Seven of the Bruins’ top 10 players have not played in an NCAA tournament game. That will change for seventh-seeded UCLA on Thursday night against Utah State.
— Eric Dailey Jr. clapped along to the school’s fight song playing over the sound system.
Aday Mara and Lazar Stefanovic stood alongside one another on the perimeter and tapped basketballs before firing three-pointers.
Trent Perry sank a half-court shot and commenced a victory dance.
There was a reason they all seemed a little jaunty. Everything they did Wednesday afternoon inside Rupp Arena was a first.
All four UCLA players had never participated in an NCAA tournament open practice, much less a game. Few on this roster have.
Seven of the team’s top 10 players will make their March Madness debut on Thursday night when the seventh-seeded Bruins (22-10) face 10th-seeded Utah State (26-7) in a Midwest Region first-round game.
“This is why I came to UCLA,” forward Tyler Bilodeau said. “You know, it’s that time, so we’re ready for it.”
This week — and hopefully next week, and the week after that — is the reward for wearing the school’s four letters. Coach Mick Cronin said Bilodeau, Dailey, Perry, William Kyle III, Kobe Johnson and Skyy Clark all took less name, image and likeness money to come to UCLA than they were offered elsewhere.
“Now, we were in the ballgame, it wasn’t in another ballpark,” Cronin said, “but we were trying to get guys to gravitate toward what we were trying to build to get back into the tournament.”
Stefanovic, a senior, arrived as a transfer from Utah before last season without asking for a penny, though he was given NIL money. The big payoff was going to come as part of a team that made a run in the NCAA tournament.
“That was the No. 1 thing when I entered the portal,” Stefanovic said. “I wanted to go somewhere where I could fight for a title and have a chance to win a title.”
After missing the NCAA tournament last year for the first time since 2010, when he was in his fourth season at Cincinnati, Cronin quickly rebuilt his roster.
