MBB: Big Ten Basketball Preview – UCLA

Howdy, y’all! We are back with another Big Ten basketball preview, and today we’re going to be looking at the UCLA Bruins! UCLA finished the 2024-2025 season with a solid 23-11 record; finishing tied for 4th place in the conference with both Purdue and Wisconsin (13-7). They would make the NCAA Tournament as a 7 seed, ultimately losing to 2 seed Tennessee in the 2nd round.

On paper, losing 8 members of your roster in one off-season might seem like a really bad thing. But, in reality for UCLA, it’s not quite as bad as it seems. They lost three players because they graduated, in Kobe Johnson, Dominick Harris, and Lazar Stefanović, but those three guys combined for just 13.7 points, 8.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game, and a very large chunk of those numbers are from just Kobe Johnson. The other five players who transferred (Dylan Andrews, Sebastian Mack, Aday Mara, Devin Williams, and William Kyle III) averaged a combined 25.8 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 6.5 assists. Not ideal, but not horrible. They retained three of their top four scorers in Tyler Bilodeau, Eric Dailey Jr., and Skyy Clark.

The Bruins definitely lost some size with Mara (7’3”) and Devin Williams (6’10”) both transferring out, but they looked to replace some of that size with their incoming transfers. Most notably, landing Michigan State transfer Xavier Booker, a 6’11” center just two years removed from being a five-star recruit. Booker didn’t see a ton of action in his two years at MSU, only playing about 13 minutes a game last season, but he is an athletic, modern big man who can stretch the floor or catch a lob inside. He can also protect the paint on the other end of the floor. I’m expecting big things from him this season, if/when he gets a significant boost in playing time.

Another name to watch out for is New Mexico transfer guard Donovan Dent. This guy flat out puts the ball in the basket. At New Mexico last season he averaged 20.4 points and 6.4 assists per game, while also grabbing about 1.5 steals. The kid can flat out hoop, shooting 49% from the floor and hitting just under 41% from deep. I think he will slide in nicely into the lead guard spot for the Bruins and give them a legitimate threat with the ball in his hand.

The last name I’m excited about for the Bruins this year is Sophomore guard Trent Perry. I think he could slide into the starting off-ball guard for UCLA this year, because he has proven in the past that he is capable of being a lethal scorer from beyond the arc (shot ~42% from three his senior year of high school), and has maybe the purest jump shot I’ve seen in a while. Perry played sparingly as a freshman last year (32 games, 11.4 minutes), but he’s bulked up a little bit (played last year at around 175 lbs., currently listed at 190 lbs.), and if he can get some longer stretches of playing time, I think he will be a guy to look out for.

It’s UCLA, man. They’re almost always near the top of the conference in basketball. And honestly, I don’t foresee this season being any different. They could definitely win the Big Ten this year. And really, barring injury, I don’t see a world where they finish lower than like 6th or 7th. They’ve just got that secret sauce to always compete at a high level.

The Ducks will play the Bruins twice this year, home and away. Dates and times TBD, currently.