The Big 2025-2026 UCLA Men's Basketball Season Preview

The Donovan Dent Experience comes to Westwood, with Mick Cronin's future potentially hanging in the balance.

Nov 03, 2025

UCLA’s season will go as far as Donovan Dent goes. (Photo credit: Jan Kim Lim/uclabruins .com)

It is once again time to turn our attention away from a wildly inconsistent UCLA football season and begin to talk about basketball again.

UCLA is on the precipice of a pivotal basketball season. Mick Cronin is entering his seventh season at the helm of the Bruins’ men’s basketball program, and while he has achieved some excellent highs early in his tenure, it is hard to escape the feeling that UCLA is teetering on the knife-edge of the sport. Last year’s team was a solid, if unspectacular, improvement on the year prior, as Cronin began to adjust to the new college basketball landscape and moved away from recruiting high schoolers to bringing in more transfers to give the team more veteran presence. UCLA found a slew of nice pieces, but they lacked an elite playmaker who could take them to the next level, and so the team fell in the Round of 32 to Tennessee. Cronin seemed to recognize that missing pieces and acted quickly to bring in Donovan Dent, one of the biggest fish in the transfer portal and a certified 100% grade-A stud that could carry the load for the Bruins in crunch time, only to watch Aday Mara leave the program for greener (maize-er?) pastures.

That leaves UCLA in a fascinating spot. The Bruins are starting the season ranked #12 according to the AP, and it is hard to see this as a huge stretch. Outside of Mara, the Bruins are bringing back the core of a solid team from last year, and while the post position is a problem, they now have the kind of gamebreaker in Dent that can win them games in March. And make no mistake: UCLA, and Mick Cronin in particular, desperately need a good run this season. With all of the uncertainty in the athletic department of late, Cronin needs a great run to solidify his support among donors, allowing him to raise the funds required to give UCLA a fighting chance in the new college basketball landscape. Or, to put it another way, a subpar UCLA season might give Martin Jarmond cause to consider a coaching change, and given his track record so far, that is a risk Bruin Nation can ill afford to sit through.

So let’s get into this coming season. As usual, we’ll talk about who’s gone, who’s back, who’s new, a general team preview, and some early expectations for the team.

Who’s Gone

Lazar Stefanovic
Kobe Johnson

We’ll start with this group, who both graduated and are off on their professional careers. Johnson and Stefanovic provided veteran presence, though they never quite reached the heights of their initial promise. Johnson never truly evolved into the Jaylen Clark knock-off he was billed as - the stink of Andy Enfield was too much for Cronin to wash off in only one year - but he did end up as a solid connective piece in the starting lineup, often matching up on the opponent’s best wing defensively while providing a lot of the little things. Stefanovic saw his role diminish last year as better players came in, but he still showed good fight, and UCLA will miss his steady presence on the bench.

Who Transferred Out

Aday Mara (Michigan)
Dylan Andrews (Boise State)
Sebastian Mack (Missouri)
William Kyle III (Syracuse)
Dominick Harris (Loyola)
Devin Williams (Florida Atlantic)

If you want to read my thoughts on Aday Mara and Dylan Andrews when they left, you can go back and re-read the Post-Mortem from last year. I still stand by what I wrote then, with the addition that UCLA is going to miss Aday Mara more on the defensive end; given what I’ve seen of Dent so far, I am not so sure he would be nearly as effective if he had to play alongside a big man who cannot be a huge threat outside of the lane. As for Andrews, I am rooting for him to do well, but by the end of last year, his position on the team was untenable.

For Sebastian Mack, I think the writing was on the wall regarding his place in the pecking order. Once Dent committed, and Clark (and Perry) decided to come back, Mack was relegated to 4th guard at best, especially given his defensive issues and tendency for wild play. The “fun” part about Mack is that Mick Cronin gave him every opportunity to grow and improve over two seasons, including giving Mack by far the longest leash on the team, and it never happened - the Sebastian Mack that UCLA fans saw against Tennessee was the same one who first put on a UCLA jersey a year prior. Maybe a change in scenery will do him some good and allow him to evolve, but I have my doubts.

