Tag: UCLA Basketball

UCLA loses to South Carolina, Pac-12 fully eliminated from NCAA Tournament

The UCLA women were the last Pac-12 team in the NCAA Tournament. Now they’re gone, courtesy of the defending champions.

Unlike men’s basketball, the Pac-12 put a lot of teams in the Women’s NCAA Tournament. The Pac-12 actually put a majority of its 12 teams (seven) in the women’s NCAA field. Yet, none of them reached the Final Four or even the Elite Eight.

UCLA was the last Pac-12 team standing, but the Bruins ran into No. 1 and undefeated South Carolina on Saturday afternoon in Greenville, S.C. Playing an unbeaten juggernaut is a tough-enough assignment as it is. The Bruins had to go into the state of South Carolina, making the task even tougher.

It ended as everyone expected it would.

South Carolina smothered UCLA’s offense, limiting the Bruins to 34 points in the game’s first 36 minutes before the Bruins got a few very late and inconsequential 3-pointers to make the score seem slightly closer than it was. The final was 59-43 for South Carolina, but it felt a lot more like a 25-point game than 16.

UCLA scored just 15 points in the first half against the Gamecocks’ elite defense and could never get into a real rhythm for more than a few minutes at a time. The Bruins had a good NCAA Tournament by becoming one of three Pac-12 teams to make the Sweet 16, but they had a bad draw in this round and realized why their losses late in the season — which caused them to fall on the seed list — were so important. Fewer losses would have meant a No. 3 seed for the Bruins, who might still be playing had they not met the defending national champions this early in the tournament.

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Analysis: Pac-12 basketball’s future is tied almost exclusively to Arizona

Barring a Final Four run by UCLA or USC in 2024, #Pac12 hoops will need Arizona and Tommy Lloyd to deliver the goods.

The Pac-12 just got eliminated from the 2023 NCAA Tournament on Thursday when UCLA fell to Gonzaga. The Pac-12’s only Final Four trip in the past six seasons was UCLA’s unlikely ride to the 2021 Final Four as a No. 11 seed. That’s it. No other Pac-12 team has reached the Final Four since Oregon in 2017.

With UCLA and USC heading for the Big Ten in two years, the Pac-12 gets just one more season with the Bruins and Trojans. Both UCLA and USC could be really good next season, but after that, they’ll be in another conference. The Pac-12 might have two or three Final Four contenders next season, but if 2024 doesn’t deliver the goods, the Pac-12 will have to face a very inconvenient reality: Arizona will be the one program in the conference with a realistic chance of winning a national title.

Yes, San Diego State could come over from the Mountain West and become the league’s second March threat, but we have to wait and see if the Aztecs can become a top-tier NCAA Tournament seed the way UCLA and Arizona have been in recent seasons. SDSU is a 5 seed in this year’s Big Dance, and the Aztecs are still alive as we write this article on Friday morning before the team’s Sweet 16 game against Alabama. However, San Diego State has not regularly been a top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament. The 2011 team with Kawhi Leonard was a No. 2 seed, but that’s the exception and not the rule.

Other than SDSU, the only other possible candidate for NCAA Tournament championship contention might be Oregon if Dana Altman can author a resurrection. Yet, Oregon has been below average the past two seasons and needs a reboot. Some quality recruits are coming in, but Altman has swung and missed in the transfer portal, where he had done a really good job in previous seasons.

Washington, Washington State, Oregon State, Stanford, Cal, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona State — eight of the conference’s long-term members when USC and UCLA leave — are in no position to contend for the Final Four, let alone the national title. It’s Arizona, maybe SDSU, maybe Oregon. That’s it. If neither USC nor UCLA can make a big run in 2024, it’s going to be Arizona’s conference to run unless Dana Altman can revive Oregon.

No pressure, Wildcats.

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UCLA careers of Jaime Jaquez, Tyger Campbell end; Bruins must turn the page

Jaime Jaquez came back in 2023 to bring a title to UCLA. He fell short. #USC might have a better roster than the Bruins in 2024.

Let’s be very clear about one thing before we say anything more: UCLA basketball is in very good shape under Mick Cronin, who has been a fantastic coach for the Bruins. Cronin has answered the doubts and questions about his coaching acumen. He got a lot out of his 2023 UCLA team. Despite a bunch of injuries, UCLA looked like a serious national championship contender and was headed for a win over Gonzaga in the Sweet 16 until a shocking cold spell derailed the Bruins’ plans.

