Cody Riley stepped up against ASU, leading the Bruins with 22 points. Who will step up for UCLA tonight? (Photo Credit: Greg Turk/uclabruins.com)
Tonight, the UCLA Bruins visit the Arizona Wildcats at 6 pm on ESPN.
The Bruins remain undefeated in conference play after beating Arizona State in overtime on Thursday. Meanwhile, Arizona is looking to salvage the weekend after losing to Southern Cal, 87-73.
If the Bruins can win tonight, it will be UCLA’s fourth consecutive victory over the Wildcats. Another UCLA win will help cement Mick Cronin’s dominance over Sean Miller.
Let’s look at the Wildcats’ starting five.
U of A is led by a pair of junior guards who are both averaging at least 12.7 points per game. James Akinjo leads the team with an average of 12.9 ppg while redshirt junior Jemarl Baker, Jr. is averaging 12.7 ppg. Akinjo is also the team’s assists leader with an average of 5.4 per game.
The remaining three starters are all underclassmen. Redshirt sophomore forward Jordan Brown average 10.0 points per game while also average 5.7 rebounds per game while true freshman Azuolas Tubelis is averaging 10.5 points per game and leads the team with an average of 5.9 rebounds per game.
True freshman Dalen Terry rounds out the top five. Terry’s 13 steals is second on the team. Freshman Bennedict Mathurin looks to be the biggest bench threat for the ‘Cats. He is actually third in scoring on the team with an average of 10.6 ppg while graduate transfer Terrell Brown, Jr. can be counted on for a solid 8.3 points per game off the bench.
This year’s Arizona team isn’t particularly good at shooting threes. As a team, they are shooting just 35.6% from behind the arc and the team’s two guys with the most shot attempts are both making less than 36.5%. Baker has made the most threes on the team, but he’s shooting just 36.4% while Akinjo is shooting just 32.8% from three.
In addition to being the team’s highest scorer, Akinjo is also their best defender. He leads the team in both steals and turnovers with 18 and 27, respectively.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that recent freshman enrollee Mac Etienne will make his debut for UCLA tonight. He won’t see many minutes, but what better way to introduce the heralded freshman to UCLA basketball than to play in a few minutes in a big rivalry game like this one.
Listen to the Game Here on TMB!
The TuneIn player won’t embed here on Substack, but you can open another tab to listen. Today’s game is on ESPN with Roxy Bernstein and national treasure Bill Walton calling the game. If you would prefer to listen to Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray call today’s game instead you can listen to today’s game online.
Join your fellow Bruin fans discussing today’s game below.
This is your UCLA Bruins at Arizona Wildcats game thread.
Radio/Audio: AM 570 in Los Angeles with Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray Satellite Radio: SiriusXM Ch. 373 (Arizona Call) And, of course, in The Mighty Bruin Game Thread!
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U!
No L tonight. That's ok with me.
looks like we found our offense
It's gonna be a battle inside tonight!
C'mon, Bill!
Nice floater by Juzang!
Sean miller should always be required to wear a mask to contain all of his spit and slobber.
SPTRs are killing this game already
Good to see Juzang hot early
c'mon guys call the game!
Defense is non-existent for the Bruins.
I like Tyger attacking the rim. We need to get out of passing around the perimeter and settling for long jumpers
UA 6 offensive rebounds to our 2
The Tyger takeover!
Good minutes from Nwuba.
It kind of snuck up on me but we're playing really well right now.
who would have thought. We take the lead with Nwuba and Clark on the court
That was a pretty drive by Jules... offense is clicking even with large number of players rotating through
Seems we have the good Tyger tonight
Dammit! We can't give up these second change rebounds!
And then we have that sequence at both ends - lol
Lots of tears in that drop from Tyger
Looks like whoever has the ball last, wins
Great Tyger tonight
Gah. Tied at half. We were up by 7 with 3:30 left.
Triple J got lots of rest that half
Riley and Jaime to start the second
Can't believe we're 8 for 8 from the line
Points are pretty even in the paint, our 18 to their 16
Hill, Riley and Nwuba have 7/8 fouls
We need more production from Kyman next half when he's in the game
our guards need to keep attacking their bigs. They are two slow.
Would be nice to get some from Singleton
Gotta. be over the back!
Jaime trying to go to work
darn 3 on Riley
just keep going at their bigs
Hill must step up
Fouls on our bigs are going to be hard to overcome.
The sound of whistles are echoing all over Tucson.
Hill has become a good FT shooter
Triple J in attack mode
UCLA take it to the hoop every time! Yes!!!
Is that 4 on Hill?
4 on Hill!
Nwuba having to absorb significant minutes tonight
What the heck was that juzang?
No Tyger, Hill or Riley on the floor. Wow.
Hill has been out to lunch the last few games
Down by 1, Tyger back in, let's go!