Bruins happy with No. 8 seed

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By Christina Teller
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

The UCLA men’s basketball team has been given a new lease
on life in the form of an NCAA Tournament berth. The Bruins were
awarded the No. 8 seed in the West and will face No. 9 seed Ole
Miss on Friday in Pittsburgh.

“I was glad when our name was called,” Billy Knight
said. “Hearing our seed gives us a whole new life on the
season. We easily could have been out of the tournament, but
we’re in it, so we appreciate going to the tournament so much
more.”

UCLA (19-11) is one of six Pac-10 teams included in the 65-team
field. Oregon received the highest seed as the No. 2 in the Midwest
and will play the first round in Sacramento. The rest of the
conference is seeded as follows: Arizona No. 3 in the West,
Albuquerque; USC No. 4 in the South, Sacramento; Cal No. 6 in the
South, Pittsburgh; Stanford No. 8 in t the Midwest, St. Louis.

  The UCLA men’s basketball team is seeded No. 8 in the
NCAA Tournament’s West Region and will face Jason Harrison and No.
9-seeded Ole Miss in the first round on Friday.

USC, Arizona and Oregon were all rewarded for their strong
finishes with top seeds and a relatively local first-round
site.

Although the Bruins have to travel to Pittsburgh for the first
round, the Bruins haven’t played any closer than Boise, Idaho
since 1993.

“The veterans have been through a lot. They’ve
played in the arenas, the domes,” UCLA head coach Lavin said.
“It should be an advantage to have so many veteran players on
the team.”

UCLA matches up against the Rebels (20-10), a team that posts
wins against conference opponents Alabama, Florida and Mississippi
State, but Ole Miss has a 1-7 record on the road.

“They’re not a big team, but they’re
quick,” Lavin said. “They’re going to be a tough
hard-nosed basketball team.”

If UCLA defeats Ole Miss on Friday, the Bruins will most likely
face Cincinnati on Sunday. The Bearcats enter the tournament as the
West’s No. 1 seed after winning the Conference USA tournament
on Saturday. Maryland (East), Duke (South) and Kansas (Midwest) are
the other three teams that were awarded No. 1 seeds.

UCLA enters tournament play with the knowledge that they have
beaten teams that were awarded No. 1 (Kansas), 2 (Alabama), 3
(Arizona) and 4 (USC) seeds. But they also lost to Cal (No. 6),
Pepperdine (No. 10) and such teams as Georgetown and Ball State
that were not invited to this year’s Big Dance.

But a clean slate may be just what UCLA needs. Although they
cannot re-invent themselves in the span of a week, the Bruins do go
into March Madness with a few more days of rest than teams like
Arizona, USC, Kansas or Duke, teams that played in their the
championship game of their conference tournament.