UCLA vs. UNC Asheville NCAA Tournament Round 1: How to watch, odds and predictions for March Madness

Whenever it comes time to fill out a March Madness bracket, everyone goes looking for potential upsets.

As tempting as it may be to pick a 15-seed to beat a 2-seed in the first round, it’s pretty unprecedented. Sure, there have been memorable upsets in this slot — Duke losing to Lehigh, Missouri losing to Norfolk State — but it doesn’t happen often.

Duke and Missouri lost to 15-seeds in the same year, which was all the way back in 2012. Since then it’s happened four times with the most recent incident occurring last year when Saint Peter’s upset Kentucky, busting brackets everywhere as Peacocks proved they could fly.

It’s fun when it happens, but just because USBC became the first 16-seed to beat a 1-seed in NCAA Tournament history back in 2018 doesn’t mean you should go out and pick the same thing to happen again each year.

A 15-seed will win again, perhaps it will even be this year, but it probably won’t be UNC Asheville. They are, however, a sexy pick if you’re looking to get fancy and predict another historic upset (such a thing would be just the 11th time in tournament history that it happened).

UCLA is no slouch, and any talk about preventing a bracket from being busted should include the Bruins making it past the first weekend.

March Madness 2023: How to watch UCLA vs. UNC Asheville

• Date: Thursday, March 16
• Time:10:05 pm ET
• Channel: TruTV
• Streaming: NCAA March Madness Live
• Announcers: Brad Nessler, Brendan Haywood, Dana Jacobson

UCLA vs. UNC Asheville NCAA Tournament Round 1 odds

Before locking in UNC Asheville as your upset special in the first round, consider that FanDuel has UCLA as a 17.5-point favorite, and the money line set at -3500.

To put that in perspective, the Bulldogs have the longest odds of any No. 15 seed in the tournament this year. Colgate and Princeton are 13.5-point underdogs while Vermont is only a 10.5-point dog against Marquette.

As Han Solo says, though, never tell me the odds.

Although someone probably should have because he gambled unwisely in that seventh movie and is now dead — just like your bet will be if it’s anything other than UCLA.

UCLA vs. UNCS Asheville NCAA Tournament Round 1 prediction

This whole thing has been dogging on UNC Asheville, which is a bit unfair considering they’re a 15-seed and stand little chance to win. What the Bulldogs do have going for them, though, is Drew Pember who is averaged 21.2 PPG, 9.4 RPG, and 2.3 BPG this season for a team that is shooting almost 40 percent from the field.

UCLA is among the best teams in the country and should go on another deep run, but are missing two key players heading into the tournament. Both Adem Bona and Jaylen Clark were injured in the Pac 12 tournament, and both are key pieces of Mick Cronin core.

Those losses will likely haunt the Bruins later in the madness, but crazier things have happened and UNC Asheville staying hot — the Bulldogs haven’t lost a game since the calendar flipped to 2023 — a longshot upset could be in the cards.

Prediction: UCLA 83, UNC Asheville 75