A Love-ly Draw for the Bruins: Kevin Love Leads UCLA to No. 1 Seed

Tommy Ross — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 04:04:37 -0400

The UCLA Bruins will start the NCAA tournament as the No. 1 seed in the West region.

Fresh off a Pac-10 tournament championship and riding a 10 game win streak, they will play the automatic qualifiers from the SWAC, Mississippi Valley State. The Delta Devils are on a nine game win streak, but the Bruins will probably use this game to rest injured starters Kevin Love and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute.

UCLA should take the win pretty easily and look forward to a matchup between Texas A&M or BYU. It is expected that both big men will be able to go, but it is likely that they will receive limited playing time.

UCLA matches up much better with BYU. BYU, a more guard-oriented team, will probably try to attack Love with Trent Plaisted, but trying to shoot outside will be very difficult against shutdown guards Darren Collison and Russell Westbrook. If BYU advances past Texas A&M, they are going to have a lot of trouble with the Bruins.

However, Texas A&M will give the Bruins much more trouble if they beat the Cougars. The Aggies are led by powerful big men Joseph Jones and DeAndre Jordan. There is no doubt that Mark Turgeon will be looking inside to them all game. Kevin Love is going to have to be ready to play physical, and the Bruins are going to need strong minutes from Alfred Aboya and Lorenzo Mata-Real.

If the Bruins can stop the inside game and be effective from the outside on offense, they should be able to beat the Aggies and advance to the Sweet 16.

Even if UCLA does not play up to their potential, they should still be able to beat these teams pretty handily and can look forward to the Sweet 16.

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A Love-ly Draw for the Bruins: Kevin Love Leads UCLA to No. 1 Seed