Spokane Region 1: It’s time for the Bruins to define themselves

UCLA sits atop a region that includes North Carolina State, who went to the Final Four a year ago, as the No. 2 seed, LSU at No. 3 and Baylor at No. 4.

On Sunday evening, UCLA coach Cori Close called the Bruins’ seed an opportunity.

“It is just that an opportunity,” Close said in the post-reveal press conference. “It gives us a great chance to have great matchups and to have great success if we walk through the door of opportunity. So our only focus will be being 1-0 and taking advantage of playing our best basketball and going from there.”

Having won 22 consecutive games by double-digits through a major stretch of the season, the biggest question mark for UCLA – which has dipped out of the tournament in the Sweet 16 in two straight seasons – is what will happen when the going gets tough in the biggest, most important games of a season that could change this program’s trajectory for years to come.

UCLA, a program that has reached the Sweet 16 nine times and the Elite Eight twice, is still undefined in this frontrunner role. But their time has come.

“The No. 1 overall seed doesn’t get us to the Final Four and it doesn’t get us to a national championship game,” said UCLA junior guard Kiki Rice in the Bruins’ post-reveal press conference. “We’ve got to go out there and earn it.”

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Best first-round matchup.

7 Michigan State vs. 10 Harvard. The Spartans finished tird for fifth in a competitive Big Ten season, but lost four of six games to close the season and cost themselves a chance to host and will send them into a second-round game road game against North Carolina State if they win. Harvard, meanwhile, is coming off its first Ivy League championship in program history and are in the NCAA Tournament field for the first time since 2007. Harmoni Turner’s 68 points in the final two games of the Ivy League Tournament are eye-popping, but the Crimson are hoping to ride to an upset on their pressing defense, which is allowing opponents 37.4 shooting and more than 20 forced turnovers a game.

Best (potential) second round matchup

3 LSU vs. 6 Florida State.

Three of the nation’s top players would be on the floor for this one with LSU’s Aneesah Morrow and Flau’Jae Johnson and Florida State’s Ta’Niya Latson, the nation’s leading scorer this season. Morrow and Johnson will be coming off injuries to take the floor, putting some question marks in LSU’s tournament ambitions. Interestingly, these two power programs and NCAA mainstays have never faced one another in the NCAA Tournament. The last time they played was in 2019 during the non-conference schedule.

Team to watch

13 Grand Canyon. The Lopes, with their program best 32-2 record and the nation’s longest winning streak, punched the first NCAA ticket in program history by winning their first-ever WAC title. That’s a lot of firsts. While head coach Molly Miller is rumored to be a leading candidate at Arizona State, Grand Canyon will play for now with guards Tiarra Brown and WAC Player of the Year Trinity San Antonio leading the way. Success breeds confidence and this is a team that thinks it can win some games in this tournament.

5 players to watch in this bracket

Londynn Jones, UCLA. Jones is the Bruins’ best perimeter threat and when she is hot, she opens things up for Betts inside. In UCLA’s conference tournament semifial win over Ohio State, Jones drained six 3-pointers for 22 points.

Aneesah Morrow, LSU. The senior forward, who has been dealing with a lower leg injury in the last week, will be good to go for the tournament. And that’s a big sigh of relief for the Tigers. Morrow is averaging 18.5 and 13.6 rebounds a game on her way to an All-American end to her career.

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Makayla Timpson, Florida State. Timpson, a senior, is one of the nation’s best defensive players with 99 blocks, besting her own single season blocks record, while leading Power 4 players with 3.2 blocks per game. Timpson is the only player in the nation to have three eight-block performances this year and is one of six Power 4 players since 2002-03.

Madison Scott, Mississippi. A fixture for Mississippi with 151 games under her belt, the fifth-year senior leads the Rebels in scoring at 11.9 poimts a game, and is as much a factor on the defensive end of the floor.

Kara Dunn, Georgia Tech. Dunn, the junior forward, is the Yellow Jackets leader on both ends of the floor, averaging 15.8 points a game on the way to first-team All-ACC honors. Her 41 steals leads the way on a team that forces more than 15 turnovers a game.

Disruptor

5 Mississippi. The Rebels (20-10) are in the tournament for the fourth year in a row and have their highest seed since 1994, but they wanted even more. They wanted to be hosting games, instead of playing in Waco on Baylor’s home floor. Disrespect can be a powerful motivator and with the talent and NCAA experience to back it up, the Rebels, who advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2023, might look to take their disappointment out on a few higher seeds.

Who survives to move on

UCLA is capable of winning the program’s first national title. The team that beat USC last week is the one that has to show up six more times over the course of the next three weeks to get it done. But North Carolina State got to the Final Four last year by wreaking havoc on opponents on both ends of the floor. The Bruins will have to stay poised, and they will have to pound the ball inside to Lauren Betts to get out of the region.