No. 24 UCLA is seeking its eighth straight win on Saturday against an Arizona team that is trying to right the ship after dropping four of its last six games.
The game is being played in Phoenix, billed as part of the Hall of Fame Series. It’s the first meeting between the storied ex-Pac-12 rivals since the conference’s collapse last year and will be the first time the teams have met in a nonconference matchup since 1977.
UCLA (8-1) is off to a surprisingly hot start after a nightmarish last season. The Bruins have won seven in a row after falling to New Mexico on Nov. 8. They’re coming directly off a 73-71 victory over No. 12 Oregon on Sunday on a game-winning 3-pointer by Dylan Andrews with 0.3 seconds remaining. Eric Dailey Jr. led the way with 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting.
The Bruins sit at 2-0 in conference play in their first season as a member of the Big Ten.
“My analysis early of the Big Ten is that it’s so deep,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said. “I know it probably always was that way, but now it’s deeper. You’ve just got to get better.
“I also coach at UCLA where we get the most titles and (have been to) the second-most finals. I didn’t come to UCLA to win regular-season games. For us, it’s about progression and getting better.
“We were able to win (against Oregon) but I thought we got a lot better. We came together. We got more cohesive. The guys played with confidence.”
Tyler Bilodeau leads UCLA in scoring and rebounding, averaging 13.3 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. Bilodeau played his first two collegiate seasons at Oregon State, although his maiden voyage at UCLA is only his second season as a regular starter.
Dailey, a transfer from Oklahoma State, doesn’t trail too far behind in either category, averaging 12.3 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. USC transfer Kobe Johnson leads the Bruins with 3.2 assists while also tallying 7.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game.
The Wildcats (4-4) are in the midst of a dreadful start, needing a 102-66 win over Southern Utah to nurse themselves back to .500. Before that, Arizona was just one for its last five.
The Wildcats are winless against fellow power-conference opponents, suffering double-digit losses to Wisconsin and Duke. Arizona also absorbed a five-point loss to Oklahoma and a seven-point overtime loss to West Virginia at the Battle 4 Atlantis.
“Great programs are going to stumble once in a while,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “The response is the key. Learning from it and coming back stronger is the objective and that’s the challenge. We obviously have been challenged early in the season.
“(The emphasis needs to be on) Arizona basketball, because here’s the deal: UCLA is a good program. If we go in and all we’re worried about is UCLA and we assume that we’re going to show up and play well, we’re going to get our ass kicked.”
The Wildcats are led by Caleb Love, who returned for a second season at Arizona and a fifth in college overall after he played his first three seasons at North Carolina.
Love is averaging 14.1 points per game on 37.2 percent shooting, down from 18 points per game a season ago.
Aside from Love, Arizona has four more players averaging in double figures for the season: Jaden Bradley (12.0 ppg), Trey Townsend (11.3), KJ Lewis (10.3) and Anthony Dell’Orso (10.0).
–Field Level Media
