LOS ANGELES – UCLA will host Cal State L.A. in an exhibition game on Friday evening in Pauley Pavilion. Game time is 7:30 p.m. The Bruins will take the court against the Golden Eagles this Friday for the first time since concluding their 2014-15 campaign with a 22-14 record and appearance in the Sweet 16 of the 2015 NCAA Tournament.
GAME INFORMATION
Venue: Pauley Pavilion (13,800)
Game Time: 7:30 p.m. (PT)
Internet Broadcast: uclabruins.com
Broadcaster: Dave Marcus
ON DECK
Monmouth at UCLA (season opener)
Friday, Nov. 13 – 8 p.m. (PT)
Pauley Pavilion (Los Angeles)
GETTING TO THE GAME
Tickets are available by ordering online or calling the UCLA Central Ticket Office at 310-UCLA-WIN (825-2946). Tickets to Friday's game start at $14. The Pauley Pavilion Box Office (north side) will open this Friday at approximately 6 p.m. for the 7:30 p.m. game versus Cal State L.A. More information about directions to Pauley, parking and tickets can be found through our Gameday Info website.
COMING UP
The Bruins will open their regular season in two weeks, hosting Monmouth the night of Friday, Nov. 13. Including the season opener versus Monmouth, UCLA will play its first six games in a 13-day span. After consecutive home games against Monmouth, Cal Poly and Pepperdine, the Bruins will play three games in as many days at the Maui Jim Maui Invitational at the Lahaina Civic Center.
WHO'S BACK
UCLA returns six of its eight primary players from last year's team, including three of five starters – senior forward/center Tony Parker and junior guards Bryce Alford and Isaac Hamilton. Three contributors from UCLA's bench are also back in 2015-16 – junior guard/forward Noah Allen, sophomore center Thomas Welsh and sophomore forward G.G. Goloman. UCLA posted a 22-14 overall record last season, including an 11-7 record in Pac-12 play, and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season.
BRYCE ALFORD: UCLA's top returning scorer (15.4 points per game), Alford finished second on the team in scoring last year and led the Bruins in assists (4.9 apg). In fact, Alford enters this season as the only Pac-12 player to have logged at least 10.0 ppg in his career and compiled a 2-to-1 or better assist-turnover ratio.
TONY PARKER: A 6-foot-9 forward/center from Atlanta, Parker enters 2015-16 as UCLA's lone senior. He has played in 104 career games, the second-highest total among any current Pac-12 player (behind Arizona center Kaleb Tarczewski, 109). Parker averaged 11.5 points and 6.7 rebounds per game last season.
ISAAC HAMILTON: One of UCLA's five players to average in double figures last year (10.6 ppg), Hamilton scored a career-high 36 points in the Bruins' win over USC at the Pac-12 Tournament. He finished his sophomore year having scored in double figures in 22 of 36 games, reaching the 20-point plateau in two contests.
NOAH ALLEN: The 6-foot-7 guard from Pacific Grove, Calif., played in all 36 games for UCLA as a sophomore last season. He averaged 1.3 points and 1.8 rebounds per game coming off the bench, logging a 1.7-to-1 assist turnover ratio. Allen has played in 47 games for the Bruins over the past two seasons.
THOMAS WELSH: Following his freshman season, Welsh helped USA Basketball's U19 Team win the gold medal in the FIBA World Championships on the island of Crete (Greece). Last year, Welsh averaged 3.8 points and 3.8 rebounds per game, leading all UCLA players with 39 blocks (1.1 bpg).
GYORGY “G.G.” GOLOMAN: As a freshman in 2014-15, Goloman averaged 1.3 points and 1.5 rebounds per game, competing in 35 of 36 contests. He shot 45.2 overall, making 6 of 12 shots from 3-point range. Hailing from Hungary, Goloman will not play this Friday (stress fracture in right leg).
WELCOME TO WESTWOOD
UCLA has seven newcomers on this year's roster and will see sophomore Jonah Bolden take the court for the first time as a Bruin. Freshman guards Aaron Holiday and Prince Ali will help provide needed depth to UCLA's backcourt. Holiday earned All-CIF Southern Section Division 4 acclaim all four years at Campbell Hall High School. Ali was a first-team selection by the Florida Association of Basketball Coaches last year. Freshman forward Alex Olesinski and sophomore center Ikenna Okwarabizie could push for playing time in the Bruins' frontcourt.
BROTHERLY LOVE
Former UCLA guard Jrue Holiday is the older brother of current Bruins' guard Aaron Holiday. Jrue, in his sixth NBA season, was a freshman at UCLA in 2008-09. He was selected No. 17 by the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the 2009 NBA Draft after his freshman season.