William Kyle is one of the more fascinating transfers in hindsight. He spent a lot of time acclimating to high-major basketball last season after transferring up from South Dakota State, but the emergence of Aday Mara really cut into his minutes as the season progressed. When the offseason came, Kyle was one of the first to announce he was leaving, which made sense given that Mara was slated to return. However, once Mara announced his departure, it was too late to try and bring Kyle back as he had already committed to Syracuse. This is not to say Kyle would have been great this year, but he had a year of experience under Mick Cronin and could have served in the Kenny Nwuba safety valve role while Xavier Booker was brought along as a full-time center.

Dominick Harris rarely played last year, never getting out of the doghouse with Cronin (and looking lost on the court when he did get out there). Devin Williams essentially had a second redshirt year. Neither are huge losses.

Who’s Back

Tyler Bilodeau
Eric Dailey Jr.
Skyy Clark
Trent Perry
Brandon Williams
Eric Feeney

Despite the loss of several players from last year’s squad, UCLA does find itself with a pretty solid core of players returning.

Let’s start with Tyler Bilodeau, who came into the season looking like he would be one of UCLA’s best offensive players and more or less lived up to that billing, though less because of his individual talent and more because of the general play of everyone else. Bilodeau was a problem for many teams thanks to his ability to score at all three levels, hitting three pointers at a consistent rate while also possessing a good post game. That said, he’s also not much of a creator in his own right, and so much of his scoring was contingent on getting the ball in favorable matchups. UCLA did run a lot of its offense through Bilodeau, but I think that contributed to the bogged-down nature that UCLA had at times. Defensively, Bilodeau was an adventure, and he was stuck in a bad situation of having to play the five on defense, where he was undersized and consistently bullied. Bilodeau can play that spot for spurts (and I would expect he would slide down to the five for UCLA’s crunch-time lineup), but he should be moving primarily to the four this year, which should help him out.

The bigger surprise last season was Eric Dailey Jr. Here’s what I wrote before last year:

I’m going to talk about Eric Dailey here as well because he went from a player that I figured Cronin wanted to develop as a depth piece so that he could become a bigger piece in 2025-2026, but as the exhibition showed Dailey may be hard to keep off the court this year. It is not that he is a tremendous scorer - he had 11 points on 5-6 shooting and can hit from multiple levels of the court - but that he just does so many things on both ends. He is a very good defender who uses his size and athleticism well and appears to be an excellent rebounder. The thing you have to like about him the most is his motor and the fact that he always looks like he’s giving 110% effort at all times.

Talk about an understatement. Dailey spent much of the year in contention for being the best player on the team, carrying the team to victories against Gonzaga and Oregon and generally looking great. The problem for Dailey was consistency; for every Oregon game (21 points on 8-9 shooting) you had a game like the one against Minnesota, where Dailey had seven points on 3-10 shooting, that UCLA ultimately lost. Dailey was perhaps the best player on the team at creating his own shot; the hope here is that with Dent on board to carry more of that load, Dailey can better pick and choose his spots while also acclimating to a position change to the three.

Skyy Clark is the third returning starter, which undersells the fact that he finished the season as UCLA’s best player. Clark really settled into his role of a do-everything guy for Mick Cronin; his offense improved tremendously from his previous stops, posting career bests in FG% and 3PFG% despite shooting at a lower volume while also cutting his turnover numbers down. On defense, Clark entered the year as a potential defensive liability due to his size, but ended it as perhaps Cronin’s most trusted defender, showing great instincts and a high compete level that all great defenders possess. The fact that he did all this while also dealing with the emotional toll of watching his dad slowly dying is even more impressive, and he’s impossible not to root for.

