Men’s basketball takes a breath before match against Denver on Sunday

The Bruins played nine games across the first 26 days of the season, but their schedule is starting to ease up.

UCLA men’s basketball (6-3) will play Denver (4-5) for the first time since the 1975-76 season when it hosts the Pioneers at Pauley Pavilion on Sunday. The Bruins have played at least two games per week since the start of the season, capped off with a seven-day stretch that boasted four games.

Coach Mick Cronin said UCLA’s defense had been regressing recently since most of its practices were specifically tailored toward upcoming opponents. With six days between games this time around, Cronin said he decided to switch things up.

“We had slippage because you start spending all your time worrying about your opponent instead of yourself,” Cronin said. “Today, (we’re) just worrying about ourselves, evaluating what we do as a staff and working with our guys on how we become better. We haven’t even mentioned Denver to our guys and we won’t until Friday.”

Cronin gave the Bruins the day off Monday and Tuesday.

Redshirt freshman guard Tyger Campbell – who is averaging 5.8 points per game in his last five outings after averaging 10.3 in the Bruins’ first four games – said the transition back to more internally focused practices this week has been beneficial.

“I think it’s great to have a lot of practice, because we can work on what we need to work on,” Campbell said. “And we have more days between games to really prepare for teams.”

The team coming to Westwood this week, Denver, will be the fifth sub-.500 squad UCLA has played so far this season. The Pioneers boast two players who average double-figures, led by guard Ade Murkey’s 12.2 points per game.

Redshirt senior guard Prince Ali is one of two fifth-year seniors on the Bruins’ roster, and his 97 career games played lead the team. Ali said the more sparse slate affects him more in the classroom than it does in the court.

“I don’t mind it – it’s the way the schedule’s set up,” Ali said. “I have finals all week, so in that sense, it is a blessing that we have one game a week.”

Ali has been nursing an ankle injury all season, leaving three separate games as a result. With Ali seeing fewer minutes, freshman guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. has recently stepped into the starting lineup.

Jaquez is averaging 14 points and 7.7 rebounds per game in UCLA’s last three showings, and he said talking to former Bruin and fellow Mexican basketball player Lorenzo Mata-Real has helped him a lot early in his career.

“I’ve talked to him a bunch of times, he always gives me tips on how to get better, what it means to be Latino playing for UCLA,” Jaquez said. “LA has a bunch of Hispanic culture here, so he’s talked to me a lot.”

Jaquez averaged just 10.8 minutes per game across the Bruins’ six games before seeing that figure jump to 28.7 in their last three.

UCLA and Denver will tip off at 2 p.m. on Sunday in the Bruins’ final home game until Dec. 28.

Conference play shifting earlier

While the Bruins will have a lighter schedule this December – playing just three games between Dec. 2 and Dec. 27 – things will be different again next season.

UCLA announced Wednesday that conference play would start in December for the 2020-2021 season, in accordance with the Pac-12’s expansion from an 18-game to 20-game schedule. UCLA will travel to Eugene to take on Oregon on Dec. 3, 2020, before coming home to host California three days later.

Cronin said hashing out the details was difficult, mostly because of conflicts with Stanford’s finals.

“We talked about it, you know, the problem, there’s a lot of challenges with our league office,” Cronin said. “I know there’s something with Stanford’s finals, they have pretty extensive rules. … It is what it is.”