NCAA Tournament: UCLA Basketball vs. St. Bonaventure Game Day Info

The UCLA basketball is dancing in the play-in game against St. Bonaventure. Winner goes to the Round of 64. The madness has arrived. Here is how to watch and what to know…

The UCLA Basketball team has made it into he NCAA Tournament, sort of. Though they need a “play-in” game to make it to the Round of 64, the Bruins are in, albeit with a rough road ahead of them, especially if they are trying to make it back to the Sweet Sixteen.

But we can focus on that later. Right now, they need to get into tournament mode and do what they can to try and stop St. Bonaventure from ending their season on the Tuesday before the Big Dance gets into full swing.

Here is everything you need to know about UCLA vs. St. Bonaventure…

UCLA Basketball vs. St. Bonaventure Game Day Info

Records:

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#11 UCLA Bruins 21-11, 11-7 (4th in Pac-12)

#11 St. Bonaventure Bonnies 25-7, 14-4 (2nd in A10)

Location: Univ. of Dayton Arena, Dayton, OH

Tipoff: 6:00 p.m. PT

TV: TruTV

Radio: AM 570 or 1150 Los Angeles

On-line Radio: Tune-In

Odds: UCLA -3.5, O/U 155

Last Game:

1 Arizona d. 4 UCLA, 78-67 (Pac-12 Semifinals)

3 Davidson d. 2 St. Bonaventure, 82-70 (A10 Semifinals)

Projected Starters

UCLA

G Aaron Holiday, G Prince Ali, F Kris Wilkes, F Gyorgy Goloman, C Thomas Welsh

St. Bonaventure

G Jaylen Adams, G Idris Taqqee, G Matt Mobley, G Amadi Ikpeze, F LaDarien Griffin

Head Coaches

UCLA – Steve Alford | St. Bonaventure – Mark Schmidt

Rosters

UCLA | St. Bonaventure

UCLA Basketball vs. St. Bonaventure: Stats, Final Word and Prediction

Key Individual Stats – UCLA:

Aaron Holiday – 20.3 ppg, 5.8 apg, 3.6 rpg

Thomas Welsh – 13.0 ppg,10.7 rpg, .489 FG%

Kris Wilkes – 13.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg, .441 FG%

Key Individual Stats – St. Bonaventure:

Jaylen Adams – 19.8 ppg,3.6 rpg, 5.4 apg

Matt Mobley – 18.5 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 2.5 apg

Courtney Stockard – 12.9 ppg, 6.4 rpg, .491 FG%

Team Stats:

Team	Avg Pts	Opp. Pts	FG%	Rebs	Asts
UCLA	81.9	76.3	.461	38.8	15.1
St. Bon	77.9	71.0	.456	35.6	14.2

Players to Watch:

Aaron Holiday and Thomas Welsh – Though the Bruins need the help of their bench, watch for the production of these two vets who will be playing a lot of minutes, whether it is one game or more. How much energy they have will dictate how successful UCLA can be.

Last Word:

To get to the Sweet Sixteen, UCLA (and St. Bonaventure) will need to win three games in a row. That all starts with the play-in game. There have been a few instances where a play-in team has made it that far, but not a lot.

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But let us save that for later.

Right now UCLA has to focus on winning one game at a time, which begins with St. Bonaventure.

The Bonnies have a terrific backcourt consisting of Jaylen Adams and Matt Mobley. Both are managing nearly 20 points a game and can shoot the three. If they get hot, UCLA could be in trouble as the majority of their defense is based in zone.

UCLA is also a very good shooting team, but can often run cold. Even if the Bruins have a hot shooting night, they do not necessarily want to get in a shootout. UCLA has the talent and the bigs to take the ball inside the paint and score under the rim. The only problem is that they have not exactly taken advantage of that.

In a lot of ways, St. Bonaventure is very similar to UCLA, except that they have more veterans and play sound basketball. That is all well and good, but UCLA has talent at every position and should have no excuses as to why they cannot take this game from the Bonnies.

Next: The UCLA Basketball All-Time Team

Prediction: UCLA 79 – St. Bonaventure 76