Bryce Alford of UCLA. (Getty)
After two days of madness – literally – the round of 32 kicks off Saturday, March 21 in various arenas nationwide. It’s 16 games that will determine which teams will survive another week and move on to the Sweet 16. Opening up play in the South are two double-digit seeds that both pulled off 60-59 wins in the round of 64 to get to this point – No. 11 UCLA and No. 14 UAB.
Under the direction of Steve Alford, UCLA is dancing after receiving a selection committee bid. The Bruins survived the round of 64 by a slight margin in a game that came down to the wire, 60-59 over SMU. UCLA is led by Norman Powell – 16.4 points per game average, and the projected No. 14 NBA draft pick, Kevon Looney, who averages just under 10 rebounds per game. They head into the round of 32 posting a 21-13 (11-7) record.
The Bruins face-off with UAB, a team whose only chance of dancing was to win the Conference USA Tournament and earn an automatic bid to the Big Dance – and obviously, that’s just what they did. But the Blazers didn’t stop there. They pulled off a major upset in the round of 64 by knocking of No. 3 Iowa State, 60-59. UAB heads into the next round of play with a 20-15 (12-6) mark.
The game starts at 12:10 p.m. Eastern and will be covered by CBS. The announcers for the game will be Verne Lundquist, Jim Spanarkel and Allie LaForce.
The winner between UCLA and UAB will move on to face the winner of No. 2 Gonzaga vs. No. 7 Iowa in the Sweet 16. That game will take place on Thursday, March 26.
But before that happens, here’s how to watch UCLA vs. UAB online and on mobile:
Watch UCLA-UAB Online