What’s Bruin: Can UCLA Basketball Still Be a #1 Seed?

Men’s Basketball

With two consecutive losses and now three total in Pac-12 play, Clay Fowler at Inside UCLA asks if the Bruins can still earn a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

UCLA doesn’t necessarily have to be the regular season Pac-12 champion to earn a top seed. Each of the last two years, the tournament committee has seeded a second-place team No. 1 – Virginia last year and eventual national champ Duke in 2015. Three of the four No. 1 seeds last year totaled six losses and UCLA has three with nine games remaining before the Pac-12 tournament.

Jon Wilner at the College Hotline reviews the week that was in Pac-12 basketball last week.

Tail spin: UCLA.

The Bruins have lost two in a row (Arizona and USC) and looked bad in the process, prompting the proverbial team meeting.

The Hotline has a better idea: Instead of talking it out, spend the time working on defensive footwork and rotations.

And ballhandling.

Football

Pat Forde at Yahoo Sports did a series last week ranking the level of fan satisfaction with their current head football coach.

He ranked Jim Mora only one step above the lowest level of satisfaction ("Hire the moving trucks") with Mora and a few other Pac-12 South bosses at "Fire the coordinators."

Mora is one season away from squandering prize quarterback Josh Rosen, the presumed No. 1 pick in the 2018 draft. Rosen’s mid-season injury helped scuttle 2016 for the Bruins, but even when he was healthy UCLA was nothing special. Mora’s teams have annually failed to fulfill expectations, have never lost fewer than three Pac-12 games in a season, and have been blown out twice in a row by USC. He needs a good year.

Men’s Volleyball

The #2-ranked men’s volleyball team defeated Princeton in straight sets on Sunday night in Pauley Pavilion, with head coach John Speraw deviating from his normal seven-man rotation.

Men’s Tennis

The men’s tennis team, currently ranked #6 in country, beat New Mexico and Lamar as part of the ITA Kickoff Weekend.

The Bruins head to Gainesville next weekend to play matches against #5 Georgia and #11 Florida in the Pac-12/SEC Showdown.

GO BRUINS.