The remarkable road to the 2021 Final Four for UCLA Basketball
By Ryan Kay
The Journey to the Sweet Sixteen
The Bruins in their Round of 32 game were anticipating to play No. 3 seed Texas. However, the Longhorns were upset by No. 14 Abilene Christan which was one of the biggest upsets in the tournament at this junction of the tournament. The Wildcats were able to play outstanding defense and limited Texas’s top scorers during their game. Abilene Christan also located in the state of Texas, ended up defeating the Longhorns by one point.
What made it more of an upset is that the Wildcats had become a division one basketball program starting the 2013–14 season, whereas Texas is one of the top programs in the Big 12 conference. Did the Bruins catch a break and some luck?
Well, Abilene Christian previously had much success in division two basketball but when they made the jump to division one play and joined the Southland Conference, they did not have much success. That all changed in 2018 when the Wildcats made their first postseason tournament as a division one team where they lost in overtime to Drake in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
Abilene Christian made their first NCAA Tournament in 2019 where they lost to Kentucky in the first round. So, playing the Wildcats should not come as an absolute shocker to the Bruins but it was indeed unexpected that they would have defeated highly seeded Texas.
UCLA however was not overconfident and the Bruins were well prepared for the Wildcats. Abilene Christian enter the game as being No. 1 in the nation in defensive turnover rate, so UCLA and their coaching staff knew they had to not commit many turnovers and take care of the basketball.
The Wildcats were confident themselves as they had defeated the Longhorns and entered their game against UCLA going 13-1 in its last 14 games. However, the Bruins were determined to not have the same fate as Texas and the Bruins head coach Mick Cronin and his teams were once again up for the challenge.
Juzang came up big again for the Bruins as he was for the second straight game, the leading scorer with 17 points as well as having three rebounds, one assist, one steal, and one block shot. He was not alone in having a well-balanced performance against the Wildcats as Riley had his best game of the tournament going five for seven from the field, grabbing 12 rebounds, and he had an assist, steal, and a blocked shot. As a team, the Bruins played well and looked to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
In the game, UCLA overall played outstanding defense limiting Abilene Christian to only 47 points and their offense production, unlike what the Longhorns were unable to produce against the Wildcats, was able to score against the highly-rated Abilene Christian defense and the Bruins would go on to defeat the Wildcats by a commanding 20 points.
In their round of 32 win over Abilene Christian, UCLA became only the fifth team to go from playing in one of the First Four games of the NCAA tournament to advance all the way to the Sweet Sixteen of the tournament. The Bruins hoped to do what the VCU team of 2011 did as they were the only First Four team to make it past the regional semifinals to a magical Final Four run.
The Rams of VCU went on to lose to Bulter in the Final Four that year, so could UCLA make it past the Round of 16?