UCLA
Long Beach State
Men's Basketball to Open Season This Wednesday Night
November 03, 2019 | Men's Basketball
LOS ANGELES โ The Bruins will open the 2019-20 season against Long Beach State this Wednesday evening. The UCLA men's basketball program has compiled an all-time record of 16-1 against Long Beach State. The two schools faced off last season in Westwood, with UCLA securing a 91-80 victory in the Bruins' second game of the year. UCLA and Long Beach State have played each other in five of the previous seven seasons, with the Bruins winning all five of those contests.
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WEDNESDAY'S GAME INFORMATION
Venue: Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom
Venue Capacity: 13,800
Tipoff Time: 8:06 p.m. (PT)
Television: Pac-12 Network
TV Talent: J.B. Long (play-by-play), Casey Jacobsen (analyst)
Radio (UCLA Sports Network): AM 1150
Radio Talent: Josh Lewin (play-by-play), Tracy Murray (analyst)
XM Channel / SIRIUS Channel: Ch. 84 / Ch. 84
SIRIUSXM Internet Channel: Ch. 84
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PURCHASING TICKETS
Don't miss "Opening Night" when the Bruins host Long Beach State this Wednesday. Game time is 8 p.m. in Pauley Pavilion. Tickets for the team's season opener start at $15. All season-ticket holders, Fast Break Pass buyers and 10-game "Flex Plan" purchasers will receive a free UCLA beach towel (limited to one per account) at this Wednesday's game. There will also be free Under Armour replica jerseys for the first 500 UCLA students with a Den Pass, plus a special halftime show by the Air Elite dunk team. Fast Break Passes, mobile-only season tickets, are still available for $149, getting you access to the Bruins' remaining 17 home games. To reserve your seats, visit UCLABruins.com/tickets or call (310) UCLA-WIN.
WEDNESDAY'S PROMOTIONS
The first 2,000 fans in attendance at the Bruins' season opener this Wednesday can pick up a schedule poster upon entry to the arena. The first 500 UCLA students with a Den Pass will receive a free replica basketball jersey and pizza, in honor of head coach Mick Cronin's first game in Westwood. All UCLA season-ticket holders, as well as those with a 10-game "Flex Plan" and a "Fast Break Pass" can pick up a beach towel at the Sales & Service table located along the arena's North concourse (limited to one per account, and must be in attendance at Wednesday's game to receive). The halftime entertainment will include a special performance by the "Air Elite" dunk team. For more promotional details, please visit uclabruins.com/PauleyGamedayInfo.
LAST WEEK'S EXHIBITION CONTEST
The Bruins defeated Stanislaus State, 87-57, in an exhibition game the night of Wednesday, Oct. 30, in Pauley Pavilion. Freshman Tyger Campbell led the Bruins in scoring (14 points) and assists (11), recording a pair of steals and committing just one turnover. Campbell was one of five UCLA players to score in double figures, along with junior Chris Smith (13 points), sophomore Jalen Hill (11), sophomore Cody Riley (11), and freshman Jaime Jaquez Jr. (11). UCLA limited Stanislaus State to 38.2 percent shooting from the field, as the Warriors committed 21 turnovers in the preseason tune-up.
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MORE NOTES ABOUT UCLA
The Bruins' roster features 15 student-athletes, including 13 players who were on the team last season. Looking at last season's primary 11 rotation players, UCLA has returned eight of those student-athletes. UCLA's returning nucleus includes a pair of fifth-year seniors (Prince Ali, Alex Olesinski), junior Chris Smith and sophomores Jalen Hill, Cody Riley, Jules Bernard, Kenneth Nwuba and David Singleton. The Bruins have added incoming freshmen Jaime Jaquez Jr. (Camarillo, Calif.) and Jake Kyman (Aliso Viejo, Calif.), a pair of 6-foot-6 guards from Southern California.
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In addition to Jaquez Jr. and Kyman, the Bruins have welcomed back guard Tyger Campbell and forward Shareef O'Neal, a pair of talented young players who missed the 2018-19 season due to medical reasons. Campbell, a 5-foot-11 guard who grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, tore his ACL in his left knee in October 2018. As a senior at La Lumiere School in Indiana (2017-18), Campbell averaged 15.5 points and 7.2 assists per game. O'Neal, a 6-foot-9 forward from Los Angeles, was sidelined for the entire 2018-19 season after recovering from heart surgery in December.
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UCLA's roster includes 10 freshmen and sophomores but does feature seven student-athletes who have played in at least 30 college games. Prince Ali, a 6-foot-4 senior, has played in 88 career games, making 48 starts. Ali and senior Alex Olesinski enrolled at UCLA in the summer of 2015 and have entered the season as UCLA's most experienced players (Olesinski has played in 73 games). Chris Smith, a 6-foot-9 junior who grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, has played in all 66 games for the Bruins the past two seasons, making 12 starts last season.
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Mick Cronin enters his first season as The Michael Price Family UCLA Men's Head Basketball Coach. Hired as the Bruins' head coach in April 2019, Cronin spent the previous 13 seasons as head coach at the University of Cincinnati, his alma mater. He guided Cincinnati to the NCAA Tournament the past nine seasons and helped the Bearcats capture the America Athletic Conference's regular-season title in 2014 and 2018. Cincinnati also won the AAC Tournament championship in 2018 and 2019. Cronin is entering his 17th season as a college basketball head coach.
