Let me state that I do think UCLA is very good and deserving of a Sweet 16 Appearance.
That said, they did have 9 losses this year so many teams figured out how to beat them.
Maryland is a fairly young team that learned and grew a lot this year and will be better next year. Austin, for all her talent struggled a bit yesterday against Burke and Oneywere and played in the high post far too much in the second have to let Jones and Fraser play down low with mixed results.
UCLA did struggle with Tenn in the 3rd/early 4th Quarters as their defense struggled against good talent (albeit raw and uncoached). UConn’s spacing will aid them quite a bit vs. UCLA and I am hopeful Liv gets more minutes to protect the middle.
Game is in Albany so UCLA taking a charter home last night to only fly out Wed night OR staying on the East coast for 3 days is also a problem they have to deal with. They had their pep band, cheerleaders and dance team, plus AD personnel with a lot of time on their hands. The Bracket scheduling was brutal to them no matter what. This group should either have played F/Sun or Albany should have been Sat/Mon.
Add in the Albany home crowd and I am not overly concerned.