Trent Perry was an interesting test case for the transfer portal. Perry did ultimately enter the portal but decided to return to UCLA, which was a great win for Cronin and his culture. Perry had some typical freshman ups and downs last year, but Cronin clearly made Perry a priority, ushering out most of the older backcourt players in Andrews and Mack and only bringing in one guard in Dent, who is out of eligibility after this season, opening the door to a starting spot for Perry next year. In the meantime, he gets a great learning opportunity behind two excellent guards, and I would not be surprised if Perry is part of the closing rotation this year.

The last two returning players took a redshirt last year. Brandon Williams has already played (and started!) a year at UCLA, and he did look improved during the exhibition I watched against UC Irvine, showing more confidence in his game. He’ll be asked to provide solid minutes off the bench for Bilodeau and may even play alongside him at times. Eric Feeney should also factor into the rotations this year, though it may be harder for him, considering there’s a very good two-deep ahead of him. Still, he’s a nice combo guard who is relentless on defense and the offensive glass, exactly what you want from a bench player who is asked to provide some energy.

Who’s New

Donovan Dent
Jamar Brown
Xavier Booker
Steven Jamerson II
Anthony Peoples Jr.

Alright, enough beating around the bush - it’s Dent Time.

Donovan Dent may be one of the best players Mick Cronin has had in his UCLA tenure. I don’t mean to take anything away from guys like Jaime Jaquez (a bulldog and isolation maestro) or Adem Bona (athletic freak who completely changes the opposing offense), but Dent is perhaps the most talented player UCLA has brought in since Lonzo Ball, and while it might be hyperbole, I’d say Dent is probably a better player than Ball was.

Ball’s skill and worth came from a preternatural passing ability and a seemingly limitless range, but he was also a flawed player (a hitch in his shot, lack of elite athleticism) that limited him at times. Dent possesses some flaws too, particularly on defense, where he will fail to show the attentiveness required at times, but his game is so tantalizing that it is hard to know where to begin. Dent is a legitimate All-American candidate who can score at all three levels. His outside shot is probably his “weakest” area, but he shot 40% from three last year on a limited sample size, and the reports are that he spent the offseason working on his stroke to make that part of the game a strength. Dent’s athleticism and body control allow him to blow by defenders while also excelling at drawing contact, becoming a matchup nightmare for opposing teams. That problem is compounded by his passing ability; Dent is selfless almost to a fault, and seemingly delights in setting his teammates up for success. Bilodeau, Dailey, Clark, and the rest are going to be set up for success just by virtue of being on the court with Dent.

Dent’s talent is so singular that I am predicting Mick Cronin is going to take his hands off the wheel on offense this year. That is not to say Cronin will be uninvolved, but between what I’ve seen so far and in talking to people close to the program, Cronin has made the decision to live with Dent’s occasional mistakes because he raises the floor so much offensively. That also means that Cronin has resigned himself to playing at a faster pace (well, faster than previous years at the very least) and giving up a bit of defense to maximize Dent’s ability on the offensive end.

Jamar Brown was a bit of a revelation to me at the exhibition game against UC Irvine. I figured Brown would slide into the Stefanovic role of a veteran outside shooter, but he did not look out of place while stepping in for an injured Eric Dailey on Tuesday, showing a good feel for finding space and a quick release that will put pressure on defenses. What I liked most about Brown was that he was willing to do the dirty work, as he was on the floor a few times diving for loose balls and was constantly crashing the glass. Those are the things that will keep him on the court, and the hope is that he will be ready for significant minutes once UCLA gets into conference play and the competition grows past what he was used to in the past few years at UMKC.

The interior is by far the biggest question mark on this team, and with good reason. Losing Mara was always going to be a big (pun intended) problem, but it came so late in the transfer portal cycle that UCLA missed out on several high-level replacements. The Bruins were able to land Xavier Booker, but he has played more as a stretch five in college (and not particularly well). Booker has a lot of tools and has some shot-blocking ability, but he is very much a work in progress on offense, and I worry about how he will hold up on the interior over the course of a season. Steven Jamerson is taking the place of William Kyle. Still, instead of possessing Kyle’s athleticism, he’s a more technically sound veteran backup, and unlike Booker, he is likely to stick as close to the basket as possible. Anthony Peoples is here as a deep bench option and practice player, and if he is seeing meaningful game time this season, that would be a problem.

