March 20, 2014

LAWT News Service

 

No. 4-seed UCLA (26-8) will face No. 13-seed Tulsa (21-12) in a second-round matchup of the NCAA Tournament’s South Region this Friday night at Viejas Arena in San Diego. The Bruins earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament after having won the  Pac-12 Tournament title in Las Vegas last Saturday. Game time on Friday is slated for 6:57 p.m. (PT). UCLA’s contest against Tulsa will be nationally televised by truTV.

FRIDAY’S GAME IN SAN DIEGO

Venue: Viejas Arena (11,564)

Game Time: 6:57 pm (PT)

TV Station: truTV

TV Talents: Andrew Catalon (play-by-play), Mike Gminski (analyst), Otis Livingston (sideline)

Radio: AM 570 (KLAC)

Radio Talent: Chris Roberts (play-by-play), Tracy Murray (analyst)

SIRIUS Satellite Radio: Channel 157

SIRIUS XM Radio: Channel 190

KEY NOTES ABOUT UCLA

• UCLA will make its 46th appearance in the NCAA Tourna­ment this week, having earned its highest tournament seed (No. 4) since entering the 2008 field as the No. 1 seed in the West Region ... the Bruins are one of six Pac-12 Conference programs in the 68-team field (joining Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Oregon and Stanford).

• The Bruins secured the Pac-12 Conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by winning its fourth Pac-12 Tournament title in the 17-year history of the tournament ... UCLA defeated Arizona, 75-71, in the title game ... Jordan Adams nailed a tie-breaking three-pointer to give UCLA a 71-68 cushion with 45 seconds to play.

• Under the leadership of head coach Steve Alford, in his first season at UCLA, the Bruins have gone 26-8 overall, recording their highest single-season win total since going 26-9 in 2008-09 ... UCLA won its three games in the Pac-12 Tournament by an average of 16.0 points per game, averaging 80.3 points per contest.

• UCLA finished its regular season schedule with a second-place finish in the competitive Pac-12 Conference standings (12-6 Pac-12 record), trailing first-place Arizona (15-3 Pac-12) by three games.

• The Bruins have won at least 20 games in 48 seasons, including 31 times in the last 39 years (since John Wooden retired in 1975) ... UCLA has won at least 26 games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2008-09.

• Kyle Anderson has averaged closer to a triple-double than any other player in the nation ... the Bruins’ sophomore 6-foot-9 point guard enters the NCAA Tournament averaging 14.9 points per game, leading the team in rebounds per game (8.8) and the conference in assists per game (6.6) ... he has registered a Pac-12-best 16 double-doubles.

• Under Coach Alford’s direction, UCLA has averaged its highest offensive output (81.8 ppg) since the Bruins averaged 83.1 points per game in 1997-98 ... in his 23rd season as a college head coach, Alford has guided his teams to at least 22 wins in each of the last seven seasons (includes his six seasons as New Mexico’s head coach).

• Jordan Adams leads UCLA in scoring (17.2 ppg) and ranks seventh in that category in the Pac-12 ... Adams scored a career-high 31 points at Washington (March 6) to pass the 1,000 career point mark ... he also leads all Pac-12 players with 90 steals, the UCLA single-season record (surpassing Cameron Dollar’s 82 steals in 1997).

• UCLA’s roster features seven players who have scored at least 20 points in one career game, with six of those seven having registered at least 20 points in a game this season ... Jordan Adams leads the Bruins with 12 games of 20 points or more and has scored in double figures in 28 of 33 games played.

• The Bruins returned six of their primary eight contributors from the 2012-13 team ... this season, UCLA has primarily used an eight-man rotation that includes starters Jordan Adams, Kyle Anderson, Norman Powell, David Wear andTravis Wear, with Zach LaVine, Bryce Alford and Tony Parker contributing off the bench.

ALL-PAC-12 ACCOLADES

Jordan Adams (17.2 pgg, 5.3 rpg) and Kyle Anderson (14.9 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 6.6 apg) earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors, marking the second consecutive year in which two UCLA players secured first-team acclaim (last season, Larry Drew II and Shabazz Muhammad). In addition, Bryce Alford (8.1 ppg, 2.7 apg) and Zach LaVine (10.0 ppg, 2.6 rpg) were among five players named to the conference’s All-Freshman Team.

STANDING OUT

Kyle Anderson secured Most Outstanding Player accolades at the Pac-12 Tournament last weekend, having averaged 15.0 points, 10.3 rebounds and 6.0 assists in three games. Anderson registered his conference-leading 16th double-double (21 points, 15 rebounds) in the championship win over Arizona.

MARCH MADNESS

Head coach Steve Alford has become the 12th head coach in college basketball history to have led at least four NCAA Division I programs to the NCAA Tournament (Missouri State, Iowa, New Mexico and UCLA). He has guided his teams to conference tournament titles in each of the past three seasons and is the first UCLA head coach to have led the Bruins to the Pac-12 Tournament Championship in his first year at the helm. The other 11 coaches to have led at least four NCAA Division I teams to the NCAA Tournament include John Beilein, Lefty Driesell, Cliff Ellis, Larry Eustachy, Jim Harrick, Lon Kruger, Fran McCaffery, Tom Penders, Rick Pitino, Tubby Smith and Eddie Sutton. Eight of those 11 coaches are active head coaches

THE OPPOSITION

UCLA has compiled a 3-2 all-time record against Tulsa, having met the Golden Hurricanes once in NCAA Tournament action. The Bruins suffered a 112-102 overtime loss to Tulsa in the first round of the 1994 Tournament. UCLA and Tulsa did not share any common opponents this season. Since the NCAA Tournament featured seeds in 1978-79, UCLA has gone 9-4 in its first NCAA Tournament game when seeded No. 4 or higher.

Category: Sports