College Basketball Power 10: Florida State Best Team In ACC?

9. UCLA Bruins (19-2)

UCLA is one of the surest bets in the first round of the NCAA Tournament this year because of their explosive offense. Their second in the nation in points per game, first in the Pac-12, and their season average of 43.4 percent three-point shooting has gone up to 44.4 percent in conference play.

Still, their defense makes it hard to trust UCLA against great teams. The Bruins beat top-ranked Kentucky earlier in the year, but after losses to Oregon and Arizona in Pac-12 play, UCLA is just 1-2 against ranked teams.

Arizona shot 50 percent against UCLA last week and held the Bruins to 45.1 percent shooting from the field. Although, the difference in the game came from three where UCLA only shot 32.3 percent. Despite their poor outside shooting, UCLA still attempted 31 threes, which led to them becoming stagnant on offense.

On a team with six players averaging double-digit points and a potential Player of the Year winner in Lonzo Ball, the 277th ranked scoring defense is still the difference in close games for the Bruins. Trying to simply outscore their opponent evidently did not work in their 96-85 loss to Arizona, and it’s unlikely to work against good teams who play both ends the rest of the season.

UCLA owns just a half-game lead over Utah for third in the Pac-12. The Bruins will try to get their schedule back on track at USC this week.