UCLA’s hopes for a No. 1 seed were probably gone when the NCAA tournament committee projected it as a No. 4 seed Feb. 11.

Hopes for a No. 2 seed probably disappeared Saturday night when Arizona and Oregon left the Bruins behind on the way to the Pac-12 tournament final.

UCLA is most likely looking at a No. 3 seed when the NCAA tournament brackets are announced on Sunday.

Of the 117 bracket projections tracked by Bracket Matrix, 74 of them have UCLA as a No. 3 seed and 31 have the Bruins as a No. 2 seed.

Joe Lunardi of ESPN and Jerry Palm of CBS both project UCLA as the No. 3 seed in the East region, which would allow the Bruins to begin the tournament in Sacramento. Should they advance to the second weekend, they would play in New York.

Both Lunardi and Palm’s No. 2 seeds include three teams UCLA has beaten this season and one with twice as many losses as the Bruins: Oregon, Arizona, Kentucky and Duke. Of course, it’s difficult to sell an argument that Oregon and Arizona should not be seeded higher than UCLA.

The Bruins’ comparison to Arizona is easy. A loss in Saturday’s Pac-12 tournament semifinals gave them a losing record against the Wildcats this season. Who knew Dillon Brooks’ last-second, game-winning 3-pointer against UCLA on Dec. 28 would linger this long. Without it maybe the Bruins have an argument, but a split with Oregon isn’t enough – UCLA’s RPI is 15 and the Ducks’ is 6.

To be seeded behind a Kentucky team it beat in Rupp Arena this season would be a bitter pill to swallow for Steve Alford and company, but that is exactly what it looks like will happen. Duke plays in the only conference with six top-25 RPI teams. But eight losses for the Blue Devils certainly sounds like a lot compared to UCLA’s four.