Indiana men’s basketball at UCLA: 5 things to know about the Bruins

Indiana men’s basketball is set to take on UCLA on Saturday at the Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles for a battle of the Big Ten’s two premier blue bloods.

The one slight, minute, barely even worth mentioning upside of conference realignment is that it’s gotten one of the most consistently great college hoops programs into the Big Ten. The Bruins probably don’t want to be here but they are and have more history than just about everybody.

Here’s five things to know about this 2025-26 team:

• The Bruins are hitting their stride. UCLA has rattled off three consecutive wins after a bit of a bumpy start to what looked to be a promising season in Westwood, knocking off Purdue and Northwestern at home before drubbing Oregon on the road. It’s the Bruins’ first three game winning streak since the non-conference slate, so that shouldn’t be taken lightly. They’ve got momentum.
• UCLA drags opposing offenses into the deep end. The Bruins smother offenses for the duration of the shot clock, forcing late attempts that are ill-fated more often than not. They take their time on offense as well but not to the degree they do defensively, where they rank among the top teams in the country.
• The Bruins take their share of midrange shots. KenPom debuted a new stat over the holidays measuring teams’ average distance on 2-point attempts and UCLA ranks right around the bottom of the country with their interior offense averaging about 7.7 feet from the cup. That doesn’t mean the Bruins are taking all 7-footers all the time but it does mean they take enough shots from the midrange to drag their average far, far away from the rim.
• UCLA is perfect at the Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins haven’t lost a game in their home arena yet this season with their six losses coming on the road or at semi-neutral sites.
• Bruins coach Mick Cronin was an interesting name when the Indiana job was open. Indiana obviously went elsewhere and there’s no way of knowing how much, if any, interest Cronin would have had. He doesn’t seem entirely pleased with UCLA’s new travel schedule in the Big Ten and is from Cincinnati, so Indiana could’ve offered him a high profile job closer to home. How would you feel if Cronin got the job?