 game. BYU is better than a No. 8 seed, despite its loss to UNLV in the Mountain West Conference fi nal. The Cougars should beat Texas A&M, then will give UCLA all it can handle. But playing in Anaheim will help the Bruins.
More danger lurks in the second round. Drake will be there and so should UConn, which won the West Regional in Phoenix en route to NCAA titles in 1999 and 2004.
Drake, a solid team with decent credentials, should be good enough to beat Western Kentucky. It is not good enough to beat UConn if the Huskies are ready to play. And after an early exit in the Big East tournament (a loss to West Virginia), coach Jim Calhoun will have the Huskies ready. They should beat San Diego, then beat Drake in the second round.
In the other half of the draw, Atlantic 10 regular-season champion Xavier is looking for redemption after its loss in the A-10 tournament semifinals to Saint Joseph’s. The Musketeers should beat Georgia, which can’t have much in its tank after four victories in three days on the way to the Southeastern Conference tournament title. That will bring Purdue or Baylor. Xavier is better than both and should make it to Phoenix.
The last portion of the bracket has Duke as a No. 2 seed wanting to show what it can do outside the Atlantic Coast Conference. Duke will have to play hard to beat a veteran Belmont team that won’t be awed by its surroundings. An upset is a possibility, but not this time. That will put Duke against either West Virginia or Arizona. Neither will beat Duke.
In the West Regional semifinals, UConn and UCLA will stage a battle similar to the West Regional matchup in Oakland in 1995 when UCLA prevailed en route to a national title. UConn can win this one, but the Huskies’ lack of consistency in March thus far is a concern.
The Xavier-Duke battle should be intriguing and we think Xavier can win. But in doing so, it will have nothing left to deal with UCLA.
UPSET SPECIALS: Xavier over Duke; Baylor over Purdue
MOVING TO PHOENIX: UCLA, UConn, Xavier, Duke
REGIONAL CHAMP: UCLA