Cronin was excellent on the UCLA bench this season. The Bruins will be the Big Ten’s best program when they change conferences in two years. UCLA is in a good place, and USC fans would love to have the season the Bruins just authored: conference champion, No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, Sweet 16 team.

Yet, with all of that having been said, UCLA did miss its big chance to win a national title and at least make the Final Four this year. Top-seeded Kansas was eliminated from the West Region when the Bruins arrived in Las Vegas for the West Regional. This is a wide-open NCAA Tournament without any blue-bloods left in the field. UCLA had a legitimate shot, much as it did a year ago when it lost to North Carolina in the Sweet 16.

The loss by UCLA to Gonzaga on Thursday night marks the end of the line for the collegiate careers of Jaime Jaquez and Tyger Campbell. Two very important, very special Bruins won’t be around next season for Cronin, which will create a new dynamic on his roster. Cronin was able to lean on the veteran experience of two core players. His 2023-2024 team will be talented, but it won’t have the same old-man wisdom of the past few seasons.

In the long run, UCLA hoops should be just fine, but next season, USC really does have a chance to be better than UCLA. That’s not wild hyperbole. It’s a possibility — not necessarily a likelihood, but certainly a realistic scenario.

If Isaiah Collier is the real deal at point guard — if he is as good as the recruiting rankings and overall hype suggest — USC will have a better point guard than UCLA. Joshua Morgan is officially returning for one more season in the low post. Vince Iwuchukwu is almost certain to return. With a full offseason of workouts and the removal of the medically-required minutes restriction he endured this past season, Iwuchukwu’s five-star talent could fully blossom. Kobe Johnson and Tre White, two very good players this past season, should be back. Arrinten Page and Silas Demary are two other promising freshmen prospects.

If Andy Enfield can go into the transfer portal and get a high-end shooter or scorer on the wing, USC will have a fully loaded team heading into next season.

USC’s last basketball season in the Pac-12 has a chance to be really special. We aren’t talking about likelihoods, but the possibilities are legitimately exciting.

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UCLA suffers stunning loss to Gonzaga, Pac-12 bounced from NCAA tourney

UCLA led by 13 at halftime and was shredding Gonzaga’s D. Then the Bruins went 11 minutes without a made field goal. This is March.

The Pac-12 did it again. It failed to win the NCAA Tournament. The conference, which has not cut down the nets on the final Monday night of the season since 1997 (when Arizona celebrated its lone national championship), got knocked out of the Big Dance on Thursday night in Las Vegas. UCLA, the one Pac-12 team to reach the Sweet 16, couldn’t go beyond that point. The Bruins, who led 46-33 at halftime and were roasting Gonzaga’s defense, improbably went cold in the second half, going over 11 minutes without a made field goal. Their 13-point lead turned into a 72-63 deficit with just over a minute left.

Gonzaga did implode in the next minute, however. A bunch of missed free throws and some carless GU fouls enabled UCLA to take a late lead on an Amari Bailey 3-pointer. For a brief period of time, it seemed UCLA might improbably escape in a manner reminiscent of the Bruins’ 73-71 win over the Zags in the 2006 Sweet 16 in Oakland. The Bruins were down and out in that game but rallied late to steal one from Mark Few. History was on the verge of repeating itself, 17 years later.

It was not meant to be for the Bruins. Gonzaga’s Julian Strawther hit a 35-footer in the final 10 seconds to give the Zags a 79-76 win over UCLA, stopping the second-seeded Bruins in yet another memorable clash between these two West Coast powers.

USC and UCLA will move to the Big Ten in two years. Both schools will get one more chance in 2024 to give the Pac-12 a Final Four team and — who knows? — maybe a shot at a college basketball national championship.

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UCLA only Pac-12 team remaining after NCAA Tournament first weekend

The Pac-12 only has one team remaining in the NCAA Tournament, UCLA, after Arizona, USC, and Arizona State suffered first round losses.

The 2023 NCAA Tournament began with four schools from the conference of champions, but after the first two days of action only one Pac-12 school – the UCLA Bruins – remained.

USC tipped off Friday’s action against Michigan State, losing 72-62 after getting outscored by ten in the second half by Tom Izzo’s team.

USC was the ten seed in this matchup and had a chance to win throughout, but a poor performance from star guard Boogie Ellis (six points on 3-12 shooting) doomed the Trojans and sent USC home early.

