UCLA
UC Riverside
Men's Basketball to Host UC Riverside on Thursday Night
November 26, 2023 | Men's Basketball
LOS ANGELES โ The UCLA men's basketball team will host UC Riverside (3-4) on Thursday evening in a nonconference game in Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom. Game time is 8 p.m. (PT). The Bruins' home contest will be televised by the Pac-12 Network, with J.B. Long and Don MacLean calling the action.
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The Bruins (4-2) have compiled an all-time record of 5-0 against the Highlanders. Most recently, UCLA defeated UC Riverside, 98-56, in a nonconference game on Nov. 30, 2016, hosted in Pauley Pavilion. Isaac Hamilton scored 27 points (7-of-12 from 3-point range) and TJ Leaf and Aaron Holiday each added 18 points. All five contests in the all-time series have taken place in Pauley Pavilion. The first-ever matchup between UCLA and UC Riverside occurred on Dec. 5, 2001.
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THURSDAY'S GAME INFORMATION
Venue: Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom
Capacity: 13,800
Tipoff Time: 8:06 p.m. (PT)
Television: Pac-12 Network
TV Talent: J.B. Long (play-by-play), Don MacLean (analyst)
Radio Broadcast (UCLA Sports Network): AM 1150
Radio Talent: Josh Lewin (play-by-play), Tracy Murray (analyst)
SIRIUS XM: SiriusXM 373 and on the SXM App
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TICKET INFORMATION
UCLA's season ticket packages for this year's men's basketball campaign are now available. Single-game tickets for UCLA's nonconference home games can be purchased online (link here). For more information about tickets, call UCLA Athletic Sales & Service at (310) 206-5991 or via email at tickets@athletics.ucla.edu. Additional information about season parking permits can be accessed here.
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UCLA faculty and staff members can secure a five-dollar ticket for all nonconference weeknight games (except the contest against Maryland on Dec. 22). Please show proper UCLA I.D. at the Pauley Pavilion ticket window on the day of the game to purchase at this discounted rate.
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ENTRY TO PAULEY PAVILION, CLEAR BAG POLICY
Since the 2016-17 season, the UCLA Athletics Department has used a "clear bag policy" that limits the size and type of bags that may be brought into the arena (additional details and FAQ here). This is part of an effort to provide a safer environment for the public and to significantly expedite fan entry into Pauley Pavilion. Limiting the size and type of bags carried into the venue will assist in maintaining a safe and secure environment, as well as decreasing the time to enter the venue. The UCLA Athletics Department encourages fans not to bring any bags, but this policy is in place to help balance fan needs with the needs for improved safety and convenience.
TUESDAY'S MEDIA AVAILABILITY
Bruins' associate head coach Darren Savino (video here) met with local reporters prior to UCLA's practice on Tuesday morning (Coach Savino filled in for Coach Cronin, out with an illness). Freshmen guards Sebastian Mack and Ilane Fibleuil and junior guard Lazar Stefanovic (video here) also spoke to the media, in advance of the Bruins' practice.ย
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KEY NOTES ABOUT UCLA
โ UCLA went 1-2 in three games last week at the Allstate Maui Invitational, played in Honolulu. Freshman Sebastian Mack averaged a team-leading 19.0 points per game and averaged 6.3 rebounds in the three contests. Junior Lazar Stefanovic averaged 13.3 points and a team-leading 7.3 rebounds per game, while sophomore Adem Bona logged 12.0 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. UCLA lost a pair of games to top-15-ranked competition, falling to No. 4 Marquette (71-69) on Monday evening and No. 11 Gonzaga (69-65) on Wednesday night.
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โ Through games played on Saturday, Nov. 25, UCLA ranked No. 4 in the nation and first in the Pac-12 in fewest points allowed per game (56.7 ppg). The Bruins' field goal percentage defense ranked No. 9, nationally, and first among all Pac-12 programs (36.0%, 112-for-360). In addition, UCLA's 3-point field goal percentage defense ranked No. 56 in the nation and No. 2 in the Pac-12 (27.8%, 42-for-151). Under head coach Mick Cronin, UCLA's scoring defense ranked No. 41 in the nation in 2021-22 (64.5 ppg) and No. 7 in the country last season (60.7 ppg).
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โ Freshman Sebastian Mack ranks first among all Pac-12 players (through Saturday, Nov. 25) in free throws made (35) and free throw attempts (42), and he ranks No. 11 in the league in scoring (15.8 ppg). Mack leads all Pac-12 freshmen in scoring (15.8 ppg), having shot 42.4 percent from the field and 83.3 percent at the free throw line (35/42). He has scored at least 10 points in each of UCLA's last five games, including a season-best 25 points in a two-point loss to Marquette.
