LOS ANGELES – No. 22 UCLA will open its season against No. 5 Arizona this Monday evening at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (tickets available here). The Bruins will be playing their first game in Las Vegas since the 2024 Pac-12 Tournament, and will be facing Arizona at a neutral site for the third consecutive season. This Monday’s game is part of a men’s basketball doubleheader, with Gonzaga taking on Purdue at 4:30 p.m. (PT) that evening. UCLA’s game against Arizona will follow at approximately 7 p.m. (PT). The men’s basketball doubleheader will be nationally televised on TNT, truTV and HBO Max. UCLA fans can tune to AM 790 (KABC) for the Bruins’ radio broadcast.
GAME INFORMATION
Venue: T-Mobile Arena (Las Vegas)
Capacity: 18,000
Monday’s Game Time: 7 p.m. (PT)
Broadcast Network: TNT, truTV, HBO Max
Broadcast Talent: Brian Anderson (play-by-play), Grant Hill (analyst) and Allie LaForce (sideline)
Radio (UCLA Audio Network): AM 790 (KABC)
Radio Talent: Josh Lewin (play-by-play), Tracy Murray (analyst)
Sirius XM Channels: SiriusXM 84 and SiriusXM App
Live Stats: ucla.statbroadcast.com (link here)
NOTES ON UPCOMING HOME GAMES
UCLA’s home opener against North Florida on Friday, Nov. 6, will provide fans with a first look up close at the 2026-27 Bruins. The first 2,500 fans at Pauley Pavilion will receive a UCLA men’s basketball schedule poster. The UCLA honorary captain will be gymnastics head coach Janelle McDonald. Tickets to next Friday’s home game start at just $10 in the arena’s upper level, with ticket prices starting at $16 in Pauley’s lower bowl. Fans interested in purchasing season tickets can click here, while single-game tickets for all UCLA home games are available here.
STORYLINES ABOUT UCLA’S TEAM
– The Bruins return six players from last season's roster. The most significant and veteran returning players include seniors Xavier Booker (7.3 ppg), Eric Dailey Jr. (11.6 ppg) and Brandon Williams (2.6 ppg) and junior Trent Perry (12.6 ppg). Both Dailey Jr. and Perry represented UCLA's program alongside head coach Mick Cronin at Big Ten Men's Basketball Media Day.
– UCLA's four incoming transfer students include Filip Jovic (sophomore, from Auburn), Sergej Macura (junior, from Mississippi State), Jaylen Petty (sophomore, from Texas Tech) and Azavier Robinson (sophomore, from Butler). All four transfers played at the NCAA Division I level last season.
– Glancing at UCLA's returning student-athletes and incoming transfers, the Bruins' roster includes seven players who have competed in a minimum of 25 college basketball games. In all, nine players on this season's roster have played at least one full college season. Eric Dailey Jr. and Xavier Booker stand atop that career games list with 100 and 96 games, respectively.
– The Bruins have welcomed four freshmen to the roster – Javonte Floyd (center, from Atlanta, Ga.), Gunars Grinvalds (guard/forward from Jurmala, Latvia), Nikola Kusturica (guard/forward, from Novi Sad, Serbia) and Joe Philon III (guard/forward from Tampa, Fla.). UCLA has added junior Jordan Houegban, who previously served as a Bruins' student manager.
– UCLA posted a 24-12 overall record last season, advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in the past six seasons. The Bruins secured a No. 7 seed in the tournament's East Region. UCLA defeated No. 10-seed UCF (Central Florida) in a first-round matchup, 75-71, and lost to No. 2-seed UConn, 73-57, in the second round.
– The Bruins went 14-7 over their final 21 games last year, including a pair of top-10 victories in March over No. 9-ranked Nebraska (72-52) and No. 8-ranked Michigan State (88-84). UCLA recorded a 17-1 home record, with the lone loss taking place in double overtime to Indiana (the Hoosiers won the double overtime affair 98-97).
– UCLA's leading scorer the past two seasons, Tyler Bilodeau, was drafted as a senior last June. He was the No. 43 overall selection in the NBA Draft by the Brooklyn Nets (second round pick) and has inked a contract with the Nets. Bilodeau, one of 10 former UCLA players on NBA rosters this month, averaged a team-leading 17.6 points per game in 31 contests.
– UCLA ranked No. 4 in the Big Ten and No. 8 nationally in assist-turnover ratio. Eight of UCLA's primary 10 contributors all recorded more assists (or as many assists) than turnovers. A senior last spring, Donovan Dent (265 assists, 64 turnovers) ranked No. 3 in the country in assist-turnover ratio (4.14-to-1) and was third in the nation in assists per game (7.6 apg).
– Mick Cronin has entered his eighth season as UCLA's head coach. Over the past six seasons, he has led UCLA to five NCAA Tournament appearances (the NCAA Tournament was canceled at the conclusion of his first season, due to COVID-19). Cronin has totaled 162 victories as UCLA's head coach, the fifth-highest win total in program history.