Team Preview

Last year’s team ended up being good offensively and exceptionally good defensively, and I personally don’t think that will be the case again this year. Instead, I think this team will be an inversion of last year, with an elite offense and a solid but unspectacular defense.

The offense part of this equation is pretty easy to understand. UCLA ranked 37th in KenPom’s offensive efficiency ratings, which was good, but the thing to note here is that it did so without anything approaching good point guard play. Dylan Andrews’s season-long scuffle acted as a governor on the UCLA offensive engine, which was problematic considering so much of last year’s squad was built around the idea that Andrews had taken a leap the year prior and was ready to be the alpha dog on offense. College basketball is very much a guard-driven game, and if you don’t have high-level guard play, you are putting a cap on how far you can go as a team.

That won’t be a problem with Donovan Dent, who has a track record of elite play at this level and a history of elevating the people around him on offense. Just from the exhibition I watched against UCI, Dent was in complete control of the offense, not just picking apart the opposing defense to get his own scoring opportunities, but creating them for others. In fact, there were times in the opener where I felt he was too unselfish, looking to make the extra pass to get his teammates involved instead of taking the open look he was given. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, and so far, his teammates are at least aware that Dent is looking to get them the ball instead of being caught off guard, but I think this is just part of the early learning process where Dent is trying to figure out his teammates and what the best way to involve them is.

Which also gets into my other thought on the offense. I mentioned it above when talking about Dent, but I think Cronin will be much more hands-off this year on offense, choosing to trust Dent and his talent on that end. Cronin did call out plays from time to time, but UCLA seems to be operating more concepts than previously, trusting Dent and the rest of the crew to problem-solve on the fly. UCLA is also going to go at the pace of Dent, who excels at knowing when to push the pace for easy transition baskets and when to pull things back and regain control. UCLA probably won’t get up into the top 100 as far as pace, but I think a move up into the mid-200s is definitely possible (for reference, UCLA sat at 312th in pace last year).

The defense, however, is going to be more of an open question mark. UCLA turned in an elite defense last year despite only being exceptional at one particular aspect: turnover creation. The Bruins were not particularly great at protecting the rim (even with Aday Mara on the court) and were not a great rebounding team, aspects that likely won’t get much better with the roster changes. Xavier Booker and Steven Jamerson are servicable, but Booker is more comfortable on the outside and doesn’t seem to have a natural ability to read the shot and get a rebound, while Jamerson is more limited by his athleticism and size. I have to believe defense is the biggest point of emphasis for Cronin regarding these two, because the team does not need them to be offensive forces, given the array of other weapons on the team. During the exhibition, it was a lack of defensive effort that was getting Booker pulled, not his offensive turnovers, while Jamerson was getting pulled for foul trouble. If Cronin can get these two to play at an acceptable level, that will go a long way towards improving UCLA’s chances this year.

The rest of the team is a mixed bag defensively. Tyler Bilodeau should look a bit better defensively going up against fours instead of bigger fives, but he might struggle against the faster fours he faces. Ditto Eric Dailey, who will be playing up a position at the three and will be asked to guard more tweener wings than he had to last year. Dent is a smart player and has some natural defensive ability, but it will be an open question of how much effort he puts in on that end of the court. Skyy Clark should be good, and off the bench, Trent Perry, Eric Feeney, and Brandon Williams should provide some solid defensive effort. Jamar Brown is an open question on that end, but I was impressed with his effort level during the exhibition and think he could be a good help defender.