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โ The Bruins have returned four of their contributors from last season's rotation โ redshirt senior Kenneth Nwuba, redshirt sophomore Will McClendon and sophomores Dylan Andrews and Adem Bona. UCLA has added eight incoming student-athletes, including one transfer and seven freshmen. Last season, UCLA went 31-6 overall and 18-2 in Pac-12 play, winning the Pac-12 regular-season title for the first time since 2013. The Bruins advanced to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16.
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โ UCLA has advanced to the NCAA Tournament in each of the past three seasons. The Bruins earned their 19th NCAA Final Four appearance in 2021, securing a No. 11-seed in the 68-team field and advancing from the "First Four" to the Final Four. In 2022 and 2023, UCLA won its first and second-round matchups before losing in the Sweet 16. In all, UCLA's program has advanced to the NCAA Tournament 52 times and has won a nation-leading 11 NCAA titles.
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โ Mick Cronin has entered his fifth year as the Bruins' head coach (The Michael Price Family UCLA Men's Head Basketball Coach). Now in his 21st season as a college head coach, Coach Cronin has guided UCLA's program to an 103-38 overall record. He has led the Bruins to a combined 58-19 record in Pac-12 play in four seasons. UCLA's 31 victories last season were the most by any Bruins' squad since UCLA went 31-5 during the 2016-17 season.
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ABOUT THE ROSTER
UCLA's roster includes eight newcomers this season โ seven freshmen and one transfer (Lazar Stefanovic, junior, from the University of Utah). Freshman Sebastian Mack has averaged 30.0 minutes in all six games, while freshman Berke Buyuktuncel has averaged 20.9 minutes in the team's last three games. The Bruins have deployed five different starting lineup combinations, through the first six games. This marks a new-look Bruins' team from the past several seasons, as just four of UCLA's rotation players are back from the 2022-23 squad. Now in his sixth year at UCLA, redshirt senior Kenneth Nwuba is the only Bruin to have seen any game action in 2021-22 (and in prior seasons).
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ON THE HORIZON
Following this Thursday's home contest against UC Riverside, the Bruins will play at Villanova (in Philadelphia, Pa.) in the return contest of a home-and-home series on Saturday, Dec. 9. Game time at Wells Fargo Arena is set for 4 p.m. PT (7 p.m. ET, in Philadelphia). The following week, UCLA will be in action against Ohio State in the annual CBS Sports Classic, which takes place at State Farm Arena in Atlanta this year. The Bruins will return home to host CSUN on Tuesday, Dec. 19, and Maryland on Friday, Dec. 22, before opening Pac-12 play at Oregon State (Dec. 28) and Oregon (Dec. 30).
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BRUINS' BASKETBALL HISTORY
The 2023-24 school year marks the 105th season in which UCLA has fielded a men's basketball team (first season was 1919-20). UCLA entered the week of Monday, Nov. 20, ranked No. 24 in the USA Today Coaches poll (unranked in the AP poll). Last fall, UCLA was ranked in the preseason at No. 8 in the AP poll and No. 7 in the USA Today Coaches poll. In addition, this year's Bruins have been slotted No. 3 in the Pac-12's preseason media poll, as announced at Pac-12 Media Day on Wednesday, Oct. 11. Arizona was selected as the league's preseason favorite, followed by USC in the No. 2 spot.
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NOTES ON PAULEY PAVILION
This marks the 58th basketball season in which UCLA has played in Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins' arena opened in time for the 1965-66 basketball season. The first game in Pauley Pavilion took place on Dec. 3, 1965, as No. 1 UCLA took down Ohio State, 92-66. The Bruins spent 47 consecutive seasons in Pauley Pavilion before the venue was closed for an 18-month renovation. UCLA hosted 18 home games during the 2011-12 season at two venues in Southern California (14 games at the Los Angeles Sports Arena and four games at the Honda Center in Anaheim).
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โ UCLA went 17-0 at home in 2022-23 and went 14-1 in 15 home games in 2021-22. The Bruins won their final eight home games in 2021-22 and have won their last 28 home games, which stands as the longest active home winning streak in the nation. UCLA's most recent home loss took place in overtime against Oregon (84-81) on Jan. 13, 2022. Since taking over as head coach in April of 2019, Mick Cronin has led UCLA to a 58-6 record in 64 home games. The Bruins last had a winning streak of 25 home games back in 2006-07 (and that streak ended at 25 wins in Dec. 2007).
