Just as he has done the majority of the season, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi once again disses the UCLA Basketball team with his brackets selection.
At this point you got to think that Joe Lunardi is either: (1) has a vendetta against the UCLA Basketball team or (2) has not actually seen the UCLA Basketball team.
Not only was this evident in his season long #3 seeding of UCLA in his weekly Bracketology (despite being a Top 10 AP team), but now Lunardi is once again trying to draw attention to himself with his 2017 NCAA Tournament bracket selection.
In his South Region bracket, Lunardi has UCLA beating Kent State, but has the Bruins going down in the round the 32 to Cincinnati. On top of that he says it will be a “mini-upset”.
Joe Lunardi won't let up on UCLA pic.twitter.com/tvuJ0lNjEe
— Matt Joye (@mattjoye) March 13, 2017
I understand Cincinnati is going to be a decent match up for the Bruins, mostly from a defensive standpoint, but it just seems that going against UCLA in this situation is a bit foolish.
On top of that, this would not be a “mini-upset”. This would be a major upset. A top 10 team going down in the second round… that would be big news. Apparently Lunardi is once again basing his decisions off of alternative facts.
Lunardi gets credit for appropriately choosing the Bruins as a #3 seed in the tournament, but he needs to understand that teams are going to kick it up a notch in the Big Dance. On top of that, UCLA has shown that they can change their game plan to best match up with their opponents.
Next: UCLA is a 3-Seed in the NCAA Tournament
And then to lose the way they did in the Pac-12 Tournament, UCLA has got to have some sort of chip on their shoulder. This should help galvanize the Bruins and have them do very well in the first weekend. Lunardi is just giving them ammunition to work with.