UCLA VERSUS ARIZONA
– UCLA has compiled an all-time record of 64-51 against Arizona in a series that began in 1923.
– The Bruins lost to Arizona, 69-65, on Nov. 14, 2025 last season in a game played at Intuit Dome (Inglewood).
– This Monday night's game will mark UCLA's first game in Las Vegas since the Pac-12 Tournament in March 2024.
– Since the start of the 2019-20 college basketball season, UCLA has gone 7-7 against Arizona.
– The two programs faced off three times in the 1950s, four times in the 1960s and every season since 1979.
– The Bruins faced Arizona in the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas seven times, between 2013 and 2024.
– UCLA has played Arizona in 115 games, the eighth-highest total against one single opponent in UCLA history.
TWO EXHIBITION GAME WINS
UCLA recorded a pair of exhibition game victories over California Baptist (100-53) and San Diego (82-50) in the past two weeks. Eric Dailey Jr. averaged 15.5 points and 6.5 rebounds in the two wins, shooting 50 percent from the field (10-for-20) and 7-for-12 from 3-point distance (58.3%). Trent Perry registered 11 assists and just one turnover through both games, averaging 13.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game. Perry had 17 points and seven assists in the win over San Diego last Tuesday evening, helping the Bruins to outscore the Toreros by a 47-21 margin in the second half.
REACHING THE 20-WIN MARK
With 24 total victories in 2025-26, the Bruins reached the 20-win plateau for the 48th time in 60 years (1966-67 through 2025-26). Coach Cronin has guided UCLA to at least 20 victories in five of the last six years. He helped UCLA to a 31-6 record in 2022-23, his most wins in one season at UCLA. In seven previous seasons as UCLA's head coach, Cronin has averaged 23.1 wins per season. Looking back at last season, nine of the Big Ten Conference's 18 teams finished the year with at least 20 victories. UCLA has gone 47-23 over the past two seasons.
RECENT SEASON OPENERS
Over the past seven seasons under the direction of Mick Cronin, UCLA has posted a 6-1 record in season openers. Last year, UCLA outlasted Eastern Washington, 80-74, in the season-opening game at Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins' most recent loss in a season opener took place during the 2020-21 season, as UCLA absorbed a 73-58 setback at San Diego State (game played in front of no fans, during the COVID-19 pandemic). This game will mark the Bruins' first season-opening contest played outside of California since the 2017-18 season, when UCLA secured a 63-60 win over Georgia Tech in Shanghai, China. UCLA has never opened its regular-season schedule against Arizona.
FAMILIAR ARENA
This Monday's showdown will mark UCLA's 22nd game playing in T-Mobile Arena. The Bruins have gone 10-11 at T-Mobile Arena, with 15 of those 21 games taking place at the Pac-12 Tournament. UCLA's first-ever game in the Las Vegas arena took place at the CBS Sports Classic during the 2016-17 season, as the Bruins outlasted Ohio State, 86-73. Most recently, UCLA played at T-Mobile Arena at the 2024 Pac-12 Tournament (UCLA defeated Oregon State, and lost to Oregon). The Bruins advanced to the championship contest of the Pac-12 Tournament in 2022 and 2023, losing to Arizona each season.
FLUENT IN MULTIPLE LANGUAGES
UCLA's Sergej Macura, Nikola Kusturica, Filip Jovic and Gunars Grinvalds are each fluent in at least two languages. Macura can fluently speak four languages – Slovenian, Serbian, Spanish and English. Macura, Kusturica and Grinvalds have each spent multiple years living in Spain. Kusturica can speak Serbian, Spanish and English, while Grinvalds is fluent in Latvian, Spanish and English. Jovic grew up in Bosnia and Herzegovina and speaks both Serbian and English.
NOTES ON THREE RETURNING BRUINS
– Senior Eric Dailey Jr. has averaged 11.5 points and 4.9 rebounds in 68 contests at UCLA, over the past two seasons. Dailey Jr. twice scored a season-best 20 points in wins last season over Nebraska (March 3) and UCF (March 20) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Dailey has totaled six career double-doubles (four at UCLA).
– Junior Trent Perry has averaged 8.3 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 67 career games (24 starts) through two seasons at UCLA. Last winter, he scored a career-high 30 points in a road win over Penn State (Jan. 14, 2026). Perry shot 12-for-12 at the free throw line in that win and has shot 85.9 percent from the free throw stripe in two seasons.
– Senior Xavier Booker has played in 96 collegiate games, including 36 with the Bruins last season. The 6-foot-11 forward/center from Indianapolis, Ind., shot 54.7 percent overall last season and knocked down 43.3 percent of his 3-point attempts. Booker totaled a career-best 24 points on 10-of-11 shooting in UCLA's home win over Rutgers (Feb. 3, 2026).