Northwestern in way of UCLA’s return to Sweet 16
SACRAMENTO — UCLA owns an ever-so-slight edge in basketball pedigree entering Saturday’s second-round NCAA Tournament game against Northwestern.
Not only do the Bruins carry the swagger of 11 national championships and 114 victories in the tournament, they also boast rampant success with their current core. Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Tyger Campbell led UCLA to the Final Four two years ago, to the Sweet 16 last season and to 30 wins this season.
Northwestern didn’t even make its NCAA Tournament debut until 2017. The Wildcats own two all-time wins in March Madness, one in ’17 and another Thursday night against Boise State. A victory Saturday at Golden 1 Center would send Northwestern to the Sweet 16 for the first time ever.
“They obviously have a great history, and you’ve got to respect that,” Wildcats forward Robbie Beran said of UCLA. “But when the ball goes up, it’s kind of in the moment, five-on-five. I don’t know how much history really matters.”
If the Bruins lost some mystique over the years, head coach Mick Cronin has restored it since arriving from Cincinnati in 2019. UCLA is 57-13 over the past two seasons, including 33-7 in the Pac-12.
Northwestern coach Chris Collins noticed.
“To me, they’ve re-emerged as one of the top programs in the country, and I think they’re going to stay there,” Collins said.
Saturday’s game could become a defensive duel. UCLA ranks fifth in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 60.1 points per game, and Northwestern stands 17th at 62.6.
Princeton aftermath: Saturday’s first game in Sacramento features the Princeton Tigers and Missouri Tigers — and it requires no advanced basketball degree to recognize which Tigers team was not expected to reach the weekend.
Princeton’s upset of Arizona resonated on the sports landscape Thursday, in the grand tradition of March Madness. It marked the third consecutive year in which a No. 15 seed knocked off a No. 2 seed, following Saint Peter’s win over Kentucky last year and Oral Roberts’ victory over Ohio State in 2021.
This one carried a distinctive flavor because it was Princeton, given the school’s history of beating high-profile opponents in the NCAA Tournament.
“I was up at 6 a.m. this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep,” forward Zach Martini said Friday. “It’s crazy to see how many people care we won a basketball game.”
Princeton’s challenge now becomes much harder, based on history. The Tigers haven’t won twice in the same NCAA tourney since 1983, when they won preliminary and first-round games, and they haven’t reached the Sweet 16 since advancing to the national semifinals in 1965, when the tournament featured 23 teams.