UCLA vs. Colorado: 2020-21 college basketball game preview, TV schedule

The Colorado Buffaloes host the UCLA Bruins on Saturday. Both teams come into the game on win streaks and look to improve their postseason resumes.

TV schedule: Saturday, February 27th, 10:00 pm ET. ESPN2

Arena: CU Events Center in Boulder, Colorado

The Colorado Buffaloes host the UCLA Bruins on Saturday night, in what is McKinley Wright’s second-to-last home game in a Buffalo uniform. Over the past four years, Wright has built an illustrious career and has capped it off with a great senior year. Earlier this week, Wright scored 15 points and had 14 assists to help Colorado knock off USC.

Colorado is 18-7 this season and finds itself in fourth place in the Pac 12. How the Buffs finish the regular season will be heavily indicative of how the committee will view them when it comes to tournament seeding. As it stands, Colorado has a funky resume, with quality wins but some head-scratching losses (Cal, Utah, Wash). Whether it be fair or not, with Colorado’s confusing resume a lot of weight will be put on the next couple weeks. Thankfully, their final two games are at home. However, beating the Bruins and Trojans back to back is no small feat.

This game’s importance is not lost on Mick Cronin’s squad either. After a sound victory over Utah, the Bruins seem to be a relative lock for the big dance. But securing another quality road win would help them mightily in terms of seeding, and also winning the conference crown. UCLA (17-5) is a half-game ahead of USC in the conference standings and winning this game keeps them in front.

For UCLA, it is all about contribution coming from all over. Unfortunately, the Bruins will be again without big man Jalen Hill, who has been gone for several games now due to personal reasons. Instead of Hill, it has been freshman Mac Etienne who’s been coming off the bench behind Cody Riley.

Johnny Juzang averages 14.0 points per contest but can score in bunches. He scores in a variety of ways, but he prefers the mid-range jumper (a dying art). Juzang put up 57 combined points against Washington and Washington State in back-to-back games earlier this month. Tyger Campbell (10.9 ppg 5.6 apg) mans the point for the Bruins and pairs up with Jules Bernard in the backcourt. The Bruins are 10-0 when Bernard scores in double-digits.

The star for the Buffs is the aforementioned McKinley Wright, who is one of those point guards that produces appointment television. Wright has averaged at least 13.0 points per game for all four years of his career. He has been very clear that his goal this year extends deep into March. This season, Wright averages 14.5 ppg and nearly six assists.

Jeriah Horne and Evan Battey man the interior for Colorado. They play very different brands of basketball and pair together intoxicatingly well. Horne pops out and shoots the three at a team-best 46%, while Battey prefers a physical battle inside. Another Buffalo to keep an eye on is freshman Jabari Walker. Averaging 8.1 points per game on only 13 minutes of action makes Walker one of the more efficient scorers in all of college hoops.

This one should shape up to be a close one. When these two teams last met, on January 2nd, UCLA took home a 65-62 win.

The Call: The Buffs continue to defend their home court and pick up a quality win. 71-62, Colorado.