UCLA Basketball: 2024-25 season preview for the Bruins
By Joey Loose
Schedule Outlook
The new season opens on November 4th against Rider but the real fun begins a few days later. The Bruins have a neutral-site game against New Mexico in Henderson, Nevada, matching them up against an intriguing mid-major power right off the bat. The Bruins then have five straight home games versus mid-majors and none of them should be very challenging.
After an easy start to the season, the Bruins get a brief hello to Big Ten play in early December, though their games come against former Pac-12 rivals Washington and Oregon. They’ll see another former conference foe on December 14th, heading to Phoenix for a tough matchup against Arizona.
Following one last tune-up against a mid-major foe, the going gets tough again for the Bruins. They’ll play North Carolina on December 21st at Madison Square Garden as part of the annual CBS Sports Classic. One week later, the finale of nonconference play is one of their toughest challenges, welcoming Gonzaga to California in another rematch of that classic from the Final Four in 2021.
Big Ten play then begins in earnest in early January, and the Bruins get three road trips in their first four games, heading all the way out to Maryland and Rutgers during that stretch. The travel and new regular opponents will make this a demanding transition, though the opposite applies as well. UCLA welcomes teams like Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin to town in January with no return trips.
Things actually get much tougher in February for the Bruins. Their only shots at Michigan State and Ohio State come at home, but they have back-to-back road games at Illinois and Indiana, facing a feisty Hoosier’s team on Valentine’s Day. They’re at Purdue in late February before wrapping up the season on Senior Night against USC on March 8th.