How To Watch, Game Preview and Game Thread: UCLA Bruins at #2 Michigan Wolverines
The Bruins visit Ann Arbor for just the fifth time in 21 meetings and the first time since 2017.
On Sunday, the #2 UCLA women’s basketball team came into the Crisler Center to play Michigan. This morning, the shoe will be on the other foot as the unranked Bruin men’s basketball team will enter the building looking to upset the #2 Michigan men’s team.
Today’s game will tip-off at 9:45 am PT and will be broadcast on CBS with Ian Eagle and Bill Raftery calling the game.
In 2024, Michigan replaced Juwan Howard, one of the school’s Fab Five, with Dusty May, who had led Florida Atlantic to the 2023 Final Four. Since taking over the Wolverines, May has done nothing but win. In his first season with Michigan, he led them to a 27-10 mark, finishing second in the Big Ten and making the Sweet Sixteen.
This year, the Wolverines won their first fourteen games of the season before they lost at home last month to Wisconsin, 91-88. Since that lone loss, Michigan has won nine more games.
Michigan Wolverines’ Starting Five
When you have played as well as Michigan has, there’s no reason to mess with success. That may explain why May has started the same five guys for the past 20 games and 22 of Michigan’s 24 games this season.
May will likely count on his bigs to score most of Michigan’s points, like they have all season.
Grad transfer Yaxel Lendeborg joined Michigan this year after spending the last two seasons at UAB. He leads the Wolverines with an an average of 14.3 ppg and an average of 7.7 rpg. He’s also the team leader in steals with 30 and he’s second on the team in blocks with 34.
The other starting forward is sophomore Morez Johnson, Jr., who transferred to Michigan after spending last season at Illinois. He’s second on the team in scoring with an average of 13.5 ppg. He’s also second in rebounding with an average of 7.3 rpg.
As if having both forwards as the team’s top scorers isn’t enough, former Bruin Aday Mara is third on the team in scoring with an average of 11.4 ppg, nearly double his production last season when he averaged 6.4 ppg for UCLA. He’s also averaging 6.9 rpg and he leads the team with 66 blocks.
Junior guard Elliott Cadeau joined Michigan this season after playing two seasons with North Carolina. While his 9.9 ppg is nothing to ignore, he is the man who gets the ball to the bigs. He leads the team with 132 assists which is just two short of the next two guys combined. Cadeau is also one of the team’s better three-point shooters. His 40.2% three-point percentage is one of the best on the team.
Grad student Nimari Burnett is the only starter who played for Michigan last year. He’s averaging 9.1 ppg. With Cadeau, he makes up Michigan’s 1-2 punch from long distance. Burnett’s three-point percentage is a little better than Cadeau’s at 40.4%.
Michigan’s best guy off the bench is freshman guard Trey McKinney. Despite coming off the bench in every game this year, he’s still averaging 10.2 ppg, slightly better than both starters.
Other bench players who should see plenty of time today are Roddy Gale, Jr., L.J. Cason and Will Tschetter. Gale and Cason are both averaging 7.7 ppg while Tschetter is scoring an average of 4.8 ppg.
Analysis
It’s been a bit of a schizophrenic season for the Bruins. They’ve had some good wins like the one against Purdue but they’ve also lost some games against teams like Arizona which they could have won.
With the team on the bubble, a win today would go a long way to help them with the NCAA Selection Committee.
Unfortunately, the Wolverines may be too strong, especially when they have Mara in the middle, looking to show Mick Cronin what he lost when Mara decided to leave.
I expect UCLA to put together a late rally but fall short in the end, though I hope I’m wrong.
Watch and Listen to the Game With TMB
Today’s game will be broadcast on CBS and streamed on CBSSports.com and Paramount+ with Ian Eagle and Bill Raftery 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 Wolverines game thread. Here’s how to watch, listen and stream today’s game:
UCLA Men’s Basketball (17-7, 9-4)
Opponent: #2 Michigan Wolverines (23-1, 13-1)
Series Record: UCLA leads, 13-7
When: 9:45 am PT, Saturday, February 14, 2026
Where: Crisler Center, Ann Arbor, MI
TV: CBS with Ian Eagle and Bill Raftery
Live Stream: CBSSports.com and the Paramount+ and CBSSports apps
Radio/Audio
Local Radio: KABC AM 790 with Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray
Satellite Radio: SiriusXM Ch. 387 (UCLA Call)
Online: uclabruins.com
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Game Notes:
UCLA
Go Bruins!!!
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I’m going to fight the next person to credulously state that Dailey’s handle has improved during the offseason.
Oh, uh, I’m in Phoenix for a conference so y’all aren’t getting a postgame thread. Just try to be civil here.