How To Watch, Game Preview and Game Thread: Utah Runnin' Utes at UCLA Bruins

Feb 18

Sebastian Mack has a reason to be happy. The Bruins are riding a six-game winning streak. (Photo Credit: Jan Kim Lim/uclabruins.com)

The UCLA Bruins have evolved into one of the best teams in the Pac-12 from one of the worst. The last time they played the Runnin’ Utes, they were definitely the latter. In fact, that loss was the worst loss in recent UCLA history.

The Utes doubled up the Bruins, 90-44, back on January 11th.

Yet now, UCLA is riding a six-game winning streak and they’ve won eight of their last nine games. In a way, the Utah loss was really that catalyst for winning eight of the last nine for the Bruins. After losing that game, they went on to beat Washington and Arizona State to kick off their turnaround.

So, this afternoon’s game feels like a real test of how far the team has come. Can they avoid another bad loss against Utah today? Can they play well enough to beat a team that doubled them up last month?

Those are the big questions heading into this afternoon’s game.

Utah’s Starting Five

Today’s starting lineup for the Utes will look different than the lineup Utah had last month when the Bruins visited Salt Lake City.

Rollie Worster hasn’t played since suffering a leg injury against UCLA last month. In his place, look for Craig Smith to start Deivon Smith. Smith is averaging 12.4 ppg against Pac-12 foes. Unfortunately for UCLA, this is a matter of addition by subtraction for the Utes as Smith has a higher scoring average and both three-point and field shooting percentages than Worster has.

The Utes also lost starting center Lawson Lovering on January 14th against Stanford. Like the Smith for Worster substitution, this one also makes the Utes even better. Lovering will be replaced in the starting lineup by Keba Keita, who scored 14 points off the bench against the Bruins in the first matchup between these teams. Not only does Keita have a better shooting percentage than Lovering, but he also grabs more rebounds on average and his defense is better. He’s blocked almost twice as many shots and he nearly has twice as many steals as Lovering.

Lovering could see some action and may even get his starting job back today, though, because he played 11 minutes in Thursday’s loss to Southern Cal. Only Hunter Erickson and Ben Carlson played more minutes off the bench against the Trojans and no bench player score more than four points against them.

Listen to the Game With TMB

Today’s same will be on FS1 with Dan Hellie and Casey Jacobsen 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 todays’s game online.

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

UCLA Men’s Basketball (14-11, 9-5)

Opponent: Utah Runnin’ Utes (15-10, 6-8)
Series Record: UCLA leads, 17-11
When: 4:00 pm PT, Sunday, February 18, 2024
Where: Pauley Pavilion, Los Angeles, CA
TV: FS1 with Dan Hellie and Casey Jacobsen
Live Stream: FoxSports.com and the Fox Sports app
Radio/Audio
Local Radio: AM 570 with Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray
Satellite Radio: XM Ch. 373 (UCLA Call)
Online: uclabruins.com
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Game Notes:
UCLA
Utah

Go Bruins!!!

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