NCAA tournament puts UCLA fourth in East Region bracket

By AJ Cadman
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

March Madness is here.

The UCLA men’s basketball team learned Sunday afternoon
that they will head back to the NCAA Tournament for the 13th
consecutive time. The Bruins (21-8, 14-4 Pac-10) were awarded a No.
4 seed in the East Region and face America East conference champion
Hofstra (26-4, 16-2) on Thursday in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Following Saturday’s loss in their Pac-10 season finale,
taking on The Pride will have added more meaning than meets the
eye.

“(Hofstra) is probably one of the hottest teams in the
country right now,” said UCLA Head Coach Steve Lavin after
the announcement of the 2001 field of 65. “They knocked off
St. John’s on the road and played Penn State down to the wire
at the end.”

The Pride return to the NCAA Tournament for the second
consecutive season after a run last year behind 2000 NBA
first-round pick Speedy Claxton, the America East’s leading
scorer and most valuable player last season. This year, led by
senior forward Norman Richardson’s 16.8 points per game,
Hofstra currently rides an 18-game winning-streak.

The Bruins, still numb from the shock of a 96-94 upset Saturday
at Washington, feel they have work to do to complete their mission
of winning a national championship.

“We have to focus on crashing the boards harder and
playing better defense down the stretch,” said sophomore
forward Jason Kapono. “We have to take games one game at a
time.”

Having won eight of their last 10 and 17 of 21 to close out the
regular season, the Bruins understood that dreams of a two or three
seed had all but vanished.

“We didn’t want to slip up,” said UCLA junior
guard Billy Knight. “We wanted a high seed.

“But it doesn’t matter really what seed we are,
because a 16 seed can beat (a top) seed on any given day,” he
added.

Unfortunately for the Bruins, the cold reality is that they are
playing in what many college basketball analysts ““ including
CBS Sports’ Jim Nantz and Billy Packer ““ believe is the
toughest bracket in the tournament.

Atlantic Coast Conference tournament Champion Duke, who defeated
North Carolina by 26 points in the final, is the top seed in the
East region. Also to be found in Greensboro is fifth-seed Ohio
State, No. 8 Georgia and No. 9 Missouri.

“I think we’re prepared to fly across country to
play,” Lavin said. “We had to do it when we played at
the Garden in New York. The loss Saturday got rid of any false
sense of security. A stinger like this for a veteran group of kids
like ours should eliminate that from happening again.”

Other local teams in the NCAA Tournament field include USC, a
sixth seed in the East and 13th seed Cal State Northridge in the
Midwest.

The tournament’s other No. 1 seeds are Illinois in the
Midwest, Michigan State in the South and Stanford in the West.