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Coming off its first conference loss as a member of the Big Ten, No. 22-ranked UCLA returns home to Los Angeles on Tuesday, looking to stay perfect at Pauley Pavilion as the Bruins host 24th-ranked Michigan.

UCLA (11-3, 2-1 Big Ten) visited Nebraska on Saturday without starting guard Eric Dailey Jr., who sustained an injury to his face last month. Without the 11.4 points per game from Dailey — one of only two Bruins averaging in double-figures scoring this season, along with 14.5 points per game from Tyler Bilodeau — UCLA struggled to generate offense in a 66-58 setback.

“Dylan Andrews has got to play way better,” Bruins coach Mick Cronin said of the veteran guard, who finished with two points on 1-of-6 shooting from the floor. Andrews’ 7.6-point average in 2024-25 is down substantially from a season ago when he scored a team-leading 12.9 points.

As UCLA awaits word on Dailey’s status for Tuesday, Cronin hopes for more contributions from the rest of the Bruins’ backcourt rotation in response to Saturday’s anemic offensive showing.

“Dominick Harris and Trent Perry got opportunities,” Cronin said. “They played a combined 17 minutes, neither one of them scored. I told them that they would get opportunities with Eric out, but in 17 minutes, they couldn’t get a basket.”

Michigan (11-3, 3-0), meanwhile, had no trouble generating points in its first leg of a Los Angeles road swing. The Wolverines opened the trip on Saturday with an 85-74 defeat of USC, highlighted by all five starters scoring in double figures.

Danny Wolf’s 21 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists led the way, while Tre Donaldson shot 4 of 6 from 3-point range en route to 16 points.

Saturday’s performance was standard for the Wolverines offense in 2024-25. Michigan comes into UCLA averaging 84.1 points per game — 27th-most in the nation — with a balanced attack of five scorers posting between 10.1 and 13.7 points per game.

In the three-game winning streak the Wolverines take into Pauley Pavilion, where UCLA is 8-0 this season, Michigan has averaged more than 11 points more than its season pace (95.3 compared to 84.1 for the season).

“We as a (coaching) staff feel like we’re much better than we were two weeks ago,” Wolverines first-year coach Dusty May said. “It seems like the things that we’ve stressed as a group are starting to click, and our guys are taking it to heart and they’re doing a great job of applying it.”

Michigan has leveraged its size, with a frontcourt combining the 7-foot Wolf and 7-foot-1 Vladislav Goldin, to shoot a blistering 62.6 percent from inside the 3-point arc.

The Wolverines’ offensive prowess contrasts with UCLA’s swarming defense, which at 59.2 points allowed per game is tied for the sixth-lowest yield in the nation.

The Bruins are holding teams to 39.5 percent shooting from the floor and boast the nation’s top turnover-forcing defense with takeaways on 26 percent of opponent possessions per KenPom.com.

Michigan has struggled with turnovers, committing them on 21 percent of all possessions. The Wolverines are coughing up the ball an average of 15.1 times per game.

–Field Level Media