How To Watch, Game Preview and Game Thread: UCLA Bruins at Northwestern Wildcats
Tonight, the Bruins visit the Wildcats in the final road game of the regular season.
As a result of Friday night’s loss to Purdue, the Bruins now sit in sixth place in the Big Ten standings, a game behind Purdue, Maryland and Wisconsin, all of whom are tied for third (and fourth) place. That means UCLA needs to win tonight’s game against Northwestern and Saturday’s against Southern Cal, and they need two of those third-place teams to lose one of their final two games in order for the Bruins to finish no lower than fourth place, which will earn them a coveted double bye in the Big Ten Conference Basketball Tournament.
But before they can potentially savor that opportunity, the Bruins must win tonight at Northwestern.
What really sucks, though, is UCLA’s travel schedule over the next two weeks. The Bruins are in the Chicago area for tonight’s game. Then, they will return home for Saturday’s game against Southern Cal. After that, they will need to fly back to the Midwest for the conference tournament in Indiana. That’s pretty brutal. I sure hope the Big Ten opts to hold the conference in the Pacific time zone at some point to be fair to the four former Pac-12 schools
For now, UCLA’s focus needs to be on beating the Wildcats tonight. If they can’t win tonight’s game, they will need two of the three teams who are tied for third to lose both of their remaining games in order for the Bruins to secure the double bye. So, there’s very little room for error.
For what it’s worth, Northwestern isn’t a very good basketball team. They are 16-13 overall this season and just 7-11 in conference play. The bottom line here is simple: UCLA needs to show up in a way similar to how the Southern Cal women’s basketball team showed up at Pauley on Saturday. If UCLA’s men’s team begins March like the women’s team did, the men’s team may not be playing very deep into the month.
Northwestern head coach Chris Collins grew up in Northbrook, Illinois, but chose to attend Duke, which eventually led to Collins spending 13 seasons along side legendary Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. That hasn’t translated into a lot of success for the Wildcats, however. Collins has a 194-187 head coaching record with all of those games coming with Northwestern. He has managed to win at least 20 games in four of his twelve seasons and he’s gotten the Wildcats to the NCAA Tournament in three of those four 20-win seasons. Each time, Northwestern made it to the Round of 32, falling short of making the Sweet 16 each time.
Northwestern Wildcats’ Starting Five
Look for Collins to start a lineup tonight with three guards, a center and a forward, just like Purdue did.
It’s been a rough year for the Northwestern starting lineup, and there’s little doubt that it has affected the results this season for Collins and the Wildcats. Northwestern lost two of their top three scorers to injury. Senior guard Brooks Barnhizer played in just ten games this season before being lost to a foot injury while grad transfer Jalen Leach, who attended Bergen Catholic (my high school’s rival high school in Oradell, New Jersey), was lost to a torn ACL soon after Barnhizer went down. Barnhizer was averaging 14.8 ppg and Leach was averaging 14.3 ppg. When they went down, Leach was leading the team with 53 assists and Barnhizer wasn’t far behind with 40 assists, and Barnhizer was the team’s best rebounder with an average of 8.5 rpg.
You just can’t lose that much production 10 and 13 games into the season and expect to compete in conference play.
So, of the players who will be starting tonight, the Wildcats are led by junior forward Nick Martinelli, who averages 20.1 ppg. Without Barnhizer, Martinelli also leads the team in rebounds with an average of 6.3 per game. Believe it or not, Martinelli is now also the best available guy on the team in assists with 32.
The other current starter averaging in double figures is graduate guard Ty Berry. He’s averaging 11.6 ppg, and he’s the best of tonight’s starters from long range. He has a 38.3% three-point percentage.
From there, the production drops off significantly. Graduate center Matthew Nicholson averages just 4.8 ppg, but he’s right behind Martinelli in rebounds with 6.1 per game. Nicholson leads the team in blocks with 22.
Junior Justin Mullins will be one of the other starting guards. He’s averaging 4.6 ppg. He’s added 22 assists as well but little else. The other starting guard will be sophomore Jordan Clayton. Clayton has seen action in only six games, starting each of them. Despite that, he’s scoring just 3.7 ppg in 18.2 minutes per game.
The one guy to look for off the bench looks to be freshman guard K.J. Windham who scored 20 points in the Wildcats’ win over Iowa on Friday. After that game, Windham is now averaging 6.0 ppg. He’s also added 26 assists in his 15 games, all in a reserve role.
Analysis
You can’t lose two of your best three guys and expect to compete. That’s what has happened with the Wildcats this season.
At the same time, the Bruins have struggled on the road all season. As I wrote above, UCLA needs to come out with intensity tonight. They need to play well and they have to put this one to bed early. The Bruins cannot afford to allow Northwestern to get back into the game somewhere during the second half. If they do, it could spell trouble for UCLA.
Listen to the Game With TMB
Tonight’s game will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1 with Connor Onion and Stephen Bardo on the call. Of course, you can opt to listen to Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray on the radio or online instead. To listen online, just right-click on the link below 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 at Northwestern Wildcats game thread. Here’s how to watch, listen and stream tonight’s game:
UCLA Men’s Basketball (20-9, 11-7)
Opponent: Northwestern Wildcats (16-13, 7-11)
Series Record: UCLA leads, 5-1
When: 6:00 pm PT, Monday, March 3, 2025
Where: Welsh-Ryan Arena, Evanston, IL
TV: FS1 with Connor Onion and Stephen Bardo
Live Stream: FoxSports.com and the Fox Sports app
Radio/Audio
Local Radio: AM 570 with Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray
Satellite Radio: SiriusXM Ch. 381 (UCLA feed)
Online: uclabruins.com
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Game Notes:
UCLA
Go Bruins!!!
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Dylan Andrews Stop Dribbling Into the Corner Challenge (Impossible)
WTF is Kyle thinking?? Let him shoot the damn ball and let time run out!