UCLA vs UCF Prediction and Preview: NCAA Tournament First Round

UCLA vs UCF Game Preview: Which Team Will Have the Fresher Legs?

UCLA vs UCF How To Watch

Date: Friday, March 20
Venue: Xfinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia, PA
Time: 7:25 pm ET
TV: TBS
Streaming: March Madness Live App, Paramount+, HBO Max
Teams: (7) UCLA 23-11, (10) UCF 21-11
UCLA Rankings: KenPom 27 | NET 30
UCF Rankings: KenPom 54 | NET 51
College Football Programs: UCLA should be one of the Big Ten’s more interesting teams with James Madison head coach Bob Chesney taking over a decent base of talent.

UCF is in Year Two of the reboot of the Scott Frost era - the offense will be far better.
- CFN NCAA Tournament Schedule, Previews

Key Stats

- Defense has been a problem for UCF. It’s 302nd in the nation, allowing 79 points per game.

- UCLA nails its threes. It’s No. 1 in the Big Ten and 18th in the country, averaging 38.2% from the outside.

Why UCF Will Win: Run and Wear Out the Bruins

UCLA has had a little time to recover, but it goes from being a thin team to begin with to having no margin for error when it comes to personnel.

Guard Donovan Dent has been brilliant, but he can’t do it all alone. The Bruins lost their main big man - Tyler Bilodeau - to a leg injury in the Big Ten Tournament, and he’s questionable, at best.

Even with Bilodeau, the Bruins were among the worst teams in the country on the boards, and UCF needs to take advantage of that and attack the offensive glass from the start.

The Knights didn’t do a lot of things right over the second half of the season, but winning on the offensive glass was one of the positives.

They have to take the fast break points, get the second chance plays, and hope they're the fresher team late.

Why UCLA Will Win: Hit the Threes

No, there’s no interior presence with the Bruins, and they don’t do much of anything on the move. But they have to confidently start hitting threes early on, and keep it going.

UCF doesn’t shoot threes - but it makes them when it takes them - and doesn’t do a lot to stop teams from hitting from the outside.

Threes don’t mean everything to the Bruins, but they’re 14-4 when making eight or more. UCF allowed teams to make eight or more 20 times.

UCLA vs UCF Prediction, Betting Lines

This won’t be anything pretty.

UCF died down the finishing kick, and there wasn’t any consistency whatsoever - but there’s a silver lining. When it did play well, it showed the juice that can beat a team like UCLA.

The Knight team that couldn’t stop anything against Cincinnati or West Virginia in mid-February gets drop-kicked by the Bruins. The one that brought the defense against the Bearcats early in the Big 12 Tournament has a shot.

UCLA played on fumes down the stretch, but will the time off kill the momentum, or give it enough rest to be better?

The Bruins are the stronger all-around team, but they can’t get into any foul trouble or have any injury issues with Bilodeau almost certainly out.

Prediction: UCLA 77, UCF 72
Consensus Line: UCLA -5.5, o/u: 152.5
ATS Confidence out of 5: 2.5

Meet the NCAA Tournament Seeds
No. 1 | No. 2 | No. 3 | No. 4 | No. 5 | No. 6
No. 7 | No. 8 | No. 9 | No. 10 | No. 11
No. 12 | No. 13 | No. 14 | No. 15 | No. 16

Consensus Line from BetMGM, Caesars, DraftKings, and FanDuel. Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.