MOVING TO THE NBA
Two key players from last year's UCLA team have opened the 2015-16 season on NBA rosters. Guard Norman Powell (16.4 ppg, 4.7 rpg) and forward Kevon Looney (11.6 ppg, 9.2 rpg) played major roles in UCLA's success last season. Powell was a second-round NBA Draft selection last June by the Milwaukee Bucks before being immediately traded to the Toronto Raptors. Looney was taken No. 30 overall in the first round of the draft by the Golden State Warriors, the organization that won last season's NBA Championship.
YEAR THREE
Steve Alford begins his third season as UCLA's head coach and his 25th year as a college basketball head coach. Alford has led UCLA to a 50-23 record over the previous two seasons. After guiding the Bruins to the Pac-12 Tournament title and a Sweet 16 appearance in 2014, Alford helped UCLA engineer a second consecutive trip to the Sweet 16 last March. He has led his teams to at least 22 wins in each of the last eight years, including at least 28 wins in three of the previous four seasons (107-36 record over the last four years).
PRESEASON PROJECTIONS
UCLA was selected fifth in the Pac-12 preseason media poll, announced at Pac-12 Media Day on Oct. 15 in San Francisco. Arizona was picked to finish first, collecting 18 of 36 first-place votes. UCLA secured one first-place vote. Last season, UCLA finished fourth in the standings after having been picked fourth in the preseason poll. The Bruins have won the Pac-12 regular-season title in four of the last 10 seasons.
2014-15 IN REVIEW
UCLA went 22-14 overall (11-7 in Pac-12 action), advancing to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament. The Bruins defeated SMU (60-59) and UAB (92-75) in the NCAA Tournament before losing to Gonzaga (74-62). Norman Powell earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors, while Kevon Looney was a second-team selection. Bryce Alford established UCLA's single-season record for most three-pointers (93). Isaac Hamilton's 36 points against USC (March 12) were the most in one game by a Bruin since 2005. The Bruins went 16-1 at home, posting a perfect 9-0 mark at home in league play for the first time since 2006-07. UCLA advanced to the semifinals of the Pac-12 Tournament for the third consecutive season.
PARKER'S PROGRESSION
Senior forward/center Tony Parker has made steady increases in production each of his three seasons. Last year, he registered 11.5 points and 6.7 rebounds in 24.6 minutes per game (34 games, 33 starts). As a sophomore in 2013-14, he logged 6.9 points and 4.4 rebounds in 17.2 minutes per game (37 games, nine starts). Parker averaged 2.4 points and 1.2 rebounds in 6.3 minutes per game as a freshman in 2012-13 (33 games). He enters his senior season having scored 726 career points, just 274 shy of the 1,000 career point mark.
KEY CONTRIBUTIONS
Junior guard Isaac Hamilton was one of four UCLA players to start in all 36 games last season. A former standout guard at St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, Calif., Hamilton averaged 10.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game in 2014-15. He scored a season-high 36 points in UCLA's 96-70 win over USC at the Pac-12 Tournament, marking the program's highest single-game point total since Feb. 10, 2005 (Dijon Thompson had 39 points versus Arizona State). Hamilton played at least 30 minutes in 30 of UCLA's 36 games.
IN THE FAMILY
Isaac Hamilton is the fifth of six children and has four brothers, two of which have played in the NBA and a third (Daniel) who is currently playing at the University of Connecticut. His older brother Greg played four years at the University of Miami (2003-06) and Jordan was a two-year letterwinner at the University of Texas (2010-11) before being selected No. 26 in the 2011 NBA Draft by the Dallas Mavericks.
HOME SWEET HOME
Over the past two seasons under head coach Steve Alford, UCLA has posted a 32-3 record in Pauley Pavilion. Last season, UCLA went 16-1 at home. In the Bruins' 17 home contests last season, UCLA averaged 80.7 points per game. Since UCLA re-opened renovated Pauley Pavilion in November 2012, the Bruins have compiled a 47-6 home record (two of those losses coming to teams ranked in the top-25 poll). After this Friday night's exhibition game against Cal State L.A., the Bruins will play 17 regular-season games in Pauley Pavilion.
THREE-POINTERS
Bryce Alford, a junior guard from Albuquerque, N.M., established UCLA's new single-season record for three-point field goals made last year. He nailed 93 of 238 three-pointers, registering a 39.1 percentage from downtown. The previous record for made three-pointers in one season was 87 (Arron Afflalo in 2007 and Jason Kapono in 2002). In two seasons at UCLA, Alford has made 140 of 360 three-point attempts (38.9 percent).