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โ UCLA's perfect home record in 2022-23 (going 17-0) marked the Bruins' 11th season in Pauley Pavilion with an undefeated home tally. The Bruins last had an undefeated home mark in 2006-07, going 16-0. UCLA's 1995 NCAA title-winning team went 15-0 at home. Prior to the 1994-95 campaign, the Bruins had not gone undefeated at home since five consecutive undefeated home seasons from 1970-71 through 1974-75.
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โ The Bruins' 28-game home winning streak marks the longest at UCLA since registering a program-record 98-game home winning streak in the 1970s. The Bruins won 98 straight home games from Dec. 4, 1970, through Feb. 19, 1976. UCLA had a 25-game winning streak in 2006 and 2007 and won 23 consecutive games from Feb. 1994 through Jan. 1996 (includes one game that California later forfeited). The Bruins had a 20-game winning streak from Nov. 1981 through Jan. 1983.
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โ With the COVID-19 pandemic prompting teams to close arenas to fans, none of UCLA's home games in 2020-21 were played in front of a crowd. Likewise, three home games in January of 2022 were played before no fans (arena was limited to players' family members only). UCLA has won its last 39 home contests with fans present in Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom (last home loss with fans was against Stanford on Jan. 15, 2020, by a 74-59 margin).
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โ The Bruins have won their last 18 consecutive nonconference home games, a streak dating back to the start of the 2020-21 basketball season. UCLA went 7-0 in nonconference home contests last season and 5-0 in those games in 2021-22. The Bruins played just three nonconference home games during the pandemic-altered 2020-21 season, opening their home schedule with a 78-52 win over Seattle in Pauley Pavilion on Dec. 3, 2020.
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MORE ON SEBASTIAN MACK
Freshman Sebastian Mack, a 6-foot-3 guard from Chicago, Ill., has averaged 15.8 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists through the team's first six games. Mack averaged a team-leading 19.0 points in three games last week at the Allstate Maui Invitational, played in Honolulu (at the University of Hawaii at Manoa). He scored 25 points in a 71-69 loss to No. 4 Marquette on Monday, Nov. 20. Mack was perfect at the free throw line (13-for-13) in that loss. That marked UCLA's first perfect free throw effort by a freshman , with at least 10 free throw attempts, since Jordan Adams went 16-for-16 at the line off the bench in the Bruins' 80-79 overtime win versus UC Irvine on Nov. 13, 2012.
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YEAR TWO WITH DYLAN
Sophomore Dylan Andrews has averaged 8.8 points, 2.0 rebounds and a team-leading 4.2 assists through five games this season. The Bruins' 6-foot-2 guard from nearby Gardena, Calif., played in 35 of the Bruins' 36 games last season as a reserve guard behind veteran point guard Tyger Campbell. He has shot 41.3 percent (19-for-46) from the field this year, totaling 21 assists and eight turnovers (assist-turnover ratio of 2.6-to-1). As a freshman in 2022-23, he averaged 3.3 points, 1.1 rebounds and 0.9 assists per game, while shooting 43.0 percent from the field. Andrews scored a career-high 18 points, making 7 of 9 shots, in UCLA's 68-50 win against Lafayette on Friday, Nov. 10.
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AFTER 141 GAMES
Now in his fifth season at UCLA, head coach Mick Cronin has recorded 103 wins, through 141 games. Only Coach Cronin and former UCLA head coach Jim Harrick have won 103 of their first 141 games as the Bruins' head coach. Cronin has guided the Bruins to an 103-38 record through four-plus years in Westwood. Over the past three seasons, UCLA has gone 9-3 in the NCAA Tournament with a trip to the Final Four in 2021.
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STANDING TALL
The Bruins' 15-man roster includes includes five student-athletes who measure at least 6-foot-9-inches tall. Freshman center Aday Mara, from Zaragoza, Spain, stands at 7 feet and 3 inches. During the Bruins' 2018-19 season, then-freshman Moses Brown measured at 7-foot-1 (Brown now plays for the Portland Trail Blazers). Mara becomes the Bruins' tallest player since the late Mike Lanier (7-foot-7, 310 pounds) competed as a reserve center for the Bruins in 1991-92 and 1992-93. Adem Bona, Kenneth Nwuba and Devin Williams are all 6-foot-10, while Berke Buyuktuncel is 6-foot-9.
