Michigan meets UCLA tonight (10:00 p.m., Peacock ) in a clash near the top of the Big Ten standings. There might not be a game on the schedule that better illustrates how quickly the league is changing, and not just because it is a 10 p.m. tip in Los Angeles on a streaming service.
The idea of UCLA in the Big Ten is challenging to compute on its own. The reality that UCLA is keeping the Big Ten stereotype of deliberate and defensive basketball alive in 2025 is somehow more confounding.
The Big Ten is tantalizingly close to breaking its historical mold. Twenty years ago, the conference was routinely the slowest in America. In the KenPom era, the league never broke into the top 20 in conference pace until this year.
Now, the league is up the seventh nationally in tempo thanks to the influx of new coaches, philosophies, and schools — new schools other than UCLA, that is.
The Bruins want to drag games into the mud and create an old-fashioned Big Ten game. They aspire to eliminate transition offense, force long possessions with their defensive pressure, and want to win games in the 60s.
They are the fourth-slowest team in the Big Ten at 66.8 possessions per game. Michigan has played one game slower than 68 possessions this year, and UCLA has played eight — including against uptempo teams like Gonzaga, Arizona, and Washington.
Tonight will feel like something new, but the recipe for stealing a road win in a game like this hasn’t changed.
Dusty May Promo!
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