Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament: How to Watch and Game Thread - #6 Seed UCLA Bruins vs. #3 Seed Michigan State Spartans
After defeating Rutgers 72-59 last night, the Bruins advanced to tonight's Big Ten Quarterfinals against the Spartans.
While last night’s game was pretty close in the first half, ultimately the Bruins proved to be too much for the Scarlet Knights to handle, and UCLA went on to win the game 72-59 to advance to tonight’s quarterfinal game against the #3 seed Michigan State Spartans. Tip-off tonight is schedule for 6 pm PT or 25 minutes following the conclusion of the third quarterfinal game between Purdue and Nebraska, whichever is later. Tonight’s game will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.
Of course, as the #3 seed, Michigan State will be playing their first game of the tournament tonight, and it leaves UCLA needing to beat a well-rested team which obliterated the Bruins by 23 points when the teams met three and a half weeks ago.
Michigan State Spartans
Michigan State has won seven of their last nine games. As if that’s not bad enough, Tom Izzo has started the same lineup in each of those nine games, including MSU’s game against the Bruins on February 17th.
So, the Bruins are probably going to face the same starting lineup they struggled against in that game. In that game, four of the five Spartan starters put up double figures, and the fifth one, Jaxon Kohler, was just short of double figures with nine points.
To be fair, Donovan Dent wrote his name into both UCLA’s and the Big Ten Tournament’s record book with a triple-double last night. The Bruins had had one since Kyle Anderson did that in 2013. It was just the fifth triple-double in UCLA history. At the same time, it was the first time anyone had done that in the Big Ten tournament.
The Bruins may need another historic performance in order to beat Michigan State tonight, though I’m not especially optimistic that UCLA has much of a chance against the Spartans tonight.
Listen to the Game With TMB
Tonight’s game will be broadcast on Big Ten Network and streamed on FoxSports.com with Kevin Kugler, Robbie Hummel, and Andy Katz on the call. Of course, you can opt to listen to Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray on the radio or streamed on uclabruins.com instead. To watch or listen online, just right-click on the links so that you can open up another tab and have it going while you chat in the comments below.
This is your UCLA men’s basketball vs. Michigan State Spartans Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinals game thread. Here’s how to watch, listen and stream tonight’s game.
Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinals
Teams: #6 Seed UCLA Bruins (22-10, 13-7) vs. #3 Michigan State Spartans (25-6, 15-5)
Series Record: UCLA leads, 8-5
When: Approx. 6:00 pm PT, Friday, March 13, 2026 (25 minutes after end of Purdue vs. Nebraska)
Where: United Center, Chicago, IL
TV: Big Ten Network with Kevin Kugler, Robbie Hummel, and Andy Katz
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. 84 (National feed)
Online: uclabruins.com
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Tournament Notes:
UCLA
Go Bruins!!!
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Cronin saying this was not coaching, but this was a very well coached game.
That was the longest stretch in the laundry room but it worked!