Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

On Sun, Mar 22, the UCLA Bruins’ men’s basketball season came to an end in the Second Round of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament for a second straight year. The UConn Huskies won the game 73-57 behind a strong performance from a trio of forwards in Alex Karaban(27 points), Brayden Mullins(17 points) and Jayden Ross(11 points off the bench). The Bruins tried to maintain control in the first half, but UConn eventually got their offensive flow going and in spite of a comeback attempt in the second half, UCLA fell short in the end. With another injury to a star player impacting a tournament run(Tyler Bilodeau was still out with that knee injury he suffered in the Big Ten Tournament) under Mick Cronin(who received a technical foul in the final collapse for clapping sarcastically towards a referee who blew a potential foul call), the Bruins fell short of the Sweet 16 for a second straight season as a seven-seed.

Two of the four Bruins players who scored double-digits in the loss in Philadelphia might not be back next season, as Donovan Dent and Skyy Clark are seniors. But in this current climate of college sports where players can go through the court system to request an emergency injunction to be allowed to compete for an extra year on a waiver, nothing is ever set in stone. Dent transferred only once from New Mexico to UCLA after three seasons with the Lobos basketball team and if he feels his NBA draft stock isn’t good enough he could possibly return. One player who has stated that he wants to return for a fifth season in college basketball is Clark, who has transferred twice in his collegiate career. After playing one season each at Illinois and Louisville and spending the past two seasons in Westwood(with a leg injury impacting his senior season), Clark wants a fifth year potentially. He will have to fight through the court system to earn it, though. Bilodeau is also running out of eligibility after he played his first two seasons at Oregon State and transferred to UCLA at the same time as Clark and Eric Dailey Jr. So, this situation begs to ask: what will the Bruins roster look like in the new school year?

Guys who could definitely be back unless they choose to transfer are Dailey, Xavier Booker, Trent Perry, Brandon Williams, Eric Freeny, and benchwarmer/redshirted players on the current roster. Along with potential splashes in the upcoming recruiting class of 2026 and the transfer portal’s continuous power, the Bruins find themselves at a standstill between the success they have had in drawing over players from the portal and those that they have lost to the portal. Players who have left Westwood for potential greener pastures in the past few years include Jake Kyman(from four years ago), Dylan Andrews(played three seasons as a Bruin before transferring to Boise State) and Aday Mara(the seven-foot-four-inch Spanish center who is on a Michigan team looking to make the Final Four and win a national championship). So, an even balance has to be struck between receiving potential transfers while deciding which players on the current roster are worth keeping. The only non-senior eligible player who could potentially leave for the NBA draft is Dailey, who played in all but one game this season and averaged 11.8 points per game and 5.8 rebounds as well. Dailey’s role could massively expand if Dent and Bilodeau don’t return and he could form a valuable one-two punch with Perry as one of the better guard-forward combos in the entire country.

Another season of competing in the Big Ten conference with a couple of trips to locations in the Midwest and eastern seaboard will take its toll on a team located in Los Angeles, and with the return of the PAC-12 conference next season, the awkwardness of the Bruins not being in that conference will be apparent and stark. But this hard and challenging road will have to be traversed once again by the coaching staff and players of UCLA men’s basketball team. Another disappointing end to March could hopefully lead to a better season down the road, if only the Bruins are good enough to earn it in one of the toughest travel situations facing a college sports program in the nation.