How to Watch, Game Preview and Game Thread: 2024 Pac-12 Men's Basketball Tournament -- 5-Seed UCLA Bruins vs. 12-Seed Oregon State Beavers

Mar 13

2024 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year Adem Bona (Photo Credit: Jan Kim Lim/uclabruins.com)

The final Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Tournament kicks off today in Las Vegas and the UCLA Bruins will take on the Oregon State Beavers at 2:30 pm this afternoon.

Of course, Oregon State is one of just two teams that the Bruins defeated twice during the regular season. The other one was Arizona State.

UCLA beat the Beavers by seven in Corvallis back on December 28th and the Bruins followed that up with a 71-63 win at home on February 1st. That should make UCLA a 7.5-point favorite this afternoon.

Oregon State Starting Five

After starting the same five guys in both regular season games against UCLA, OSU head coach Wayne Tinkle looks like he will start senior Chol Marial instead of sophomore KC Ibekwe. Ibekwe was benched after the Beavers lost to Arizona State by 18 points on February 14th and he hasn’t started since.

The change may be adversely affecting the Beavers. Marial is only averaging 1.6 ppg in conference games while Ibekwe has averaged 3.9 ppg in conference games. But that’s not the only difference. Ibekwe has better numbers in pretty much every category across the board.

Analysis

If Marial does get the start this afternoon and he gets more playing time than Ibekwe, it could negatively affect the Beavers. But if Ibekwe comes off the bench and still plays more than Marial, swap may not affect things quite as much. In that situation, it would come down to whether UCLA can start the game off by shooting well.

Ultimately, though, it really shouldn’t matter.

This is another bad Oregon State team under Wayne Tinkle, and this is a game which the Bruins should definitely win.

Speaking of bad OSU teams, frankly, I’m surprised that Tinkle still has a job, considering his inability to improve the team during his tenure. Could he join the soon-to-be-departed Mike Hopkins of Washington? I don’t know. It’s always possible, but OSU’s failure to find a new conference may result in Tinkle’s tenure being extended in Corvallis.

Listen to the Game With TMB

This afternoon’s game will be on Pac-12 Networks with Roxy Bernstein, Matt Muehlebach and Elise Woodward calling the game. If you prefer, you can listen to Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray. Just be sure to right-click on it so that you can open up another tab and have it going while you chat in the comments below. Listen to today’s game online.

This is your UCLA men’s basketball vs. Oregon State Beavers game thread. Here’s how to watch, listen and stream today’s game:

2024 Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Tournament #5 Seed UCLA Men’s Basketball (15-16, 10-10)

Teams: #5 Seed UCLA Bruins (15-16, 10-10) vs. #12 Seed Oregon Beavers (13-18, 5-15)
Series Record: UCLA leads, 104-40.
When: 2:30 pm PT, Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Where: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV
TV: Pac-12 Networks with Roxy Bernstein, Matt Muehlebach and Elise Woodward
Live Stream: Pac-12.com and the Pac-12 Now app
Radio/Audio
Local Radio: AM 570 with Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray
Satellite Radio: SiriusXM Ch. 197 (UCLA Call)
Online: uclabruins.com
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Game Notes:
UCLA
Oregon State

Go Bruins!!!

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