University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
No. 16 UCLA Hosts CSUN on Sunday Evening
November 12, 2016 | Men's Basketball
LOS ANGELES – No. 16 UCLA (1-0) returns to action against CSUN (1-0) on Sunday evening in Pauley Pavilion. Game time is 6 p.m. The Bruins' game will be televised by Pac-12 Network, while the radio broadcast in the Los Angeles area will air on AM 570 (KLAC). The Bruins have compiled an 8-1 all-time record against the Matadors.
GAME INFORMATION
Venue: Pauley Pavilion (13,800)
Tipoff Time: 6:10 p.m. (PT)
Television: Pac-12 Network
TV Talent: Guy Haberman (play-by-play), Don MacLean (analyst)
Radio: AM 570
Radio Talent: Josh Lewin (play-by-play), Tracy Murray (analyst)
SIRIUSXM Radio: Ch. 197
SIRIUS App: Ch. 959
FRIDAY'S SEASON OPENER
The Bruins recorded their highest single-game point total since 1997 on Friday night, defeating the University of Pacific by a 119-80 margin before 8,743 in Pauley Pavilion. Freshman Lonzo Ball had 19 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds while classmate TJ Leaf finished with 22 points and a team-leading 15 rebounds. Senior Bryce Alford made 9 of 13 shots, including 6 of 9 from 3-point range, to total 30 points in the Bruins' season opener. Aaron Holiday had 18 points and five assists off the bench, and Isaac Hamilton finished with 17 points and eight assists.
MOST POINTS SINCE
UCLA logged its largest single-game point total since defeating Cal State Fullerton, 120-91, in Pauley Pavilion on Dec. 13, 1997. In addition, the Bruins set their program's all-time single-game record for most 3-point field goals made, connecting on 18 of 30 attempts from 3-point range.
BRUINS AT A GLANCE
UCLA returns 10 players who competed last season, including four of the team's five starters – senior Isaac Hamilton, senior Bryce Alford, junior Thomas Welsh and sophomore Aaron Holiday. Other prominent contributors back from last season's team are junior G.G. Goloman and sophomores Alex Olesinski and Prince Ali. UCLA has added three freshmen – Ike Anigbogu, Lonzo Ball and TJ Leaf – who were nationally ranked among the top 25 incoming players by Scout.com and Rivals.com. In all, the roster includes three seniors, four juniors, three sophomores and five freshmen.
SENIOR LEADERS
Bryce Alford and Isaac Hamilton, a pair of senior guards, have opened the season as two of the Pac-12 Conference's most veteran student-athletes. Alford has averaged 13.2 points in 106 career games. He enters this season as the only returning player in a Power 5 conference to have averaged at least 16.0 points, 5.0 assists and 3.0 rebounds per game last season. Hamilton is the Pac-12's leading returning scorer from last year, having averaged a team-best 16.8 points per game in 2015-16. Now in his third playing season, Hamilton has registered 13.6 points per game.
CRUNCHING NUMBERS
Ranked No. 16 in the preseason AP poll, UCLA returns 77.0 percent of its total scoring and 58.3 percent of its rebounding production from 2015-16. The Bruins bring back 87.3 percent of its assist production from last year. UCLA's returning players accounted for 74.9 percent of the team's minutes in 2015-16. Four returning players from last season's starting lineup averaged at least 10.0 points per game a year ago – Hamilton (16.8 ppg), Alford (16.1 ppg), Welsh (11.2 ppg) and Holiday (10.3 ppg). Those four players accounted for 73 percent of UCLA's scoring from last season.
SOPHOMORE SEASON
Among one of the most Pac-12 freshmen last season, Aaron Holiday scored 18 points and dished five assists (no turnovers) in UCLA's season-opening win last Friday. Holiday came off the bench midway in the first half, scoring UCLA's next 10 consecutive points over a 1-minute, 27-second span. Last season, Holiday averaged 10.3 points per game and started all 32 contests for UCLA. He led the Bruins in 3-point field goal percentage during his freshman campaign, shooting 41.9 percent from beyond the arc. He also averaged 4.0 assists per game last year.
NAISMITH PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Freshman Lonzo Ball was named the Naismith High School Player of the Year as a senior at Chino Hills High School in 2015-16 (23.9 ppg, 11.3 rpg, 11.5 apg), leading his team to a 35-0 record and the CIF State Open Division Championship. The 6-foot-6 guard came within two rebounds shy of a triple-double in his collegiate debut on Friday night, recording 19 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds. Ball's 11 assists were one shy of the school's single-game freshman assist record – Pooh Richardson had 12 assists as a freshman in a double-overtime win at Washington State (Jan. 11, 1986).
GOOD COMPANY
Lonzo Ball became UCLA's first-ever freshman to record a point-assist double-double in his collegiate debut (19 points, 11 assists) on Friday night. In addition, TJ Leaf had a point-rebound double-double (22 points, 15 boards) in his UCLA debut last Friday. Ball and Leaf are the fourth and fifth players at UCLA in the last 25 seasons to have registered a double-double in their first games as UCLA freshmen. Charles O'Bannon (Nov. 27, 1993), Kevin Love (Nov. 8, 2007) and Kyle Anderson (Nov. 9, 2012) all had double-doubles in their first contests as freshmen at UCLA.
BRUINS DOWN UNDER
UCLA spent 10 full days in Australia in August 2016, going 2-1 in three preseason games (NCAA rules allow college programs to take a foreign trip once every four years). The Bruins spent four days in Sydney, three in Melbourne and three in Gold Coast before returning to Los Angeles the morning of Aug. 31. UCLA cruised past Sydney University, 123-76, in its first game. The Bruins followed with two games against professional teams in Australia's National Basketball League (NBL), losing to the Melbourne United (89-84) and defeating the Brisbane Bullets (94-91).
ABOUT THE MATADORS
CSUN enters the 2016-17 season under the direction of fourth-year head coach Reggie Theus, who enjoyed a 13-year NBA career from 1979-1991. The Matadors recorded a 96-72 victory against Pomona-Pitzer in their season-opening contest on Friday night in Northridge, Calif. Darin Johnson scored 20 points to lead a group of four CSUN players who scored in double figures (along with Kendall Smith, Aaron Parks and Tavrion Dawson). UCLA last faced CSUN on Nov. 29, 2015, logging a 77-45 win over the Matadors in Pauley Pavilion.
McDONALD'S ALL-AMERICANS
UCLA has seen 41 of its student-athletes compete in the annual McDonald's All-American Game, with only Duke and Kentucky having enrolled more McDonald's All-Americans. Freshmen Lonzo Ball and TJ Leaf competed in the March 2016 McDonald's All-American Game in Chicago. Ball tied the single-game record with 13 assists, joining with Leaf to help lift the West past the East, 114-107. Four of UCLA's players on this season's roster have competed in the McDonald's All-American Game – Ball and Leaf in 2016, Thomas Welsh in 2014 and Isaac Hamilton in 2013.
EXPERIENCED TRAVELERS
Over the course of the last four years, the UCLA basketball program has accrued plenty of mileage. Destinations away from the West Coast have included foreign trips to China (Aug. 2012) and Australia (Aug. 2016), the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas (Nov. 2014), last season's Maui Invitational in Lahaina (Nov. 2015), three trips to New York City (2012, 2013 and 2015), a trip to Chicago (Nov. 2014) and postseason games in Austin, Texas (March 2013), San Diego (March 2014), Memphis, Tenn. (March 2014), Louisville, Ky. (March 2015) and Houston, Texas (March 2015).