Meanwhile, the last game of the day was a battle between six seed TCU and Arizona State, a play-in 11 seed that had every opportunity to win but squandered them all by missing key free throws down the stretch.

All this comes after the biggest disappointment on Thursday, when Arizona fell to 15 seed Princeton – much to the joy of many Oregon fans.

This means of the 32 teams remaining in the Big Dance, only the Pac-12 regular season champion in UCLA remains.

It’s another disappointing year for the conference, and the impending departure of both UCLA and USC – half the Pac-12’s Tournament teams – makes it hard to be optimistic about the future.

Conferences secure a ton of money from NCAA Tournament appearances and wins, and while football is king it is absolutely an issue that this conference has very little basketball pedigree beyond 2024.

Of course, potential addition San Diego State already punched their ticket into the Sweet 16 with wins over Charleston and Furman, showcasing one of their biggest arguments for inclusion in the conference.

Oregon has a dominant recruiting class set to come in 2023, which should help, but until some of these lower-level programs commit to winning things might not change much in the conference of champions.

Cal let Mark Fox go, which is a start, but Stanford’s commitment to Jerod Haase and Oregon State’s devotion to Wayne Tinkle will keep this conference from rising out of the bottom – which doesn’t do anyone any favors at the top.

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Late Courtney Ramey 3 lifts Arizona over UCLA for Pac-12 Tournament title

In a tough, hard-fought #Pac12 final in which UCLA battled injuries, Arizona was able to make the final, decisive play.

The UCLA Bruins were playing without Jaylen Clark and Adem Bona, two of their best defensive players, in Saturday night’s Pac-12 Tournament final in Las Vegas. It was reasonable to think that an Arizona Wildcat team with quality big man, Oumar Ballo and Azuolas Tubelis, would be able to pound the Bruins into submission and score a decisive win.

That did not happen.

However, while Arizona did not win decisively, it did prevail. The Wildcats used a late 3-pointer from Courtney Ramey to score a 61-59 win over the Bruins and capture another Pac-12 Tournament title. This is Arizona’s ninth Pac-12 Tournament crown. UCLA last won this tournament in 2014. UCLA has won this event once in the past 15 seasons.

UCLA’s defense did not really suffer despite the absences of Clark and Bona. UCLA’s offense failed to reach 60 points. Arizona was able to turn the Bruins into a jump-shooting team. UCLA was not able to get to the rim or the foul line nearly as much as it needed to. Empty possessions mounted for the Bruins, and Arizona was able to battle UCLA on even terms despite lacking polish and precision on offense.

The result likely makes UCLA a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and lifts Arizona to a No. 2 seed. Purdue will likely get a No. 1 seed instead of UCLA.

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Haley Jones on her ‘sketchy’ experiences playing the Pac-12 tourney in Vegas and how she limits sports betting noise

Being shouted at in a casino doesn’t sound fun.

With sports betting legal in over 30 U.S. states, there aren’t many athletes who don’t periodically hear from a fan or two about how their performances impacted a bet.

Those usually one-sided interactions are typically limited to social media or during games. Especially for an athlete based in a state where betting isn’t legal, like Stanford basketball star Haley Jones. So, as you can imagine, playing a game in Las Vegas is a different experience than what she’s used to.

Vegas has hosted the Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament since 2019. Up until this year, Stanford had reached the final each time, winning the last two. This year’s team had its time shortened with a semifinal loss to UCLA, but that didn’t make the betting chatter any less noticeable.

“We’re walking through the casino to get to our games, and there’s the betting stations and this and that, and I can feel people’s eyes on me and I’m like, ‘Oh gosh, your money is in my hands. That’s sketchy,'” Jones said in a conversation with FTW about her new podcast, Sometimes I Hoop. “I feel like people just take it more intense since they have something personal on the line. After games, if I’m walking through the casino after we lose or after we win, they’re like, ‘Oh, you won me this. Oh, you lost me that.’ And I’m just like, what the heck. I was just over here trying to get back and get to post-game meal and shower. I don’t need you shouting at me right now. So I think it’s definitely created a different environment.”

That environment is likely more intense for a team like Stanford that has achieved so much in Jones’ four years on campus. The Cardinal have been to each of the last two Final Fours, winning it all Jones’ sophomore year. As this year’s tournament approaches, their +700 title odds at DraftKings are second only to undefeated South Carolina.

