No. 12 UCLA is a program steeped in history. Pepperdine, which visits the Bruins on Friday in Los Angeles, pulls plenty of its current identity from UCLA’s past.
The Waves (1-0) are in their second season under head coach Ed Schilling, a UCLA assistant for Steve Alford from 2013-17. The Bruins won at least 22 games and advanced to the Sweet 16 in three of Schilling’s four seasons.
Schilling hired legendary UCLA point guard Tyus Edney a week after he got the Pepperdine job. Edney captained UCLA’s most recent national championship team in 1995, then returned as an assistant coach from 2017-19.
A coaching staff heavy on UCLA lineage aims to hand the Bruins (1-0) their first loss to a Pepperdine team since Nov. 28, 2001, when the Waves scored an 85-78 stunner at Pauley Pavilion. That season doubles as the last time Pepperdine won 20 games and qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
The program has been mired in the basement of the West Coast Conference, last finishing better than .500 in league play in 2015-16. The Waves opened this season with an 88-80 win on Monday over NAIA member Life Pacific.
Schilling used the opportunity to give nine players at least 11 minutes of floor time. Three reserves — Aaron Clark, Pavle Stosic and David Mager — capitalized with 14, 13 and 12 points, respectively.
“It was a good game for us to learn about ourselves and what adjustments we need to make going forward,” Schilling said via Pepperdine’s athletics website. “We have almost an entirely new team, so we are a work in progress.”
UCLA, meanwhile, opened the season with plenty of familiar faces from its 2025 NCAA Tournament team, including Tyler Bilodeau and Skyy Clark, who finished with 19 and 10 points in an 80-74 win Monday over Eastern Washington.
However, newcomers Donovan Dent and Xavier Booker led in several key categories. Dent, a New Mexico transfer, scored 21 points and dished nine assists, while Michigan State transfer Booker shot 6 of 7 from the floor for 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
The combination of returning starters Bilodeau and Clark with the additions of Dent and Booker elevated UCLA to its best preseason ranking since opening the 2022-23 season at No. 8 — a season that included the Bruins’ last meeting with Pepperdine. UCLA won that matchup over its neighbor from nearby Malibu, 100-53.
But with Eastern Washington playing UCLA close throughout the second half, Bruins coach Mick Cronin threw cold water on red-hot preseason expectations.
“I failed miserably,” Cronin said of having his team prepared. “I tried in shootaround. Arrogance. Lack of humility. Don’t want to defend, don’t want to rebound, don’t want to play defense. There are so many mistakes, I’d like to fire myself for our defense.”
Bruins teams since Cronin became head coach in 2019 have been among the nation’s best in a variety of defensive categories. Yet UCLA surrendered 38 points in the paint and allowed Eastern Washington to shoot a staggering 75.9% on 2-point attempts.
–Field Level Media
