2024-25 ITH Season Preview: UCLA Bruins

  • 09/23/2024 8:47 am in

With the start of college basketball season in early November, we’ll examine the conference as a whole and Indiana’s roster over the coming weeks.

Today, our team previews continue with UCLA.

Previously: Penn State, Washington, Minnesota, USC, Northwestern, Nebraska, Iowa, Oregon, Maryland, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Michigan

UCLA was one of the nation’s most disappointing teams last season. The Bruins started the season in the top 30 of the KenPom ratings and finished 98th.

After a Final Four appearance in 2021 and trips to the Sweet Sixteen in 2022 and 2023, Mick Cronin and the Bruins finished with a losing record for the first time in his tenure.

UCLA lost Adem Bona to the professional ranks along with five transfers but returns a solid nucleus along with a transfer portal haul that should help the program bounce back in a major way in year six of the Cronin era.

The Bruins return the guard duo of Dylan Andrews and Sebastian Mack, who logged significant minutes last season in Westwood.

Andrews, a 6-foot-2 junior, played 35.2 minutes per game last season and averaged a solid 12.9 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.2 rebounds per game. Over the team’s final six games, he averaged 21.2 points.

The 6-foot-3 Mack returns for his sophomore season after a productive yet inefficient debut season. Mack logged nearly 27 minutes per game and averaged 12.1 points, 3.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.3 steals. However, he shot only 38.7 percent from the field and 28.3 percent on 3s. He had the eighth-best free throw rate in the Pac-12 last season and converted at a 72.2 percent clip from the line.

USC transfer Kobe Johnson joins the UCLA roster and should start on the wing. A 6-foot-6 senior, Johnson averaged 10.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.2 steals last season for the Trojans.

Up front, the Bruins will likely start a pair of transfers in Tyler Bilodeau and William Kyle III.

The 6-foot-9 Bilodeau arrives from Oregon State and is a capable perimeter shooter. Bilodeau made over 39 percent of his 3s in Pac-12 play and averaged 14.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists for the Beavers in 29.3 minutes per game.

Kyle III was the defensive player of the year last season in the Summit League and was second in the country in dunks behind Purdue’s Zach Edey. The 6-foot-9 junior averaged 13.1 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.6 blocked shots in 27.7 minutes while shooting 62.3 percent from the field.

Depth won’t be an issue for UCLA, as the Bruins should be able to play 10 or 11 guys regularly if needed. Louisville transfer Skyy Clark, Loyola Marymount transfer Dominick Harris and freshmen Trent Perry and Eric Freeny will provide guard depth.

Clark began his career at Illinois before playing at Louisville last season. The 6-foot-3 junior averaged 13.2 points and shot 35.3 percent on 3s last season, but he will need to reduce his turnovers and become a better decision-maker.

Harris previously played at Gonzaga and Loyola Marymount and arrives for his final season of eligibility at UCLA with plenty of experience. He started 13 games last season at LMU and led the team in scoring in 14.3 points per game while shooting 44.8 percent on 3s, which was the third-highest mark in the country.

Perry originally committed to USC but flipped to UCLA after Andy Enfield left for SMU. Perry was a top-30 recruit nationally, while Freeny just turned 18 over the summer. Both will have to compete for backup minutes in a loaded UCLA guard rotation.

The Bruins hope 7-foot-3 sophomore Aday Mara can take a major leap forward in his second season. Mara, a native of Spain, averaged 3.5 points and 1.9 rebounds in 9.6 minutes per game.

UCLA also has plenty of frontcourt depth with returnees Lazar Stefanovic, Brandon Williams, and Devin Williams, along with Oklahoma State transfer Eric Dailey Jr.

The 6-foot-7 Stefanovic, a senior, could either start or come off the bench. He averaged 11.5 points, 6.1 rebounds and shot close to 39 percent on 3s last season.

The 6-foot-7 Brandon Williams averaged 3.1 points and 2.2 rebounds last season in 17.4 minutes, while Devin Williams, a 6-foot-10 big man, will provide depth behind Kyle III and Mara.

Dailey Jr., a 6-foot-8 sophomore, played 22.3 minutes per game last season at Oklahoma State and averaged a solid 9.3 points and 4.8 rebounds.

Bart Torvik’s preseason projections expect a major bounceback for UCLA this winter. The Bruins are currently No. 30 in Torvik’s rankings for the 2024-25 season. The Lindy’s Sports college basketball preview magazine picked UCLA to finish third in the Big Ten while the Blue Ribbon college basketball yearbook has the Bruins fourth in the league.

Bottom line: UCLA will be much improved given their strong group of returnees and solid transfer portal additions. It may take some time early in the season for the new pieces to gel but the Bruins will have one of the league’s best backcourts with Andrews, Mack and Johnson. It will be a surprise if UCLA doesn’t return to the NCAA tournament with a strong seed in Cronin’s sixth season.

Quotable: “We had some great teams three years in a row and then we just lost them all at the same time. We weren’t in a position in NIL to compete for the top transfers so we ended up with way too many freshmen. I was really proud of the guys for finishing fifth in the Pac-12 last year, being so young, and losing our top five leading scorers from the year before.” – Katz in early August to Andy Katz.

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