How To Watch, Game Preview and Game Thread: UCLA Bruins at Penn State Nittany Lions
Tonight, the UCLA men’s basketball team is in State College, Pennsylvania as the Bruins will square off against the Penn State Nittany Lions at the Bryce Jordan Center. Tip-off is set for 5:30 pm and the game will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1 (FS1).
UCLA is looking for their second win in a row after the Bruins defeated Maryland at home on Saturday, 67-55. The Nittany Lions have lost three in a row and six of their last seven games. While Penn State is 9-7 overall, they have won just two games since the beginning of December. On December 2, they defeated Campbell, 87-76, and then on December 29, they cruised past North Carolina Central, 90-67.
The Nittany Lions are led by head coach Mike Rhoades. While Rhoades was hired in 2023 after an impressive run at Virginia Commonwealth where he went 129-61, his record in Happy Valley has been mediocre. His Lions teams are barely above .500 at 41-39, and I expect that to be 41-40 after tonight.
Penn State has a very young team. Eight of their players are true freshman and two more are sophomores. There’s just one senior on the team, forward Josh Reed, and two juniors. So, that may explain why the team’s best wins this season came against Navy and Harvard back in November.
Rhoades will start a lineup consisting of three guards and two forwards tonight. Let’s take a look at Penn State’s starting five.
Penn State Nittany Lions Starting Five
Penn State will likely be without starting guard Kayden Mingo. The standout freshman from Long Island, New York is out indefinitely with a broken nose which required surgery. He’s missed the team’s last two games. Mingo is second on the team in scoring with an average of 14.9 ppg. He leads the Nittany Lions in both assists with 63 and in steals with 35.
With Mingo out, the Nittany Lions will be led by redshirt junior Freddie Dilione V. He is now in is second season with Penn State after spending his first two seasons at Tennessee. He’s averaging 15.0 ppg and is fourth on the team in rebounds with an average of 3.6 rpg.
After Dilione, the offensive production from the projected starters drops significantly. Redshirt sophomore Eli Rice is averaging just 7.2 ppg, though he is the team’s best three-point shooter. He’s shooting 46.3% from beyond the arc and has made 25 of 54 attempts. The third starting guard will likely be sophomore Dominick Stewart, who averages just 5.8 ppg.
The probable starting forwards generate a little more offensive production than Rice and Stewart, but not much more. Freshman Ivan Jurić is averaging 9.1 ppg and his 56.0% shooting percentage leads the team. He also leads the team in rebounds with 4.1 rpg. His four blocks ties him for the team lead with three other players. Josh Reed will start at the other forward. He is averaging 8.7 ppg and he’s tied for second in rebounds with 3.9 rpg.
Turkish freshman Melih Tunca will probably be the first man off the bench for Rhoades. Tunca is averaging more than 25 minutes per game which is more than each of the starters except for Dilione. Besides Dilione and Mingo, Tunca is the only other player on the team averaging in double figures. He’s averaging 10.4 ppg. He is also second in assists with 46 and in three-point percentage with 41.0%.
Analysis
The Bruins should win tonight’s game easily; however, a trip to State College is not exactly the easiest to make. The closest airport is located in Altoona, which is almost an hour away. That could make it a rougher trip to get to tonight’s game and could affect the team overall.
How bad is it to get to? Here’s what Ben Bolch of the LA Times wrote about his trip to cover tonight’s game.
How will the travel affect the team tonight? We’ll see.
Given that challenge, the outcome for tonight’s game could be in doubt. Last Tuesday, the Nittany Lions only lost to #2 Michigan by a bucket, 74-72. Of course, that was before the Wolverines fell to Wisconsin on Saturday. So, it was a bad week for the them, but it shows that the Lions can be tough to beat at home, even for one of the best teams in the country.
The bottom line is simple: The Bruins need to show up tonight and, unfortunately, that hasn’t always been the case this season.
UCLA Men’s Basketball (11-5, 3-2)
Opponent: Penn State Nittany Lions (9-7, 0-5)
Series Record: Series tied, 1-1
When: 5:30 pm PT, Wednesday, January 14, 2026
Where: Bryce Jordan Center, State College, PA
TV: FS1 with Noah Reed and Donny Marshall
Live Stream: FoxSports.com and the Fox Sports app
Radio/Audio
Local Radio: KABC AM 790 with Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray
Satellite Radio: SiriusXM Ch. 380 (UCLA Call)
Online: uclabruins.com
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Game Notes:
UCLA
Go Bruins!!!
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