UCLA Men's Basketball Earns Coveted No. 2 Seed in NCAA Tournament

The Bruins will open up March Madness against UNC Asheville on Thursday, going into the game with their highest seed since 2008.

For the third year in a row, the Bruins are going dancing.

And they won't have to go very far to get their dance started.

UCLA men's basketball (29-5, 18-2 Pac-12) earned the No. 2 seed in the West Region for the 2023 NCAA tournament, as was revealed during Sunday's selection show live on CBS. The Bruins will face off against No. 15 seed UNC Asheville (27-7, 16-2 Big South) in the opening round on Thursday in Sacramento.

By making the West Region, UCLA will play any potential Sweet 16 or Elite Eight games in Las Vegas – the closest host city that was on the table. Conference rival Arizona, on the other hand, was placed in the South Region despite winning the head-to-head season series 2-1.

This marks the first time since 2008 that the Bruins have earned a top-two seed.

Heading into conference tournament week, UCLA was considered by many bracketologists to be in contention for a No. 1 seed. The Bruins got the job done against Colorado and Oregon on Thursday and Friday, respectively, but fell to Arizona 61-59 in the Pac-12 tournament finals on Saturday.

Alabama, Houston, Purdue and Kansas were ultimately named the four No. 1 seeds, with the Jayhawks sharing the West with the Bruins. Gonzaga is the West's No. 3 seed, UConn is the No. 4 seed and Saint Mary's is the No. 5 seed, while Arizona State could also make it as the region's No. 11 seed if it can fend off Steve Alford's Nevada squad in the First Four.

UCLA entered Sunday ranked No. 3 in the NET, a five-component metric designed by the NCAA to replace the RPI as the primary sorting tool for evaluating teams five years ago. The Bruins also ranked No. 2 in the KenPom, No. 3 in the T-Rank, No. 4 in the BPI, No. 3 in the Simple Rating System, No. 5 in Strength of Record and No. 6 in the RPI, and they won the Pac-12 regular season title by four games.

It is possible that the committee held guard Jaylen Clark's reportedly season-ending lower leg injury against the Bruins – as well as big man Adem Bona's left shoulder injury – based on NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt's comments Saturday on CBS. Gavitt said the committee takes player availability into account when building the bracket, although he clarified that they would try not to overreact since it is not their job to project how a team performs without certain players.

Neither Clark nor Bona appeared in the Pac-12 title game against the Wildcats, but Bona is reportedly expected to return in time for the NCAA tournament. If Bona is unable to go on Thursday, Kenneth Nwuba will likely draw the start down low alongside Pac-12 Player of the Year Jaime Jaquez Jr., All-Pac-12 First Team point guard Tyger Campbell, veteran sharpshooter David Singleton and star freshman guard Amari Bailey.

UNC Asheville won the Big South conference tournament all the way back on March 5, defeating No. 7 seed Campbell 77-33 in the finals. The Bulldogs – like the Bruins – won their regular season conference title by four games.

No. 2 seeds are 138-10 against No. 15 seeds dating back to 1985, although St. Peter's and Oral Roberts pulled off first round upsets from that position in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

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