King Kaufman's Sports Daily

NCAA Tournament: UCLA plays with fire, wins again. UNC, Louisville headed for a monster clash.

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March 28, 2008 | UCLA has a great killer instinct. The Bruins need it, because they keep letting inferior teams hang around or, as was the case Thursday night in the West regional semifinal, rally to make a game close long after it should have been put away.

Western Kentucky, a 12-seed that looked more like a 5 or 6 in the three rounds it lasted in the NCAA Tournament, turned a blowout into a nail-biter late in the second half before falling short.

Down 41-20 at the half and 56-38 with 12 minutes to go, the Hilltoppers launched a furious, thrilling comeback behind the shooting and slashing of Tyrone Brazelton. He scored 12 points in the next five minutes as Western Kentucky outscored UCLA 19-5 and closed to within 61-57.

About two and a half minutes later a Josh Shipp 3-pointer reestablished a nine-point lead for UCLA and that was the end of the threat, and while the comeback can't just be blamed on UCLA getting sloppy -- Brazelton and his teammates, playing brilliantly for a stretch, had more than a little to do with it -- UCLA did, in fact, get sloppy.

The Bruins beat Western Kentucky 88-78 to move along to the Elite 8, the regional finals, against No. 3 Xavier, which beat No. 7 West Virginia 79-75 in a whiz-bang overtime game. In the East region, the Sweet 16 consisted of a couple of routs: Top-seed North Carolina handled Washington State easily, 68-47, and No. 3 Louisville used a strong second half to drill the wobbly second seed, Tennessee, 79-60.

West Virginia looked like it had a shot at a comeback win, but the Mountaineers couldn't score on a key three-rebound possession late, and they missed free throws down the stretch. Three 3-pointers in overtime by B.J. Raymond sealed the win for Xavier.

UCLA has been playing with fire throughout this Tournament. Xavier will be the first team it plays that's clearly good enough to make sure it gets burned. The Bruins can fall back on center Kevin Love to bail them out of trouble, as they've done in two straight games now, but a great player bailing out a floundering team that's not playing as well as it can is not a formula for a championship.

The other No. 1 seed that played Thursday, North Carolina, has no such issue. The Tar Heels, who entered the Tournament as the favorite, haven't done anything to indicate they don't deserve that status. They beat Washington State at its own game Thursday, turning the screws on the Cougars defensively.

If North Carolina, which is widely thought to have come this far despite its defensive shortcomings, is going to play like that, it's going to make the oddsmakers look smart.

Next page: North Carolina-Louisville: New Game of the Year candidate? Plus: Friday's games