Last, let’s talk about rotations quickly before moving on. Unlike last year, where there was a bevy of riches at Cronin’s disposal, this year’s team has pretty clear rotations. The starters at guard will be Dent and Clark, with Perry as the first guy off the bench and one of two 6th man options for crunch time, when UCLA will likely pull Booker/Jamerson and shift Bilodeau down to the five. Brown will offer a second sub at guard and be Dailey’s main replacement off the bench, while Williams will spell Bilodeau as needed. Freeney will likely get spot minutes throughout the season unless he proves himself too indispensable.

Expectations

As usual, I won’t be making game-by-game predictions for the season, but rather laying out a series of expectations that I have for the year. Last year, UCLA ended up hitting on most of my expectations; they won two out of their three marquee non-conference games (somehow losing against the worst of those three teams), finished in the top 50 of both offense and defense per KenPom, and got a top-four ranking in the Big Ten. Unfortunately, the team was also too inconsistent to secure a protected seed in the West, and not a single Bruin emerged as an All-Big Ten level player. This fits into our understanding of the team, which is that UCLA had a lot of good players but lacked the dominant player who could take things to the next level.

So let’s start out with my initial expectations for this season:

Win the nonconference games. UCLA is playing a lot of bad teams in the nonconference slate, like West Georgia, UC Riverside, and Arizona State, so I’m not too worried about those games. That said, the Bruins have two marquee games against Arizona and Gonzaga again, along with a nice showcase game against UC Berkeley in the Bay Area. UCLA is more than capable of beating all of these teams, and given how weak the rest of the nonconference slate is, I think UCLA has to win at least one of these, if not both, to really give itself a chance at a protected seed in the West.
Top 30 in both offensive and defensive efficiency per KenPom. Yeah, I’m bumping up the expectations here, and of the two, I think the offense will be easier to maintain. Without a great point guard, UCLA was able to put together an offense that ranked 37th, and I think they will continue to rise this year as long as Dent remains healthy. The defense is more of a question mark, but at this point, I am willing to bet on Mick Cronin’s track record of developing good defenses to get the job done.
Top three in the Big Ten. I think the Big Ten is extremely top-heavy this year, with only four teams that look like potential national contenders in UCLA, Purdue, Michigan, and Illinois. So for UCLA to achieve this expectation, they’re going to need to take advantage of a pretty generous schedule from the league office, as the Bruins get to face two of those three teams at home (Purdue and Illinois). The road games are mostly manageable, with the biggest roadblock looking like the Michigan road trip, where the Bruins will take on Michigan and Michigan State over a four-day period. UCLA has enough talent to get this done, so that’s my expectation here.
Get to the Sweet Sixteen. As usual, my caveat is that anything past the Sweet Sixteen is a crapshoot at best, but UCLA should absolutely be in a position to have an easy path to that point. If UCLA can get a protected seed out west, even better.

And as usual, here are my personal expectations:

Donovan Dent, All-American. If Dent gets to this point, you can be pretty sure that UCLA is having an excellent season. If not, there’s a pretty good shot that UCLA is missing out on a few other things.
Claim a few scalps. Arizona and Gonzaga look like juicy targets this year, with Arizona much younger than in the past (and with UCLA playing a quasi-home game at Intuit Dome) and Gonzaga taking a step back this year. But beyond those two, UCLA needs to get some wins over top teams, and with Purdue and Illinois coming to play at Pauley this year, I am expecting the Bruins to win a few more games against the elite teams on the schedule.
Xavier Booker becomes a serviceable defensive pivot. That’s all he needs to do! With all the offensive firepower on the team, UCLA doesn’t need Booker to do much on that end, but they do need him to figure things out on the defensive end to really unlock things for this team.

UCLA took a good step forward last season, and now we are seeing the next evolution of Mick Cronin’s revamped strategy for the NIL/Portal era: build up a good core, and then supplement it with an elite player. If UCLA can find success this year, then they have a roadmap forward they can build on; fail, and you end up with more questions about Cronin’s viability in the new college basketball landscape.

No pressure.

Go Bruins!

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