The remarkable road to the 2021 Final Four for UCLA Basketball

The Road to the Elite Eight

Prior to UCLA playing in their first Sweet Sixteen appearance since 2017, it was hard to imagine that the Bruins would be playing for a chance to advance to the Elite Eight at the beginning of the season. Looking back all the way back to the Spring of 2020, the Bruins overcame what initially was looked at as a very promising season.

Daishen Nix, the No. 1-ranked point guard prospect in the nation and a highly rated 5-star player who had committed to UCLA in August of 2019, decided to go to the NBA G League in late April of 2020. Many other programs would have been devasted by this occurring to them as having a player like Nix could transform a team and possibly take a team to the next level, especially in the NCAA tournament. However, the Bruins still had a good plan moving forward for the 2020-21 season.

When the season began, the Bruins had another obstacle that they had to overcome with losing a player. Their second-leading scorer for UCLA and senior guard Chris Smith was out for the remainder of the season due to a knee injury he suffered in a game against Utah on New Year’s Eve. Then, junior forward Jalen Hill has not played for UCLA since January 30 for personal reasons left the Bruins with one less player. However, UCLA still a talented team and found a way to play together and ended up playing Alabama in the Round of 16 in the NCAA tournament.

Entering the game against the Crimson Tide, UCLA faced not only a No. 2 seed in Alabama but a team that won the SEC regular-season title and the conference tournament championship as well. The Crimson Tide had won six straight games with their last loss occurring on Feb. 25 when they lost by double digits on the road to Arkansas prior to their game against the Bruins. UCLA in contrast had a different journey leading to this game in comparison to Alabama.

As mentioned before, the Bruins lost their last four games prior to the beginning of the NCAA tournament and UCLA finished in 4th place in the Pac-12 conference. However, the Bruins had won three games in the NCAA tournament prior to their game against the Crimson Tide and Alabama had won two, defeating Iona and Maryland to advance to the Sweet Sixteen matchup against UCLA.

The Crimson Tide had trouble like the Wildcats did against the Bruins defense in the first half. UCLA led Alabama by 11, leading the Crimson Tide by a score of 40-29. Then Alabama had a great second half of play outscoring the Bruins 36-25 in the second half as the Crimson Tide played excellent defense after halftime. The game went into overtime and the Bruins were ready.

In overtime, the UCLA offense went into overdrive outscoring Alabama 23 to 13 to win the ball game by a final score of 88-78. It was truly a team effort as Bernard scored 17 points, David Singleton had 15, and point guard Tyger Campbell and Juzang had 13 each for the Bruins.

However, Jaquez Jr. once again was the best player on the court as he scored 17 points, eight rebounds, three assists, three steals and one blocked shot. The Bruins had advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2008.