Go Joe Bruin
Fansided

UCLA Basketball: Predicting 2019 the non-conference schedule

By Mike Regalado

LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 10: Mick Cronin speaks to the media after he was introduced as the new UCLA Mens Head Basketball Coach at Pauley Pavilion on April 10, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 10: Mick Cronin speaks to the media after he was introduced as the new UCLA Mens Head Basketball Coach at Pauley Pavilion on April 10, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 3
Next
Mandatory Credit: Todd Warshaw /Allsport
Mandatory Credit: Todd Warshaw /Allsport /

Nov 25 (Mon) vs. TBD in Maui Invitational

Nov 26 (Tue) vs. TBD in Maui Invitational

Nov 27 (Wed) vs. TBD in Maui Invitational

This is where we will see what the Bruins are made of. For the most part, the first five games of the season will be easy for UCLA, which is good because they do not want to put too much on their plate as they are transitioning to a completely different style of basketball.

We know that Mick Cronin is a tough, no-nonsense basketball coach, but he also isn’t Ben Howland. This isn’t going to be a military-style camp, but it is not going to be a day at the beach either. Still, the Bruins should more or less know what they have to work with going into the Maui Invitational.

Hopefully, by Thanksgiving, the Bruins will know their roles on defense, can execute the offense with some ease and will be conditioned enough to give their competition in Hawaii a run for their money.

The brackets have not been set, which makes these games tough to predict. During this tournament, UCLA will face three of the following teams: BYU, Chaminade, Dayton, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan State, and Virginia Tech. I do not see them beating the last three teams, giving a chance to come out better than .500 in this tournament. With that being said, I do not think they will go 0-3 or 3-0 in these three contests and even though they could possibly go 2-1, I am going with the safe bet of 1-2 in this stretch, bringing them to 6-2 on the season.