UCLA at WSU Hoops Game Thread

U.C.L.A. wraps up Pac-12 conference and regular season play tonight with their final game against the Washington State Cougars. Tip off is at 8pm PT, so that means extra coffee for you East Coaster Bruins. The game is televised on Fox Sports 1 (click here to find your channel). You can find a link to the TuneIn audio feed here and Live Stats will be carried here.

Menelaus included some news and notes on the tonight's matchup earlier today.

The Bruins (23-7 overall, 12-5 Pac-12) have secured second place in the Pac-12 regular season and the #2 seed in the Pac-12 Tourney next weekend, and tonight's games won't change that, but this remains an important game for the Bruins for a couple reasons. First, the Bruins can still potentially secure a protected seed in the West region of the NCAA tourney with a strong close to the season, so every game still counts. UCLA is just outside the top 25 in both the AP and USA Today polls, so they would likely have to win out to even get a consideration for a 4 seed in the West.

More importantly though, the Bruins have struggled mightily in the second game of road trips, having lost to Stanford, Oregon State, and Utah (teams that are a combined 26-27 in a very mediocre Pac-12) in the finale of their last three road trips. The Cougars are a woeful 9-20 overall and 2-15 Pac-12 this season, have lost 8 straight including a home loss to nearly-as-awful Southern Cal on Thursday, and have a coach on the broiling seat, so this is a game the Bruins should win handily. If the second game road trip blues pop up again for the Bruins tonight, then that's an ominous sign, and one which reflects dimly on the Bruins chances if they get seeded outside the West in the NCAA.

Jordan Adams is coming off a career high 31 points on Thursday night against UW and has been playing well since a midseason slump and Kyle Anderson continues his steady do-everything run at Pac-12 Player of the Year. We'll see if this is the last Pac-12 game for both of them. The usual half game effort by the Bruins should be more than enough tonight, and hopefully we can see Tony Parker and some players outside the usual 8 man rotation get some quality minutes and touches.

Here's your last Pac-12 regular season game thread. Have at it.

Go Bruins!