UCLA and North Carolina to meet in Philly after Purdue takes on Cinderella St. Peter’s

Mick Cronin, the head coach of UCLA, needed to know last week why one of his players brought so much luggage to Oregon ahead of their opening round of the NCAA Tournament. Peyton Watson, Cronin said, had more luggage “than a guy going on a trip around the world.”

“He goes, well, ‘Coach, we’re going to win. We ain’t going to be back for three weeks,’ ” Cronin said Friday at the Wells Fargo Center. “I said, ‘No, my man. We win two in Portland and we’re coming home.’ ”

The Bruins advanced last season to the Final Four, which meant they spent most of March in Indianapolis as the NCAA Tournament utilized a bubble environment during the pandemic. They’re finding success again this March, but they’ve been able to do it without being away from home for three weeks.

UCLA, the fourth seed in the East Regional, will take on No. 8 North Carolina Friday night following 15th-seeded St. Peter’s vs. No. 3 Purdue. The winners will meet Sunday night at the Wells Fargo Center for a spot in the Final Four.

“This is great for them because last year was obviously – it was a great run for us, but there’s 1,500 people at the games,” Cronin said. “It was a little unusual to say the least.”

UCLA is expected to have star forward Jaime Jaquez Jr., who practiced on Wednesday and Thursday after spraining his ankle in a second-round win over St. Mary’s. Jaquez is UCLA’s second-leading scorer and is averaging 20.5 points in the team’s last eight games.

“It’s been a journey, a long one,” Jaquez said. “It’s something all players have to deal with when you get into this game, especially at this time of year, not everyone is 100%. Everyone is battling through something. Yeah, it’s been frustrating for sure, but I’d rather have injuries like this, something I can battle back from than something really devastating. Knock on wood that doesn’t happen.

“But it’s just something I have to persevere through, something I have to go through. Everyone has to go through something during the season, and this is what happened to me. We’re just fighting through it every day.”

North Carolina is the higher seed but head coach Hubert Davis said he’s not calling his team “underdogs.” The Tar Heels downed top-seeded Baylor in the second round behind 30 points from R.J. Davis and 16 rebounds from Armando Bacot.

They finished the regular season by winning 11 of their final 13 games as they responded to blowout losses on the road at Miami and Wake Forest.

“The next practice Coach Davis came in super positive and we were not expecting that at all,” said senior guard Leaky Black. “We were expecting him to come in hot and chew us out kind of thing, but I feel like he was super positive and that was a turning point for us.”

The teams – two of college basketball’s historic programs – were supposed to meet in December before UCLA paused their schedule due to a COVID-19 outbreak. Friday night, they’ll get the chance.

Purdue didn’t make it out of the first round last year as they fell victim to a Cinderella with an overtime loss to 13th-seeded North Texas. The Boilermakers, senior forward Trevion Williams said, didn’t respect the Mean Green and weren’t quite as ready as they thought they were.

But they said that won’t be the case Friday night when Purdue meets St. Peter’s, this year’s Cinderella.

“I think a lot of teams underestimated them, they kind of doubted their ability because of the number next to their name,” sophomore center Zach Edey said as St. Peter’s bounced second-seeded Kentucky and No. 7 Murray State. “But we’re coming into this game like we’re playing the two seed because they beat the two seed. So we have to have the mentality that they’re a really good team and we have to respect them.”

Purdue grabbed 41 rebounds in their second-round win against sixth-seeded Texas and might just have too much size for St. Peter’s. The 7-foot-4 Edey could present a tough matchup for a Peacocks frontcourt that tops out at 6-10.

“Everybody on our team has a chip on their shoulder, especially our coach, too,” said St. Peter’s junior guard Doug Edert. “We’re all looking to prove ourselves, prove ourselves as a program, as a basketball team, and it starts in practice. Everyone is trying to compete against each other so we can be able to execute the game plan for whatever game we’re about to play. And up until recently, the chip on our shoulder is just getting bigger and bigger. We’re still trying to prove ourselves. We’re not satisfied with anything right now, and we’re going to continue to keep that going.”