UCLA men’s basketball aims to extend 4-game win streak against Hofstra

Several Bruins have had to juggle rehab, winning and defensive lessons early as their season-opening homestand nears its end.

UCLA men’s basketball (4-0) will host Hofstra (2-2) on Thursday night in the last matchup of a five-game stretch at Pauley Pavilion to open the Bruins’ season. Thursday’s game also marks the end of Maui on the Mainland, beginning the Maui Invitational in Lahaina, Hawaii, against BYU on Monday.

Coach Mick Cronin said he was satisfied with the Bruins’ homecourt advantage and that his daughter has enjoyed The Den’s antics so far.

“(The fans) were great at the UNLV game, and even the smaller contingents that we’ve had, they’ve been loud,” Cronin said. “Some of my friends here told me that they were hilariously funny the other night against Southern Utah, something about when a guy fouled out. They said it was great, it was pure entertainment – well, my daughter told me all about it. She was more into that than the game.”

The energy from the crowd parallels the energy redshirt freshman guard Tyger Campbell said he has played with early on this season. Campbell missed the entire 2018-2019 season with a torn ACL, but he said he is in great shape and has had no fatigue issues so far.

“I’m just here to win, I’m not really even worried or thinking about my minutes,” Campbell said. “I’m good – I can play as much as (Cronin) needs me to play.”

Campbell’s coach, on the other hand, said he is concerned the guard is still averaging 33.8 minutes per game through four contests.

“(Campbell’s) minutes are way too high,” Cronin said. “He’ll play better in less minutes. His defense is suffering because I have him out there when he’s tired. I’m letting him get fatigued and I have to quit doing that – that’s on us as a staff.”

Campbell’s fellow redshirt freshman, forward Shareef O’Neal, is also playing his first regular-season games with UCLA after missing last year because of heart surgery. O’Neal scored his first collegiate point off a free throw against Southern Utah on Monday, something he said was ironic given his Hall of Fame father’s notoriously poor shooting from the charity stripe.

“Scoring, it felt good – it’s kind of crazy my first point was a free throw, kind of funny,” O’Neal said. “But it felt good, just finally breaking that barrier and getting through it.”

O’Neal will get the chance to add to his five career points against a .500 Hofstra team Thursday night.

Hofstra went 27-8 last season, winning the Colonial Athletic Association regular-season title before falling to Northeastern in the final round of the conference tournament and missing out on March Madness as a result. Then-guard Justin Wright-Foreman – who averaged 25.8 points per game across his junior and senior seasons at Hofstra – led the Pride with 29 in that contest, but he graduated in May.

Taking on the scoring load in Wright-Foreman’s absence is a quartet of upperclassman guards each averaging more than 13 points per game – Tareq Coburn, Eli Pemberton, Jalen Ray and Desure Buie. Adding in forward Isaac Kante, Hofstra has five players averaging more than 10 points per game.

The Bruins boast four players averaging double figures, and if redshirt sophomore forward Cody Riley had made just one of his eight missed free throw attempts through the first two games, that number would match the Pride’s five.

Buie also contributes 7.3 assists per game and Coburn leads Hofstra with 7.5 rebounds per game. The Pride boast just one rotation player taller than 6-foot-7, giving the Bruins – who boast five such players – a considerable height advantage they have yet to see this season.

Cronin said UCLA’s defense in the early out-of-conference games is centered around its bigs standing their ground in the paint.

“I think you have to protect the rim,” Cronin said. “You’ve got to start inside out. If you can’t protect the rim, if you give up easy baskets, you have no chance.”

The Bruins and the Pride will tip off at 8 p.m. on Thursday night in the final game at Pauley Pavilion until Dec. 1.