The UCLA Bruins have had a strong past few weeks in closing out their second season in the Big Ten conference strong. While the women’s basketball team is the number two ranked team in the country, the men’s basketball team had to prove themselves worthy of being a tournament team. With a weak road record in conference play and bad performances in neutral site games earlier in the season, the men of Westwood were teetering on the bubble. However, with some good wins at Pauley Pavilion against three ranked opponents and mostly avoiding losses to teams with a low NET ranking, the Bruins are looking primed to make the NCAA tournament once again in participating in March Madness.

Following a tough two-game road trip against both schools from the state of Michigan, UCLA was on the edge of the tournament bubble. But an amazing comeback victory against the then tenth-ranked Illinois Fighting Illini that had Donovan Dent make a game-winning layup at the end of overtime fueled a momentous run for the Bruins. That performance was followed by a solid home win over the USC Trojans at Pauley Pavilion by the final score of 81-62, which featured a 30-point encore by Dent and 13 points each by Tyler Bilodeau and Trent Perry. At 19-9, the Bruins looked to close out the final week of the season on an amazing winning streak. But they hit a road block in their final real road game against a pure Big Ten opponent in the Minnesota Golden Gophers, who only used a six-man rotation to somehow grind to a 78-73 victory over UCLA. In spite of a 32-point showing by Bilodeau, the Bruins fell short in the end as Dent failed to make a potential game-tying three-pointer in the final seconds. Dent only scored three points in spite of dishing out 15 assists and the only two other major scorers on the day for the Bruins were Eric Dailey Jr(18 points) and Skyy Clark(17 points). Meanwhile, four of the six Minnesota players who played scored 13 or more points each. That’s a tough way to lose on the road.

With their seeding on the line in the Big Ten tournament and the Big Dance, the Bruins beared down and on Senior Night defeated the ninth-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers by a resounding score of 72-52. Perry scored 20 points and Dailey had 14 as a strong defensive performance flustered Nebraska big time. With a third win over a ranked opponent, UCLA looked like they were now solidly positioned in the field of 68 for March Madness. But they had one last game to play in their regular season schedule in the Big Ten.

The Bruins traveled by bus to the Galen Center to play against the USC Trojans on the first Saturday of this month of jubilation and heartbreak for basketball teams throughout the country. The Trojans had lost six straight games and had one of their star players depart the program altogether recently. In this crosstown showdown, it was a close game early on, but in the middle part of the first half, the Bruins pulled away with a massive scoring run that kept their lead at double-digits for the rest of the game. The early scorer for UCLA was Bilodeau, but Dent took the reins and had an amazing offensive showing along with Dailey in the second half. The Bruins won 89-68 and cemented a 13-7 record in Big Ten conference games. Dent scored 25 and had seven assists, Dailey netted 19 points and eight rebounds, and Bilodeau had 16 points and eight boards. The surprise performer that pushed the lead to an insurmountable one for USC on their Senior Night for the Bruins was Eric Freeny, who had a solid ten points off the bench. An amazing blowout win to close out the regular season strong for UCLA, which enters the Big Ten tournament in a unique position.

The 2026 Big Ten Men’s Basketball tournament is set to take place at the United Center in Chicago from Mar 11-15. All 18 teams in the conference will play in the tournament, with the four-worst teams in terms of conference record playing in a play-in round and then the winners of the first two games will play in the first round phase against teams ranked ninth place and 14th place in the Big Ten standings. The teams ranked five through eight in the tournament will have a “double-bye” and the top-four teams shall have a “triple bye”. The Bruins are in sixth place now in the Big Ten standings and passed Purdue, who lost on Saturday to the Wisconsin Badgers and due to their loss at Pauley Pavilion on Jan 20, the Boilermakers had that head-to-head loss against UCLA go against them. The next time the Bruins play will be on Fri, Mar 13 and will play against a lower-ranked team in the Big Ten tournament. Currently, their seed projections in the NCAA tournament varies depending on the “bracketologist” who analyzes the field of 68. There are some experts who have UCLA as a ten-seed, while others give the Bruins a nine-seed. However far their run in the Big Ten tournament goes, UCLA should expect to see their name on a bracket line on Selection Sunday and Mick Cronin will prepare them to go on another potential deep run in the tournament. Potentially as an underseeded Cinderella team into the Final Four in Indianapolis, where they played five years ago and had an amazing tournament run end in heartbreaking fashion. For now, the Bruins are looking quite mighty and that is a very good thing. Let’s see if they can continue looking that way at neutral site arenas for the rest of the college basketball season.