First, it's a real missed opportunity for the San Francisco Regional after the Bruins didn't have a San Diego pod. Yes, there is a theoretical advantage to avoiding Gonzaga as long as possible, but playing the Bulldogs with a home crowd in San Francisco would be far better than playing them in New Orleans without them. Living West is such an important and potential benefit to UCLA.
Second, UCLA is underrated if you judge by any of the metrics systems. It seemed that the committee was clearly neglecting its ranking system, NET, in developing this bracket. Duke is wildly overseeded in the 2nd, Wisconsin and Purdue are each overseen, and UCLA is one of the most notable underseds with Houston.
Now, for the draw itself:
Somewhat brutal, but has the advantage of avoiding both Arizona and Gonzaga until Final Four.
Akron is no good, and UCLA should be able to cruise through that. Zips shoot a lot of threes, which can cause trouble, but they don't have a ton of size, which has been a real issue for UCLA this year. If the Bruins are focused, they should be able to go away and win.
St. Mary's, however, is legit, number 16 in Kenpom, and a team that has already beaten Gonzaga this year. They are very experienced, one of the few teams in college basketball with minute consistency similar to UCLA.
Then, as a treat, if UCLA gets through it, the Bruins get the No. 1 seed boiler at Sweet 16 in Philadelphia. Baylor isn't at the level they were last year, but it's still a dangerous team with lots of athleticism. Preferably, North Carolina or Marquette would give UCLA a solid performance in the second round.
After that, a run for Kentucky is established at the bottom of the bracket, and the Wildcats are one of the top 3 teams in Kenpom. Texas is interesting, though, and probably has as many as six seeds underseed, and it could be a game if they make it to Kentucky.
On the good news side, neither Baylor nor Kentucky have what has been disastrous against UCLA this year, extremely athletic internal lengths. That's not to say he doesn't have athletic length, but it's not a force to be reckoned with for Gonzaga or Arizona. You can see that Jaime Jaquez's bully ball is really effective against those two teams.
Anyway, missing West is brutal, but UCLA could outright win that bracket. While Baylor and Kentucky will have more fans in Philadelphia than at UCLA (especially Kentucky, with the former shocking everything together), it will not be a pure home game that would have been Kansas in San Antonio.