Letters to the Editor
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UCLA
This Bruins team are the definition of the bend but don't break style of play that usually sees results up until the final four game. That's when the pressure becomes a little more palpable, and the stress of making it to the finals turns those close bend games into broken dreams. We'll see.
Except, of course, that UCLA has played one of the country's toughest schedules this season. And that tougher schedule is serving them well now. I don't know if you can read a ton into the WKU game. The defense did indeed get lax but a slightly lax defense doesn't fully explain over 50% 3PT in the second half (excluding some garbage time misses). WKU got hot. It's the tournament.
And Texas A&M is quite a bit better than their #9 seeding let on. Ken Pomeroy has them ranked #18... compare that to some other notable 2nd round matchups for top seeds: Arkansas is #37, UNLV is #50, Mississippi State is #50, Butler is #32, Miami is #40.
But by all means, keep dissing a team that is now 34-3, won its early season tournament, kept a top-5 ranking all year, won its conference regular season, won its conference tournament, earned a #1 seed, and now is in the final eight. Teams that are built to "bend but don't break" don't do that much. They are still one of the favorites in the tournament.