How To Watch, Game Preview and Game Thread: #22 UCLA Bruins vs New Mexico Lobos
The Bruins will get an early test against a tournament team from last year.
It feels a bit early for the UCLA Bruins to be getting a test of this level; usually, the team would play a few cupcakes to get their legs under them before heading off to a tournament of some kind. But with no tournament on the schedule, UCLA went with a bevy of neutral-site games against quality opponents, and tonight is the first of those as the Bruins head off to Las Vegas to take on the New Mexico Lobos.
New Mexico is coached by Richard Pitino, who is entering his fourth season at the helm. Yes, you read that name right: Richard is the son of Rick Pitino, the great and controversial head coach currently at St. Johns. I’m sure there some people who saw that name and started spinning the “What If?” machine regarding Pitino the Elder and the many times the UCLA job opened up, but Richard has carved out a decent coaching career in his own right, having taken Minnesota to the NCAA Tournament a few times during his eight seasons there and getting New Mexico into the Tournament this past season.
New Mexico lost a few key players from last year’s tournament team, especially Jamal Mashburn and JT Toppin, but they do return some very good players. Chief among them is center Nelly Junior Joseph, who presents a unique matchup problem for the Bruins as a 6’10”, 245 pound center. Joseph was not much of a scorer last year with guys like Toppin around, but he exploded for 28 points in the opening win over Nicholls. He also grabbed 16 rebounds, a carry-over of the skill he showed last year on that front, and was an excellent rim protector last season as well. UCLA will provide much more in the way of size than Joseph saw in the first game, but this will really be a test for the interior of UCLA’s defense. We saw that Tyler Bilodeau can hold up at the five against reasonable size, but Joseph has size and talent, so the question will be how the Bruins counteract that.
The other big player to watch is point guard Donovan Dent, who had 17 points and 11 assists in the Lobos first game. Dent is not a consistent outside shooter and instead wants to drive into the lane to make something happen. I’m actually less worried about this matchup because Dylan Andrews is one of the better on-ball guard defenders in the country, but I do wonder how UCLA will approach guarding Dent when Andrews inevitably sits.
Outside of those two, New Mexico will likely start Mustapha Amzil at power forward, Filip Borovicanin at the three, and Tru Washington at the other guard spot. Of these three, Washington will likely be the one to watch out for, as he is the closest thing to an outside threat in the starting lineup, and his size at 6’4” may provide some trouble for Skyy Clark. Amzil is not much of an outside threat, and Borovicanin is more of a work-in-progress at the moment, but they’re also both 6’9” and crash the glass well.
If anything, that might be the key to this game. New Mexico does not have amazing offensive players throughout the lineup, but they have some height and showed a propensity for attacking the glass. Now, how much of that success was a result of their opponent is unknown, but it does line up with past seasons. New Mexico is not a great shooting team, so if UCLA can clean up the rebounding issues they were having against Rider, they should be able to limit anything New Mexico wants to try and do.
Where the Bruins should be able to make hay is on the offensive end; Nichols was able to score pretty consistently against New Mexico, and UCLA will be bringing in an offense that makes it impossible to hide any bad defenders. New Mexico has some size but only Joseph would be considered a good defender, and UCLA has the option of dragging him to the outside with Bilodeau where he will be less effective. It would not be a shock to see New Mexico try a bit of zone defense to try and minimize those pain points, but that will only provide more of an opportunity for the Bruins to show that their improved outside shooting is real and not preseason hype.
My gut tells me UCLA should win this game going away; where last year’s team had so many new pieces that were just getting their sea legs and would have been easy pickings for a more veteran New Mexico team, this year’s group has more experience and should be fine. I would expect more New Mexico fans to be in attendance here just because UCLA is having a homecoming in football on the same day (another masterstroke of planning by the athletic department), but I can’t imagine Las Vegas will be too hostile. In any case, this feels like an early tone-setting game for the Bruins this season.
Listen to the Game With TMB
Tonight’s game will be on CBS Sports Network with Dave Ryan and Dan Dickau calling the game. If you prefer, you can listen to Nick Coop 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 at Washington Huskies game thread. Here’s how to watch, listen and stream today’s game:
#22 UCLA Men’s Basketball (1-0)
Opponent: New Mexico Lobos (1-0)
Series Record: Series tied 2-2
When: 8:00 pm PT, Friday, November 8, 2024
Where: Lee’s Family Forum, Henderson, NV
TV: CBS Spots Network with Dave Ryan and Dan Dickau
Live Stream: Fubo TV
Radio/Audio
Local Radio: No local radio this week due to football happening at the same time
Online: uclabruins.com with Nick Coop and Tracy Murray
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Game Notes:
UCLA
Go Bruins!!!
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Still, just an exhibition game, so rather meaningless... we still need time to come together as a team.
No Dominic Harris again tonight