UCLA must go the distance in NCAA tournament UCLA Coach Ben Howland was envious. "I'm jealous of California," Howland said. Shabazz Muhammad looked on the bright side. "At least it's not Philadelphia," Muhammad said. And Larry Drew II, the one guy on the Bruins' roster who has gone wire to wire in the NCAA tournament, was accepting. "It's weird, but I really don't understand it all," Drew said. The Bruins will open NCAA tournament play Friday against Minnesota in Austin, Texas. UCLA, the Pac-12 regular-season champion, is the sixth-seeded team in the South Regional and will be traveling the farthest of any conference team the first weekend of the tournament. California plays Nevada Las Vegas in San Jose. Oregon is also in San Jose, playing Oklahoma State. Arizona is off to Salt Lake City to play Belmont. Colorado joins the Bruins in Austin, where the Buffaloes will play Illinois in the East Regional. We hoped we were going to San Jose. That was our first choice because our fans could go to the game," Howland said. Two other Pac-12 teams got to go to San Jose. Arizona is in Salt Lake City. Congratulations to them. But, he said, "it is what it is." The Bruins held out hope that they would be put in the West Regional and open closer to home. "Yeah, we lost to Oregon [in the conference tournament final], but we're regular-season Pac-12 champs," Travis Wear said. Of course, a year ago, being Pac-12 regular-season champion got Washington into the NIT - the Huskies didn't win the conference tournament for an automatic bid and were passed over by the selection committee. "If we take care of business, it doesn't matter where we're playing," Muhammad said. There are many things for the Bruins to be happy about. For starters, the Golden Gophers (22-12) are struggling, losing 11 of their last 16 games.