Paint presence powered the Wolverines to a dominant victory against an overmatched and undersized Bruins squad on Tuesday. And against the Terrapins, the matchups in the post will once again take center stage.

After entering its first losing streak of the season, No. 22 UCLA men’s basketball (11-4, 2-2 Big Ten) will travel across the country to face Maryland (11-4, 1-3) on Friday afternoon. The Bruins still remain in the nation’s top 10 in scoring defense, but the Wolverines exposed weaknesses that the Terrapins will have a chance to exploit.

“We got to be tougher,” said junior forward Tyler Bilodeau. “Every game is going to be a fight and we got to know that coming in it’s going to be war, and we got to be prepared.”

Michigan’s duo of center Vladislav Goldin and forward/center Danny Wolf – both standing at least 7-foot – operated without much resistance for much of Tuesday night.

The two towered over Bilodeau and sophomore guard/forward Eric Dailey Jr. – the Bruin duo tasked with defending the Wolverine giants.

“To start the game Tyler Bilodeau gave up 12 points,” said coach Mick Cronin. “Two screens he didn’t say a word on (resulted in) 3s, and then he got dunked on three times.”

Though Bilodeau struggled to defend Goldin, rotation pieces in 7-foot-3 sophomore center Aday Mara and 6-foot-9 junior forward William Kyle III were used sparingly, and neither were particularly effective in their limited minutes.

The Terrapins enter Friday’s contest on a two-game skid after faltering in former Pac-12 territory in the Pacific Northwest. Both Washington and Oregon outpaced Maryland, winning by six and four points, respectively.

Despite this campaign being the Bruins’ first in which the Terrapins are a conference foe, the two have a developed history. They played a home-and-away series over the past two seasons, with the road team earning the win each time.

Though this year’s Maryland squad does not necessarily boast the same height advantage that Michigan employed, much of its offense runs through the low block.

True freshman center Derik Queen stands at 6-foot-10 and is the Terrapins’ leading scorer, averaging 16 points per contest. Complementing Queen in the post, forward Julian Reese – brother of former LSU women’s basketball star Angel Reese – has posted 13 points and 8.7 boards per game this season.

On the perimeter, guards Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Selton Miguel and Rodney Rice are all dangerous from 3-point territory – combining to sink 91 triples at a 39.2% rate. In comparison, UCLA as a whole has made just 105 shots from downtown on 33.3% shooting.

And against Michigan, its shooting woes only deepened.

“Offensively, some things weren’t falling for us,” Dailey said. “But at the end of the day, great teams win games when the shots aren’t falling, so we just got to be better.”

Bilodeau and senior guard Kobe Johnson were the only Bruins who made a basket from long range, as the team finished a combined 2-of-20.

Amid a slump on both ends of the court, Cronin may make some adjustments to reinvigorate an apparently flailing squad.

“You play the guys that’ll play hard and do what you tell them,” the sixth-year head coach said. “But right now, I’m searching deeply for some guys that’ll play hard enough to win a Big Ten game.”