March Madness: UCLA Basketball Starts Anew As They Look Ahead to Next Season

March Madness, indeed! The Villanova Wildcats just defeated the North Carolina Tar Heels to win the 2016 NCAA National Championship, but forget about that, let’s look ahead to how UCLA Basketball will do in next year’s tournament!

It was a magical night for Villanova as Kris Jenkins drained a three pointer as time expired to snatch the National title away from UNC, but that is old news! Let us talk about how the UCLA Basketball team will join in on the March Madness next season!

That is right, it is time to start thinking about next year. The Wildcats had their night, which they deserve, but now it is time to move on.

Though Villanova will be the reigning champs next season, it will not mean a thing when the next NCAA Tournament comes around.

UCLA Bruins

(Unless Nova makes it back and repeats as champs, but never mind that.)

Next season, the UCLA Basketball team has a chance to redeem themselves after a 15-17 season that helped guarantee they would not get invited to the Big Dance.

But do not worry, there is always next year… and what a year it will be for the Bruins.

Head Coach Steve Alford has vowed to change the program around and will have help from four highly-touted freshmen coming in the fall, one in particular, Lonzo Ball, who will help bring a bigger spotlight to Westwood.

Before this season, Alford had the Bruins go to two straight Sweet 16s. With the team he will have next season, hoping they develop, UCLA could not only get back to the NCAA Tournament, but hopefully go deeper than they previously have under Alford.

But what is the potential for this team? We ran a poll on Twitter asking fans where they believe the Bruins will end their 2016-17 campaign.

Interesting. The majority of fans seem to think the Bruins will return to the Sweet 16, which is not bad considering they missed the tourney all together last year. Though it is extreme to think UCLA could be national champion contenders, it is equally absurd to think they will miss the Big Dance all together.

So what is the middle ground for a team looking to improve off of last season’s mediocrity? The Sweet 16.

Next: Projected Depth Chart for UCLA Basketball in 2016-17

Making it past the first weekend is always good, and the Bruins will have a good team, but they are not great. Not yet. That takes time when one is trying to rebuild a national powerhouse.

Now if UCLA does make it to the Sweet 16, the question then will be, “can they continue to have success in the following seasons?” We will find out soon enough.