UCLA Basketball: UAB Game Thread --Need To Avoid a "Bad Loss."

The 4-2 Bruins meet the 2-4 Alabama Birmingham Blazers in the match for seventh place in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament. Tip-off is set for 7:30 PM PT. You can catch the game on AXS TV (available in the Los Angeles area on the following channels: AT&T U-verse (Ch. 1106), Charter (Ch. 794), DirecTV (Ch. 340), DISH (Ch. 167), and Verizon FIOS (Ch. 569)). Southern California Time Warner subscribers are screwed.  Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas and Andy Katz will be calling the game. Though the official site has not radio links, but there has been audio on Tunein Radio (I never knew how bad the radio coverage has been until now) or 570 AM. Follow along with live stats. Alternative live stats link.

Read the DCBruins preview and the official guide at uclabruins.com (from which you can click to their exhaustive stats and tidbits).

The Bruins will try to get a little bit of salvation for the long trip to the Bahamas tonight. UAB is a mid-pack Conference USA team. This won't be an NCAA Tournament resume-building game -- that chance was badly blown. Rather, the Bruins need to avoid a "bad loss" in the Selection Committee's eye. Perhaps most importantly, the team is at a crossroads, and needs to avoid a season-ending meltdown. It's that too dramatic? Watch the body language tonight (if you get AXS TV). BTW, UCLA is a 13 point favorite.

It's a bad weekend for revenue sports, but try  to enjoy the game thread with your fellow BNers and Bruins.