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Men’s basketball seeks to secure road victory against Notre Dame

Redshirt senior guard Prince Ali scored 12 points in UCLA men’s basketball’s victory over Notre Dame in 2018, shooting 2-of-4 from deep. Ali is averaging 10.6 points per game 10 games into this season but is shooting a career-worst 21.1% from the 3-point range. (Tanmay Shankar/Assistant Photo editor)

Men's basketball


Notre Dame
Saturday, 12 p.m.

Norte Dame, Indiana
ABC

By Sam Connon

Dec. 13, 2019 2:26 p.m.

Tyger Campbell may have been stuck on the bench for the Bruins’ matchup with the Fighting Irish last season, but the redshirt freshman guard said one play stuck in his mind.

Then-sophomore guard Kris Wilkes drilled a game-winning 3 with 0.9 seconds remaining in front of an almost sold-out Pauley Pavilion crowd.

“That was pretty crazy, the first college game-winner I’ve seen,” Campbell said. “Hopefully it’s a good game when we go over there, and we want to get the win. That’s all I’m worried about.”

Wilkes won’t be with UCLA men’s basketball (7-3) this time around, when the team heads to Notre Dame (7-3) on Saturday for its first true road game of the year. Wilkes’ memorable late-game heroics in the teams’ last matchup may have led to a win for the Bruins, but redshirt senior guard Prince Ali said he and his teammates took away a bigger lesson from the legacy rivalry game.

“We started kind of taking our foot off the gas and they came back,” Ali said. “(Wilkes) hit the buzzer-beater and we ended up winning like that, but I mean, what I learned from that game, me personally, you can’t take your foot off the gas in a college basketball game because nobody’s ever going to stop playing.”

UCLA and Notre Dame’s head-to-head history dates back to the John Wooden era, with the Bruins’ historic 88-game winning streak coming to an end at the hands of Fighting Irish in 1971. The teams’ matchup in 2018 was their first since 2009, and their annual series ended all the way back in 1984.

First-year coach Mick Cronin said he was happy to be a part of a blue blood rivalry, he said much more of the focus in practice has been about preparing for a true road test. UCLA’s first road game last season was a 29-point loss to Cincinnati, when Cronin was still heading up the Bearcats’ bench.

“That’s all we talked about in practice (Wednesday), and that’s my job,” Cronin said. “You can’t let a snowball effect occur, which you saw last year (against Cincinnati), so we’ve got to practice staying together. What people don’t know about me is that you watch me coach the Denver game, I know we’re going to win, so I’m coaching that game like practice – Saturday is a different story.”

Preparing for a hostile road environment was the focus of practice, but Cronin also said he is also familiar with his Notre Dame counterpart, coach Mike Brey. Cronin and Brey have faced off 10 times over their coaching careers, with the former going 3-7 in those games.

Cronin said the Fighting Irish have always been a difficult team to match up with because of their ability to protect the ball and play with well-defined roles.

“Nobody on their team does things they can’t do,” Cronin said. “The shooters shoot it, the point guard dribbles it, they hit the first open man, (Brey’s) always done just an unbelievable job.”

Notre Dame is in the top 30 in fewest turnovers in the country this season, and while it ranks 26th in the nation in made 3-pointers, its 33.6% from long range is far outside the top 100. The Fighting Irish’s uncharacteristically poor shooting from deep hit its peak in back-to-back losses to Maryland and Boston College last week, as the team shot 27.8% on 54 attempts across the two games.

Prior to their loss to the unranked Eagles on Saturday, the Fighting Irish were a perfect 6-0 at home, but junior guard Chris Smith said the Bruins’ will be up to the challenge thanks to lessons learned in the Cincinnati loss last year.

“I think we’re a little bit more experienced, and we understand it’s gonna be hard to win on the road so we’re coming in with that knowledge and I feel like the outcome should be better,” Smith said. “We got the guys back that were here, that went through that, and we have a coach that beat us.”

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Sam Connon | Alumnus
Connon joined the Bruin as a freshman in 2017 and contributed until he graduated in 2021. He was the Sports editor for the 2019-2020 academic year, an assistant Sports editor for the 2018-2019 academic year and spent time on the football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, men's soccer, cross country, men's golf and women's golf beats, while also contributing movie reviews for Arts & Entertainment.
Connon joined the Bruin as a freshman in 2017 and contributed until he graduated in 2021. He was the Sports editor for the 2019-2020 academic year, an assistant Sports editor for the 2018-2019 academic year and spent time on the football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, men's soccer, cross country, men's golf and women's golf beats, while also contributing movie reviews for Arts & Entertainment.
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