LOS ANGELES – The UCLA men's basketball team will host Cal State L.A. on Wednesday evening in the team's first and only exhibition game of 2017. Game time in Pauley Pavilion is slated for 7 p.m. The Bruins last faced Cal State L.A. in an exhibition game in Oct. 2015.
 
The Bruins will open their regular season against Georgia Tech in Shanghai, China, as part of this year's Pac-12 China Game (ticket information here). The game in China will take place on Friday, Nov. 10, at 8:30 p.m. (PT). For those in Shanghai, the game begins at 12:30 p.m. the afternoon of Saturday, Nov. 11.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Venue: Pauley Pavilion (13,800)
Tipoff Time: 7:06 p.m. (PT)
Television: Pac-12 Network
TV Talent: J.B. Long (play-by-play), Steve Lavin (analyst)
Online Radio: uclabruins.com (listen here)
Radio Talent: Nick Koop (play-by-play), Tracy Murray (analyst)
 
PURCHASE TICKETS
Season ticket packages for 2017-18 men's basketball campaign are on sale for less than $19 per game. To secure seats for all the home games in 2017-18, call (310) 206-5991 or visit uclabruins.com/tickets. Fans can click here to download the men's basketball schedule directly to their calendar.
 
DOWNLOAD THE UCLA APP
Be sure to download the UCLA Bruins Mobile App to your device, free of charge (download here). The official app of UCLA Athletics allows fans to receive in-game stats and live updates during events. Fans can also sign up to receive push notifications about gameday promotions, game times, live scoring and more. Fans can shop for UCLA gear with one click in addition to getting breaking news from UCLA Athletics. When searching iTunes or Google Play, use the term "UCLA Bruins" for more direct access. 
 
WELCOME BACK
UCLA returns nine players from last season's roster, including three significant contributors from the team's consistent eight-man rotation. Senior center Thomas Welsh (10.8 ppg, 8.7 rpg in 2016-17) is the only returning starter, but the Bruins also welcome back junior guard Aaron Holiday (12.3 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 4.4 apg) and senior G.G. Goloman (3.7 ppg, 2.4 rpg). In addition, guard Prince Ali and forward Alex Olesinski are back this fall as redshirt sophomores after having redshirted the 2016-17 season (Ali and Olesinski were sidelined by injuries in November and December last season).
 
FRESH FACES
Seven freshmen have joined the program as UCLA enters its 2017-18 campaign. UCLA's incoming group has been ranked as high as No. 5, nationally, in recruiting class rankings by ESPN.com and Scout.com (No. 6 by Rivals.com). The freshman class features a pair of McDonald's All-Americans in guards Jaylen Hands (San Diego, Calif.) and Kris Wilkes (Indianapolis, Ind.). UCLA's incoming frontcourt players include Cody Riley (Kansas City, Kan.) and Jalen Hill (Corona, Calif.) and backcourt players LiAngelo Ball (Chino Hills, Calif.), Chris Smith (Chicago, Ill.) and Joseph Wallace (Woodland Hills, Calif.).
 
BRUIN SENIORITY
The Bruins' 16-man roster features four senior student-athletes – Thomas Welsh (center, 7-foot), G.G. Goloman (forward, 6-foot-11), Ikenna Okwarabizie (center, 6-foot-9) and Alec Wulff (guard, 6-foot-3). Welsh enters his senior year at UCLA having played in 99 career contests (61 starts), having missed just five games the past three seasons due to illness/injury. Welsh has averaged 8.4 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game in his career, shooting 56.4 percent from the field. Goloman has played in 85 games over three seasons, averaging 2.4 points and 2.1 rebounds per game.
 
NEARING 1,000
Senior center Thomas Welsh and junior guard Aaron Holiday are both nearing the 1,000-career-point plateau. Welsh will enter the Bruins' regular-season opener versus Georgia Tech having scored 831 career points, needing just 169 more to reach 1,000. Holiday has totaled 772 points in two seasons, standing just 228 shy of tying the 1,000-point mark. UCLA's tradition-rich basketball program has 54 former players who have scored at least 1,000 points wearing the Bruins' uniform – most recently, Isaac Hamilton crossed the 1,000-career-point mark in Nov. 2017 during his senior season.
 
CALIFORNIA LOVE
UCLA's 16-man roster features 10 student-athletes who have called Southern California their home. In the freshman class, both Cody Riley and Jalen Hill moved with their families to the region while in middle school. Freshmen Jaylen Hands (San Diego), LiAngelo Ball (Chino Hills) and Joseph Wallace (Woodland Hills), along with sophomores Armani Dodson (Fontana) and Isaac Wulff (Laguna Beach) hail from cities in Southern California. Upperclassmen from the region include junior Aaron Holiday (Chatsworth) and seniors Thomas Welsh (Redondo Beach) and Alec Wulff (Laguna Beach).
 
YEAR FIVE
Steve Alford has entered his fifth season as UCLA's head coach and his 27th overall year as a collegiate head coach. Alford has led the Bruins to a 96-45 mark in four years, guiding UCLA to three NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 trips as well as the 2014 Pac-12 Tournament Championship. Last season, UCLA went 31-5 overall and posted a 15-3 mark in Pac-12 play, going 16-1 at home and defeating every team on its schedule. Through the previous four seasons, Alford and his coaching staff have had 10 Bruins selected in the NBA Draft – including four players from UCLA in June 2017.
 
ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM
Thomas Welsh has earned second-team Pac-12 All-Academic honors the past two seasons. The 7-foot center from Redondo Beach, Calif., is the third men's basketball player in school history to have earned Pac-12 All-Academic Team honors in multiple seasons, joining George Zidek (1992-95) and Alfred Aboya (2006-09) in that category. Freshmen are not eligible for the conference's all-academic team. Welsh, who arrived at UCLA in the summer of 2014 after graduating from Loyola High School (Los Angeles), has posted above a 3.0 cumulative grade point average as an economics major.