The Bruins, now a Big Ten school confronts the Mountain West contender New Mexico in the Week 1

It’s a busier than usual Friday around college basketball and the marquee matchup is one of the latest ones of the night as annual Mountain West contender New Mexico takes on No. 22 UCLA in Las Vegas.

The Bruins, now a Big Ten school, are favored on the NCAAB odds in Week 1.

New Mexico Lobos NCAAB Line +209

New Mexico opened the season Monday with a 91-84 home win over Nicholls State, which led briefly in the first half and trailed 48-43 at the break before an early 9-0 run by New Mexico in the second gave the Lobos some breathing room. The lead never surpassed 12 points and a late Colonel run cut it to four, but the rally came up short. Nicholls had nine more turnovers, which aided a 23-6 Lobo advantage in points off of turnovers. New Mexico also made 22 of 32 free throws, while Nicholls connected on only 9 of 16.

The Lobos tied a school record with three players recording double-doubles to lift UNM to its 22nd consecutive season-opening win. Nelly Junior Joseph tied a career-high with 28 points and matched his UNM best with 16 rebounds for his 44th career double-double, fourth most among active Division I players.

Double-double x3️⃣

First time in 27 years three Lobos have double-doubles in the same game! #505SVF | #GoLobos pic.twitter.com/qwwBEVrJnX

— Lobo Basketball (@UNMLoboMBB) November 5, 2024

Mustapha Amzil

Amzil had 13 points and a career-high 13 rebounds for his fourth career double-double, while Donovan Dent also had his fourth career double-double, finishing with 15 points and 11 assists. The Lobos had three players post double-doubles for the 13th time in program history and the first time in 27 years. Tru Washington added 12 points and CJ Noland scored 10 off the bench in his Lobo debut.

Richard Pitino

New Mexico’s 36 3-point attempts were the most in the Coach Pitino era. UNM had double digit blocks (10) and steals (10) for the second time in two seasons (vs. Utah State last year) after going over 12 years without accomplishing the feat.

“I told our guys, teams come in here and get excited to play in this building. We are going to get everyone’s best shot. Nicholls won at LSU last year, so they had a quality win under their belt. We thought it would be tough. They shot a lot of threes and made some tough ones. Offensively, we were much better in the second half. We made an effort to get Nelly the ball and see if they could stop him. It was good for us to see some things that will help us improve,” Pitino said.

The Selected Players

For the second straight season, New Mexico had two players selected to the preseason All-Mountain West team as Dent and Junior Joseph were honored The Lobos were one of two teams (Boise State) to have multiple players on the 10-player team. Last season, Dent was a second-team All-Mountain West selection. New Mexico was picked second in the preseason Mountain West poll. It was the Lobos’ highest projected finish since 2013-14 (picked to win the league).

New Mexico added eight new players to the roster (four transfers and four freshmen). All four transfers have power conference experience (Noland – All Big XII Freshman Team at Oklahoma before playing last year at North Texas), Atiki Ally Atiki (BYU), Ibrahima Sacko (Georgia Tech), Filip Borovicanin (Arizona).

Friday marks the second year in a row that UNM will play a ranked team on the opening week of the season as last year it faced No. 23 Saint Mary’s and lost 72-58.

UCLA Bruins NCAAB Line -263

UCLA compiled a 16-17 record last season and a 10-10 mark in Pac-12 play, finishing in fifth place in the conference standings in their final year in the league The Bruins have returned six of their primary contributors from last season and added nine incoming players in the offseason (three freshmen and six transfer students). Their 2024-25 roster has nine players who have each scored at least 20 points in one collegiate game.

The Transfers

The six returning contributors include senior Lazar Stefanovic, junior Dylan Andrews and sophomores Sebastian Mack, Aday Mara, Brandon Williams and Devin Williams. Andrews concluded the 2023-24 season as the Bruins’ leader in scoring (12.9 ppg) and assists (119), while Stefanovic finished the year as the team’s leading rebounder (202 rebounds, 6.1 rpg). Mack led the Bruins in free throws made (125) and free throw attempts (172), ending his freshman campaign ranking No. 5 in the Pac-12 Conference in free throw attempts.

Two of the six incoming UCLA transfers competed in the Pac-12 last season – senior Kobe Johnson (USC) and junior Tyler Bilodeau (Oregon State). The other four transfers include senior guard Dominick Harris (from LMU), juniors Skyy Clark (from Louisville) and William Kyle III (from South Dakota State), and sophomore Eric Dailey Jr. (from Oklahoma State). Bilodeau (32 games), Dailey Jr. (32), Johnson (31), and Kyle III (35) each played in at least 30 games for their respective college programs last season.

Kyle III

He was selected to the 20-person watch list for this season’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, which honors the nation’s top collegiate center. He led South Dakota State in rebounding (6.6 rpg) and blocks (55) and was second on the team in scoring (13.1 ppg) last season before transferring.

No. 22 UCLA routed Rider 85-50 on Monday in its season opener. The Bruins scored the game’s first six points and never trailed and led by 18 at the half. A total of 11 UCLA players saw action and all but two scored as the Bruins put up more points than in any game last season, logging the highest single-game point total since an 86-53 NCAA Tournament win over No. 15-seed UNC Asheville in Sacramento on March 16, 2023.

Let’s roll back those from Monday’s season-opening win against Rider.#GoBruins | @B1GMBBall ️ pic.twitter.com/1mjgwV1Niu

— UCLA Men’s Basketball (@UCLAMBB) November 5, 2024

Tyler Bilodeau

Bilodeau led all scorers with 18 points on 9-of-16 shooting on Monday and pulled down six rebounds in his 22 minutes of action in his UCLA debut. Andrews connected on six of his 11 shot attempts to tally 14 points while handing out six assists. Johnson had 12 points, eight boards, three assists, and two steals. The Bruins assisted on 21 of its 34 made field goals and shot 52.3 percent in the contest.

“We had 52 deflections, everyone who played got one,” said Coach Mick Cronin. “We really have to work on blocking out. We knew that that was going to be an issue with this team tonight. For us, when Eric Dailey is out of the game, our rebounding struggles. We didn’t play a big lineup. We didn’t play Tyler [Bilodeau] at the four as much as he will with Aday in, because of their size. They were spreading us out so we went small. We have to be a better rebounding team.”

UCLA has now won five of their last six season openers, including each of the last four. It was the team’s first 30-plus-point win since last year’s opening game, a commanding 75-44 win against Saint Francis.

How to Bet New Mexico vs UCLA Odds NCAA Basketball Odds

When: Friday, 11 PM ET
Where: Lee’s Family Forum, Henderson, Nevada
TV: CBS Sports Network
Stream: Paramount+

New Mexico vs UCLA Last Meeting

This marks the first matchup between the schools since the Bruins registered a 69-58 win over the Lobos (Dec. 6, 1997), in a game played in Anaheim as part of the annual John R. Wooden Classic. Prior to that, the schools had not faced off since a game in Albuquerque on Nov. 23, 1987 when New Mexico won on its home court, 77-66. Overall, the teams have split four meetings.

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