As legal betting has exploded during that time, conversations about lines have even penetrated Jones’ own circle. But if you plan on chatting her up about point spreads and parlays, just know she hasn’t caught up on all the lingo.

“My brother, he’ll be on ESPN like ‘Oh my gosh, you guys are up this, down that.’ And I’m like, I don’t know what any of that means, so awesome,” the 2021 Final Four Most Outstanding Player said. “But I think fans are in some cases more into it because they have money on the line. So it’s a lot more intense of a crowd.”

That noise spills over on to social media, but Jones has found a way to filter it out.

“You definitely get tagged and whatnot, but there’s different security and privacy things that I’ve been able to put on my account so I’m not just getting tagged in a million hate messages of ‘Haley, you lost me $1,000!'”

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UCLA sweeps 2023 Pac-12 basketball season honors, earns big-dog status

UCLA was a good team in previous years under Mick Cronin. This year, the Bruins are a true heavyweight. They own the #Pac12.

The voting for the coach of the year in any league or conference is often decided based on the player of the year. In other words, if Team A has the player of the year, Team B will often win the coach of the year voting. One team had the better players, the other team had the better coach who did more with less.

This year in Pac-12 men’s basketball, that did not happen. One team had the best player … and the best coach … and the best freshman … and the best defensive player.

UCLA won the Pac-12 by four games over Arizona and USC. The Bruins went 18-2 in the conference. Arizona has a very good team, but only one of its players, Azuolas Tubelis, had any real chance to win a major end-of-season award. In the final month of the season, UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez clearly outplayed Tubelis by a large margin. Tubelis was the leader in the POY race entering February, but that changed drastically over the next five weeks.

Jaquez earned Pac-12 Player of the Year honors, which enabled UCLA to sweep the four cornerstone awards. Mick Cronin as coach of the year was always obvious, as was Jaylen Clark for defensive player of the year and Adem Bona as freshman of the year.

UCLA went 4 for 4. The Bruins are in position to get a No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament next week.

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Texas basketball makes list of teams with no “bad losses”

Texas is one of seven teams without a bad loss this season.

The Texas Longhorns have had a tremendous season. That stems in part from beating most of the teams they should beat.

Fox College Hoops shared a graphic that featured seven teams without a Quad 2, Quad 3 or Quad 4 loss.

Essentially, a Quad 1 game is one that involves facing a Top 30 team at home, Top 50 team at a neutral site or a Top 75 team on the road. Only within those parameters has Texas suffered its six losses.

The Houston Cougars and Alabama Crimson Tide were not present on that list, despite ranking at No. 1 and No. 2 in the latest bracket reveal. In fairness, the two teams have had more Quad 2, Quad 3, and Quad 4 matchups than some Big 12 teams.

Here’s a look at every team that hasn’t suffered a bad loss all season.

Pac-12 bubble watch: UCLA helps USC, beats Oregon

USC lost. Saturday was a very bad day for the Trojans … but it could have been worse. Oregon could have beaten UCLA but didn’t.

The UCLA Bruins, kind and generous souls that they are, helped out the USC Trojans on Saturday.

That obviously wasn’t their goal, but it certainly brightened USC’s otherwise-dark day.

The Trojans stepped on a rake in Corvallis, losing to lowly Oregon State and significantly hurting their chances of making the NCAA Tournament. An 0-2 week in the state of Oregon was the last thing USC needed. The Trojans’ bubble position is now far more precarious, and they’re in real trouble at the moment.

Yet, as bad as this week was for USC, it could have been worse. Oregon — with a win over UCLA on Saturday night in Eugene — would have passed USC in the Pac-12 bubble pecking order. Yes, the Ducks have more losses on their slate, but they would have had wins over both UCLA and Arizona to offset those losses, plus a head-to-head win over USC and a sweep of Utah, which the Trojans don’t yet have (USC is at Utah in two weeks).

Thankfully for the Trojans, UCLA was there to help the Trojans. The Bruins dominated the second half and pulled away thanks to 25 points and 12 rebounds from Jaime Jaquez.

Yes, USC can forget about the Pac-12 title after this week, but we know that was never likely. It’s all about getting into the NCAA Tournament. UCLA beating Oregon was definitely the better outcome for USC on Saturday. We’ll have more on the Pac-12 bubble in our Sunday and Monday coverage of Pac-12 hoops.

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