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REPRESENTING MULTIPLE COUNTRIES
UCLA's roster includes student-athletes who grew up in seven different countries, including the United States. The Bruins' nation-by-nation breakdown includes eight players from the United States, two from Nigeria (Adem Bona, Kenneth Nwuba), one from France (Ilane Fibleuil), one from Spain (Aday Mara), one from Turkey (Berke Buyuktuncel), one from Slovenia (Jan Vide) and one from Serbia (Lazar Stefanovic). Bona grew up in Nigeria before moving to Turkey at the age of 13.
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โ UCLA is one of just five programs this year to have at least seven countries represented on the roster. Arizona, Hawaii and Portland have eight nations represented, while Sacramento State also has seven.
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THREE-POINT STREAK SNAPPED
The Bruins went 0-for-6 from beyond the 3-point arc in a 78-58 win versus Long Island University on Wednesday, Nov. 15. That ended UCLA's streak of 792 consecutive games with at least one made 3-point field goal. The Bruins' 3-point streak began after going 0-for-14 from 3-point distance in a home loss to No. 2-ranked Stanford (78-63) on Feb. 3, 2000. The Bruins' single-game 3-point record stands at 19 made 3-pointers (going 19-for-31) in an 104-89 win at Colorado on Jan. 12, 2017. Last season, UCLA made a team-high 11 triples in a home win against Norfolk State (Nov. 14, 2022).
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BRUINS IN PAC-12 PLAY
Over the previous three basketball seasons, UCLA totaled a 46-13 mark in Pac-12 games. Last year, UCLA went 18-2 in Pac-12 play to capture the league's regular-season title for the first time since 2013 (under then-head coach Ben Howland). UCLA went 15-5 in the Pac-12 in 2021-22 and 13-6 in 2020-21. The Bruins have won 34 of their last 36 Pac-12 home games, with the two losses taking place against USC in March of 2021 and against Oregon in overtime in Jan. of 2022. UCLA will open Pac-12 play at Oregon State on Thursday, Dec. 28 (7 p.m., at OSU's Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, Ore.).
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PRESEASON PROJECTIONS
UCLA was selected third in the 2023-24 preseason Pac-12 media poll. The Bruins received four of 26 total first-place votes. Arizona received 18 first-place votes and was picked to finish in first place. USC totaled four first-place votes and was slotted in second place. Media members have correctly picked the regular-season winner 18 times in the past 34 tries (including six times in the Pac-12 era, since 2011-12). The winner has been accurately chosen in 22 of the 39 all-time preseason votes. UCLA's most recent Pac-12 (regular-season) titles have taken place in 2023 and 2013. The Bruins last won the Pac-12 Tournament title in 2014 (defeating top-seeded Arizona, 75-71), at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
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PRESEASON WATCH LISTS
Sophomore Adem Bona, standing at 6-foot-10 and 245 pounds, has been named to the preseason watch lists for two prominent national player of the year awards -- the Naismith Trophy (presented by the Atlanta Tipoff Club) and the John R. Wooden Award (presented by the Los Angeles Athletic Club). Bona is among 50 players on each of those preseason watch lists. He was also one of 10 student-athletes selected as a preseason first-team All-Pac-12 selection, as announced in mid-October at Pac-12 Media Day in Las Vegas. Bona has averaged 15.0 points and 6.5 rebounds in six games this year.
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ADDING A VETERAN PRESENCE
Junior Lazar Stefanovic has averaged 11.5 points and 6.5 rebounds in the Bruins' first six games. He transferred to UCLA's program in the summer, after having spent his first two college seasons at the University of Utah. Stefanovic averaged 8.9 points and 2.9 rebounds in 63 career games with Utah (making 33 starts). As a sophomore last season, he averaged 10.3 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 32 contests (15 starts). Stefanovic is among UCLA's most important 3-point threats, having shot nearly 36 percent from beyond the 3-point arc in 32 games last season (55-for-153).
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BRUINS IN SPAIN
UCLA's program spent nine days in Spain (Aug. 21-30) as part of an overseas trip in the summer. The Bruins visited three cities โ Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona โ and played one game against a Spanish team at each of those three destinations. UCLA defeated all-star teams in Madrid and Valencia, respectively, before losing to a professional team in the ACB League while visiting Barcelona. Lazar Stefanovic averaged a team-leading 16.3 points and 8.0 rebounds per game through the Bruins' three contests. Stefanovic shot 44.7% from the field and was 13-for-14 at the free throw line in Spain.
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