How To Watch, Game Preview and Game Thread: UCLA Bruins at Wisconsin Badgers
The Bruins conclude their current road trip with a game against the Badgers.
After losing to Iowa on Saturday, the UCLA Bruins return to action tonight with a game against the Wisconsin Badgers in Madison. The Badgers are 9-5 this season with three of their losses coming against the Top 25 teams they have played. Unfortunately, UCLA is no longer in the Top 25. Wisconsin has also lost to two unranked teams, TCU and Villanova.
The Badgers are led by head coach Greg Gard, who is in his eleventh season with the school. He’s won 222 games and lost 122. Gard had been Bo Ryan’s longest serving assistant when Ryan announced his plan to retire after the 2015-16 season. Ultimately, he opted to retire in mid-December 2015 and Gard became the team’s interim coach before being named the permanent replacement for Ryan on March 7, 2016.
Look for Gard to start a lineup with three guards and two forwards.
Wisconsin Badgers’ Starting Five
The Badgers will be led by senior guard Nick Boyd. Boyd joins Wisconsin this year after playing last year at San Diego State and starting his collegiate career at Florida Atlantic. He is averaging 19.5 ppg and he also leads the team in assists with 43.
While Boyd has played well this season, the Bruins may have more trouble against John Blackwell. The junior from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan is averaging 20.5 ppg against UCLA in his career so far. This season, he is averaging 17.5 ppg, and he has taken, and made, more three-pointers than anyone else on the team. So, UCLA will need to play him tough beyond the arc. Blackwell leads the Badgers in steals with 20.
The third starting guard for Wisconsin will be senior Andrew Rohde. Rohde joins the Badgers after spending the past two seasons at Virginia and his freshman year at St. Thomas. He’s second on the team in both steals with 17 and assists with 35.
Moving to the forwards, seven-foot junior Nolan Winter is averaging 14.4 ppg. He leads the starters with a 60.3% shooting percentage as well as in blocks with 17 and in rebounds with an average of 9.3 rpg.
The final starter will be Lithuanian forward Aleksas Bieliauskas. While he’s only averaging 4.1 ppg, he’s tied for second on the team in blocks with 11.
Five of the Badger reserves have played in at least 13 games each. So, it looks like Gard will use a large rotation of players over the course of the game. One of the first guys off the bench is likely Australian sophomore Austin Rapp, who’s averaging 9.4 ppg. In addition to being tied for second in blocks with Bieliauskas, Rapp is third in assists with 26. The most likely second guy off the bench is Braeden Carrington. While he doesn’t play as many minutes as Jack Janicki, he’s averaging 5.2 ppg, which is due mostly to his 39.5% three-point percentage. Meanwhile, Janicki is only averaging 2.4 ppg despite averaging over 17 minutes per game.
Analysis
This game looks like another tough one for the Bruins. It’s a winnable game and UCLA really needs to at least get a split of the road trip after losing to the Hawkeyes on Saturday.
Hopefully, they come out of the gate better than they did on Saturday. The Bruins showed some resilency down the stretch, but the game was already over. If they can go into the locker room with the lead at the break, it will go a long way towards getting the W tonight.
UCLA Men’s Basketball (10-4, 2-1)
Opponent: Wisconsin Badgers (9-5, 1-2)
Series Record: UCLA leads, 6-3
When: 6:00 pm PT, Tuesday, January 6, 2026
Where: Kohl Center, Madison, WI
TV: NBC Sports Network (where available) with Paul Burmeister and Robbie Hummel
Live Stream: PeacockTV.com and the Peacock app
Radio/Audio
Local Radio: KABC AM 790 with Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray
Satellite Radio: Sirius Ch. 85 (Wisconsin Call) and XM Ch. 372 (UCLA Call)
Online: uclabruins.com
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Game Notes:
UCLA
Go Bruins!!!
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Inadvertent whistle with 1:10 left. Holy cow, these refs suck. Your main job is to blow the whistle when there's a foul, and to NOT blow it when there isn't.
We lack a big that can rebound, block and play decent defense.
I can’t believe we allowed Mara to transfer.
Look at the progress he’s made at Michigan.
We could use his skills on this team.