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UCLA Bruins earn No. 1 seed, to face California Baptist in round one
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- UCLA Bruins earn No. 1 seed, to face California Baptist in round one
Could this be the year the UCLA Bruins get their first-ever NCAA championship in program history? There's certainly a chance for the 31-1 Bruins team. UCLA didn't earn the tournament's No. 1 overall seed, with UConn earning the honors, but the Bruins did earn the No. 1 seed in the No. 2 regional in Sacramento.
UCLA will begin the tournament with a round one matchup against California Baptist . The first two rounds will be held at home for the Bruins at Pauley Pavilion, as UCLA looks to make a second-straight Final Four, but this time with a better ending.
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UConn, the team who knocked out the Bruins last year, got the tournament's No. 1 overall seed but the Huskies got placed in a challenging region, drawing Ohio State, Vanderbilt and Notre Dame in their region. UCLA will have Minnesota, Duke, Ole Miss and, of course, LSU.
The women's tournament doesn't see as many upsets as the men's tournament does, anything less than a trip to the national title game will be a bit deflating for the senior-heavy Bruins.
Round One: No. 16 California Baptist
It would be an all-time shocker if the 23-10 Lancers upset this mighty UCLA squad. With all due respect to California Baptist, this game is to get the Bruins back into rhythm and ready for a deep run after a week off since the Big Ten tournament.
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Round Two: No. 8 Oklahoma State/No. 9 Princeton
The 23-9 Cowgirls don't have the most daunting resume but they have knocked off a pair of ranked teams in Texas Tech and Iowa State. Oklahoma State managed to go 12-6 in Big 12 play without having a player averaging 14 points per game.
Princeton is coming off of an Ivy League title and is 26-3 on the season. It'd be a stretch to say that the Tigers are battle-tested though, as they're 0-1 against ranked teams this season, falling 84-68 to Maryland.
Sweet 16: No. 4 Minnesota/No. 5 Ole Miss
UCLA is familiar with Minnesota, with UCLA getting a 75-58 road win over the Golden Gophers during conference play. For the season, Minnesota is 22-8 and has knocked off both Ohio State and Iowa this season.
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Ole Miss is 23-11, most recently falling 85-68 to Texas in the SEC semifinals. They're led by senior Cotie McMahon, who's put up 19.9 points and 5.3 rebounds this season.
Elite Eight: No. 2 LSU
It seems that every season Kim Mulkey and Cori Close must meet and put their contrasting styles on display. LSU is similar to last year's LSU team, which UCLA beat 72-65 but things won't be easy for the Bruins.
Kiki Rice and Lauren Betts have faced LSU in each of the last two NCAA tournaments, so it's fitting that the schools could face one last time before Betts, Rice and Flau'Jae Johnson head to the WNBA.
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: 33-1 UCLA gets No. 1 seed, to face No. 16 California Baptist
