The move paid off for Delson, who got to watch the Bruins close out a 77-67 victory.
“We had to see the end of the game,” Delson, a founding member of the Grammy-winning rock band and a 1999 graduate of U.C.L.A., said in a telephone interview. “It worked out pretty good.”
A diehard U.C.L.A. fan, Delson sometimes wears a T-shirt referencing the fact that the junior forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute is an African prince.
On tour for most of this season, Delson was limited to attending the Bruins’ three games in the Pac-10 tournament and their gripping 51-49 victory against Texas A&M in the N.C.A.A. tournament’s second round.
“It was really a brutal experience emotionally because I was thinking they were going to lose and I was preparing myself for it,” said Delson, whose band will be headlining the Projekt Revolution tour this summer in the United States. “I’m usually a pretty bad loser.”
The last time U.C.L.A. faced Memphis, Delson was there. The Bruins won that game, 50-45, a victory that earned them a berth in the 2006 Final Four. Delson predicted another low-scoring affair Saturday; he thinks U.C.L.A. will win, 59-53.
“I don’t know what the strategy is going to be this time, but I assume it’s going to be to slow down the game and really contain them defensively,” he said. “I think if we can do that, we have a really good shot.”
Delson said he picked three of the Final Four teams in his N.C.A.A. tournament bracket. His lone miss was Memphis. He picked Pittsburgh to win the South regional. He has the Bruins beating North Carolina in the title game.
“I always have to put my team through,” said Delson, who planned to watch Saturday’s game from his Los Angeles home. “I can’t bet against myself.”
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