How To Watch, Game Preview and Game Thread: UCLA Bruins vs Idaho State Bengals

UCLA should be fine in this one. Should being the key word, as Idaho State will make the Bruins work on the glass.

Lazar Stefanovic (Photo credit: Mac Brown/uclabruins.com)

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The UCLA Bruins Work Out The Kinks Tour continues today with a home matchup with the Idaho State Bengals.

I’ll be honest again: UCLA should win this one handily, and I won’t blame you if you choose to skip it. Idaho State is not a particularly good team, coming into this one with a 2-3 record with losses to Southern Cal and Arizona State, and their two wins coming against San Diego and Southern Oregon. Now, you could say that Idaho State played those teams relatively close so they might give the Bruins some trouble, but I would respond by saying that UCLA is at a different level than those schools just at a talent level, which would be enough to make this an easy victory.

There’s some decent talent on this Idaho State team, starting with Dylan Darling, the point guard transfer from Washington State. Darling leads the Bengals with 13.8 PPG, and does a solid job of not turning the ball over. He’s a solid outside shooter (38% on the year) and is tremendous from the line, but UCLA should have an athletic advantage here, which should help keep Darling in check. The other starting guard, Jake O’Neil, is more of a grinder-type, especially on the boards where he is averaging a team-leading 9.2 rebounds per game. O’Neil sits at 6’4”, so he presents an interesting challenge for UCLA’s guards at his size, but if UCLA retains the focus they had against Lehigh regarding their rebounding, they should be fine.

Idaho State also presents an interesting challenge in that they have an actual shot-blocker in 6’11” Evan Otten. Otten is scoring at a decent clip and is grabbing the second-most rebounds on the team at 7.0 RPG, but it is his shot-blocking that stands out the most, as he averages 2.6 blocks per game. UCLA struggled on the interior against New Mexico, and Otten will at least provide a solid test to see if UCLA can figure some more things out on that end.

Idaho State rounds out their starting lineup with Isaiah Griffin and Connor Hollenbeck. Griffin is third on the team in scoring and rebounding with 12.6 PPG and 5.2 RPG respectively. He’s not a good outside shooter and does more of his work slashing to the rim. Hollenbeck is more of a glue guy; he puts up decent numbers all over but he’s not on the court to be the focal point, rather to make everyone around him better.

The Bengals don’t play much of their bench - all the starters average over 27 minutes per game, with three of them at or above the 31-minute mark - but the Bruins will probably see some of AJ Burgin and Jackson Greene in this game. Burgin is the backup guard, filling all the roles in something of a “Jack of all trades, master of none” situation. Greene does a similar role for the forwards, and neither is much of a scoring threat at the moment. UCLA should also expect to see a bit of Blake Daberkow as he is Otten's primary backup.

For UCLA, this game boils down to rebounding. Idaho State is not a great shooting team, shooting 38.4% from the field and 25% from three, but they do get after it on the glass, with the entire team focused on limiting extra offensive possessions from opponents and generating multiple attempts at the basket on offense. UCLA has an athleticism advantage at every position and should be able to generate offense fairly easily, but this game will provide a good chance to work on the defense and rebounding some more. At this point in the schedule, all you’re really asking is that the team can keep finding things to improve on before the difficulty ramps up.

One last thing to watch for this week: the status of Dylan Andrews. Andrews missed the last few games with a groin injury, something that was reportedly not a major concern but Cronin and staff decided to hold Andrews out as a precaution. UCLA does not need Andrews to win this game, but we’re close to the point where you would like to see him start getting game reps again before the Bruins face Washington and Oregon in a few weeks.

Listen to the Game With TMB

Tonight’s game will be on Big Ten Network with Guy Haberman and Don MacLean 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 at Washington Huskies game thread. Here’s how to watch, listen and stream today’s game:

UCLA Men’s Basketball (3-1)

• Opponent: Idaho State Bengals (2-3)

• Series Record: UCLA leads 3-1

• When: 8:00 pm PT, Wednesday, November 20, 2024

• Where: Pauley Pavilion, Westwood, CA

• TV: Big Ten Network with Guy Haberman and Don MacLean

• Live Stream: Fox Sports Live

• Radio/Audio

  Local Radio: AM 1150 with Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray

  Online: uclabruins.com

• Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast

• Game Notes:
  UCLA

  Idaho State

Go Bruins!!!

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