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SEASON OPENERS
UCLA has gone 7-3 in season openers over the past 10 years and 15-5 in opening games over the past 20 seasons (two of those five losses took place in overtime or double overtime). The Bruins have opened the season with a game in Pauley Pavilion in 16 of their previous 20 seasons. Last fall, UCLA tipped off the regular season with a 96-71 victory over Purdue Fort Wayne in Pauley Pavilion (Nov. 6, 2018). Through his 16 previous seasons as a head coach, Mick Cronin has directed his teams to a 13-3 record in season-opening games (11-2 while at Cincinnati and 2-1 while at Murray State).
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HEADED BACK TO MAUI
The Bruins will be playing in the Maui Jim Maui Invitational this November for the sixth time. Most recently, UCLA played in the eight-team tournament in Nov. 2015, defeating UNLV in a first-round matchup before dropping consecutive games to Kansas and Wake Forest. UCLA won the tournament in 2006, with consecutive victories over Chaminade, Kentucky and Georgia Tech. This season, the Bruins will open against BYU on Monday, Nov. 25. UCLA's second game will take place against either Kansas or Chaminade, while the Bruins will conclude the tournament on Wednesday, Nov. 27.
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LIMITING THE OPPOSITION
As Cincinnati's head coach, Mick Cronin led the Bearcats to at least 20 victories in each of the past nine years. He guided his 2017-18 team to an overall mark of 31-5 (highest single-game win total as a head coach). For six straight seasons (2012-13 through 2017-18), Cincinnati ranked in the top 20 in the nation in opponents' field goal percentage. In fact, Cronin's Cincinnati squad in 2017-18 ranked No. 2, nationally, in that category, having limited the opposition to a 37.4 field goal percentage. In each of the past eight seasons, Cincinnati ranked in the top 45, nationally, in total blocked shots.
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NEWS & NOTES
The Bruins are set to return 47.6% of their scoring production from last season. UCLA lost its top three scorers from last season's roster (Kris Wilkes 17.4 ppg, Jaylen Hands 14.2 ppg, Moses Brown 9.7 ppg), as all three student-athletes chose to pursue a professional career. UCLA will return 56.6% of its rebounding production from one year ago.
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Prince Ali, UCLA's top returning scorer from last season's team, will enter his senior campaign having scored 663 career points. Ali is one of 10 returning players in the Pac-12 to have scored at least 648 career points at the same Pac-12 program. Oregon State's Tres Tinkle stands atop that list, having registered 1,661 career points with the Beavers.
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Prince Ali ranks fifth in the Pac-12 among returning players in career 3-pointers made (all at the same Pac-12 program). Ali has made 85 career 3-point baskets, trailing Oregon's Payton Pritchard (200), USC's Jonah Mathews (178), Oregon State's Tres Tinkle (134) and Colorado's Lucas Siewert (91) on that list of returning Pac-12 players.
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Looking at UCLA's 15-man roster, 10 of the team's student-athletes either grew up in the Southern California region or attended high school in the Los Angeles area. Cody Riley (listed as Kansas City, Kan.), moved to the Los Angeles area when he was in middle school and attended Sierra Canyon High School (Chatsworth, Calif.).
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The largest single-game point total of any returning UCLA player belongs to senior Prince Ali, who registered a career-best 23 points in a home victory last season against Hawai'i (Nov. 28, 2018). The largest single-game rebound total of any returning Bruin belongs to sophomore Jalen Hill, who had 20 boards in a win against Presbyterian last year (Nov. 19, 2018).
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UCLA enters the 2019-20 season with four returning players who have registered at least 10 rebounds in one game โ Jalen Hill (five times), Cody Riley (twice), Alex Olesinski (once) and Chris Smith (once). Hill had three double-doubles last season, including back-to-back double-doubles in games last March against Utah (March 9) and Stanford (March 13).
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POINT GUARD POSITION
With Tyger Campbell returning from an ACL tear (left knee), he could become UCLA's fifth primary point guard in as many seasons. Over the past four seasons, not one player has assumed the primary point guard responsibility for a second straight season. In 2015-16, (junior) Bryce Alford was the team's starting point guard. In 2016-17, (freshman) Lonzo Ball recorded a UCLA single-season record 274 assists. In 2017-18, (junior) Aaron Holiday led the Pac-12 in scoring (20.3 ppg) as the team's primary point guard. Last season, (sophomore) Jaylen Hands served as the Bruins' starting point guard.
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FINISHING STRONG
Jules Bernard closed his freshman campaign by scoring in double figures in eight of UCLA's final 11 games. He had scored at least 10 points in just two of the Bruins' first 22 contests. The 6-foot-6 guard finished his freshman year having averaged 7.6 points and 3.1 rebounds per game (33 games). In the team's final 11 games, Bernard averaged 11.5 points per game and shot 56.0 percent from the field (42-for-75). In addition, he shot 41.7 percent from 3-point territory in the team's final 11 games. Bernard scored a season-high 20 points in the Bruins' overtime victory against Oregon on Saturday, Feb. 23.
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