SMU to face UCLA Thursday in NCAA Tournament

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From SMUMustangs.com:

[20/21] SMU TO FACE UCLA IN NCAA TOURNAMENT ON THURSDAY
Mustangs Earn No. 6 Seed In First Appearance Since 1993

INDIANAPOLIS (NCAA/SMU) – On the heels of its first regular season championship since 1993 and its first conference tournament championship since 1988, the SMU men’s basketball team earned a No. 6 seed in the South Region when the pairings for this season’s NCAA Tournament were announced on Sunday. The Mustangs will face No. 11 seed UCLA on Thursday at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

SMU (27-6), which finished the regular season ranked as the No. 20 team in the AP Poll and the 21st-ranked team in the USA Today Coaches Poll, is making its 11th appearance in the tournament having posted a 10-12 record in NCAA contests.

SMU defeated defending national champion Connecticut, 62-54, in the championship game of The American Tournament on Sunday afternoon. Junior Markus Kennedy scored 15 points and added six rebounds en route to tournament Most Outstanding Player honors. Senior Yanick Moreira and American Player of the Year Nic Moore were also named to the All-Tournament Team. This was the second time in program history that SMU won both the regular season and tournament titles (1988, Southwest Conference).

UCLA fell to Arizona in a semifinal of the Pac-12 Tournament, 70-64, giving the Bruins a 20-13 record entering the tournament. The Bruins hold the 2-0 edge all-time against the Mustangs, with the last meeting coming on Dec. 28, 1976 in Los Angeles.

SMU has tied the program record for most wins in a season this year, winning 25 of its last 28 games, and has a program-record 54 wins in its last two seasons.

With a victory in the second round, SMU would face the winner of the No. 3/14 match-up between Iowa State and UAB on Saturday.