Don’t look now, but here comes UCLA.
The Bruins (27-4), after clinching the Pac-12 regular-season title, put a strong stamp on the season with a win over Arizona on Saturday night. It was their 25th straight win at Pauley Pavilion, the longest home winning streak in the country, and they finished four games ahead of the Wildcats (25-6).
The recent run has also propelled UCLA to a one-seed Mike DeCourcythe latest NCAA men’s basketball tournament projections, which were released on Sunday. If that’s the case, the Bruins could win their first seed since 2008, when a team coached by Ben Howland and led by Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook advanced to the Final Four.
UCLA joins Alabama, Houston and Kansas as the top seeds. Purdue, which entered Sunday’s game against Illinois after losing four of its last seven games, dropped to two seeds. The Boilermakers are joined by Texas, Baylor and Arizona.
The three seeds include Kansas State, Marquette and Gonzaga, as well as UConn, which moved up from the four seed after finishing its regular season with a five-game winning streak. The Huskies replaced Tennessee.
[UConn enters Big East tourney brimming with confidence]
On the bubble, DeCourcy lists Arizona State, Clemson, Nevada and Michigan among his top four currently out of the tournament. Their next four road games include North Carolina, which is the first preseason AP No. 1 team to lose 12 games in a season, as well as Utah State, Vanderbilt and Oregon.
In terms of conference representation, the Big Ten leads the way with 10 teams, while both the Big 12 and SEC have eight teams represented. The ACC and Big East each have five teams in DeCourcy’s projections.
So number 1
1. Alabama
2. Houston
3. Kansas
4. UCLA
No 2 then
5. Purdue
6. Baylor
7. Texas
8. Arizona
No 3 then
9. Marquette
10. Kansas State
11. Gonzaga
12. UConn
No 4 then
13. Tennessee
14. Indiana
15. Virginia
16. Xavier
Not 5 then
18. Miami
19. Kentucky
19. Santa Maria
20. TCU
No 6 then
21. Duke
22. San Diego State
23. Iowa State
24. Texas A&M
No 7 then
25. Creighton
26. Iowa
27. Illinois
28. Northwest
No 8 then
29. State of Michigan
30. Missouri
31. Maryland
32. NC State
No 9 then
33. Providence
34. Southern California
35. FAU
36. Arkansas
Not 10 then
37. Rutgers
37. Memphis
39. West Virginia
40. Pitt
Then number 11
41. Boise State
42. Auburn
43. College of Charleston
44. Mississippi State vs. 45. Wisconsin
Not 12 then
47. Oklahoma State vs. 46. Penn State
48. VCU
49. Oral Roberts
50. Bradley
No 13 then
51. Iona
52. Toledo
53. Yale
54. Utah Valley
No 14 then
55. Colgate
56. Furman
57. Louisiana
58. UC Irvine
Not 15 then
59. Eastern Washington
60. Youngstown State
61. Kennesaw State
62. Vermont
No 16 then
63. UNC Asheville
64. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
65. Howard vs. 66. Alcorn State
67. Southeast Missouri State vs. 68. Fairleigh Dickinson
First four outings
69. Clemson
70. Snowfall
71. State of Arizona
72. Michigan
The next four outings
73. State of Utah
74. Vanderbilt
75. North Carolina
76. Oregon
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