UCLA MBB Full Bracket Prediction

The UCLA Bruins (22-10) are looking to make some noise and bust some brackets this season after missing the tournament a season ago. The Bruins have been awarded a No. 7 seed in the Midwest region, playing in Lexington, Kentucky on Thursday night (9:25 p.m. ET).

Here is the full bracket prediction for a Bruin program that is trying to reach its 20th Final Four in program history:

Round of 64 vs. No. 10 Utah State - WIN

The Bruins are stacking up against a very talented Utah State squad that finished first in the Mountain West in field goal percentage (49%) and second in 3-point shooting (35.6%). This is one of those games where UCLA will rely on their defense to hold the Aggies to under 70 points.

Bounce-back performances from junior forward Tyler Bilodeau and sophomore guard Eric Dailey Jr. will start the Bruins on the right note and move past the Aggies in a comfortable multi-possession victory, flexing their defensive muscles with a few marquee performances offensively.

Round of 32 vs. No. 2 Tennessee - WIN

This will be an extremely interesting matchup as the Bruins have not faced an SEC all season long. The Volunteers fell by double-digits to the Florida Gators in the SEC tournament championship last Sunday, exposing some of their bigger weaknesses that the Bruins can take advantage of.

Despite having multiple elite scorers in senior guards Zakai Ziegler and Chaz Lanier, the Volunteers only score 74.7 points per game, just above UCLA's average. If the Bruins can dominate the glass and keep Tennessee to under 45% from the field, they will have an incredible chance at an upset.

In a lower-scoring contest that will be extremely gritty in the second half, the Bruins will bust a ton of brackets and upset the Volunteers at Rupp Arena. They will advance to their fifth Sweet 16 in the past decade, making a great deal of noise by knocking out a very hot pick for many brackets.

Sweet 16 vs. No. 3 Kentucky - LOSS

The Wildcats possess six different players that are averaging 10 or more points and will simply be too much for the Bruins' defense. We have seen a few times this season when UCLA's top Big Ten defense gets exposed by hot shooting, and that is what will happen in the Sweet 16.

The madness will unfortunately come to an end against Wildcats in Indianapolis, Ind. UCLA will have made it to the second week, won 24 games on the season, and returned to relevancy after a down year, last season. This group will be ready for a conference title and higher seed in 2026.

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