There’s plenty of buzz around UCLA’s new roster, and one transfer sits at the center of the offensive conversation: Texas Tech guard Jaylen Petty.
As Mick Cronin heads into his eighth season, Petty looks like the newcomer with the clearest path to becoming a major scoring piece for the Bruins. His role at Texas Tech was limited at first, but he carved out more minutes as the season went on and started giving the Red Raiders a real lift on offense.
Petty finished with 22 starts, mostly down the stretch, when he settled in and found his rhythm. His best scoring night came against Akron in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, when he poured in 24 points.
Now he arrives in Westwood with a full offseason behind him and a starting spot available. That combination gives him a chance to take on a much bigger offensive load than he had at Texas Tech, where Christian Anderson often drew more of the attention.
Petty also showed he can deliver when the competition rises. Against then-No.
7 Houston, he scored 20 points and shot 55.6% from three-point range on nine attempts. Later against then-No.
6 Houston, he added 18 points and hit 66.7 from three on six attempts.
By the end of the season, he was a steady part of the offense, regularly reaching double figures. If that late-season surge carries over to UCLA, Petty could finish as the Bruins’ top scorer.
Last season, most of his damage came as a catch-and-shoot threat from deep, but he also flashed the ability to attack the rim and create for himself. Cronin should have the freedom to let him expand that offensive package.
Petty and Trent Perry figure to give UCLA a strong backcourt pairing, and the two should fit together well.
In Other News...
Xavier Booker Could Fix UCLAs Frontcourt With One Defensive Step
Xavier Booker already gives UCLA something it needs in the frontcourt: size, timing and a shot-blocking profile that can change possessions. At 6-foot-11, he is the tallest player on the roster, and his ability to protect the rim is no small part of why he stands out. Among Division I players with at least 20 minutes per game, Booker ranked 17th in block percentage, a sign that his best defensive skill is already among the more useful ones a team can have.
The next step is less about intimidation than consistency. Booker still has room to grow as a defensive rebounder, sitting in the 64th percentile among players his height or shorter, and that is the piece that could make UCLA trust him even more on that end. If he can clean up possessions after the initial stop, the Bruins may have found a frontcourt defender who does more than just alter shots. [Read more 🡒]
Mick Cronin Enters A Different Kind Of Season At UCLA
Mick Cronins run at UCLA has already given the Bruins plenty to point to, from five NCAA Tournament trips in seven seasons to that Final Four surge in 2021. He has also built a strong overall record, and that kind of track record is why the standard around Westwood has stayed high even as the roster has continued to change. After another season that ended in the Round of 32, the conversation around the program has shifted from consistency to whether Cronin can push this group into a deeper spring run.
This is where the next phase of the job gets interesting for Cronin and the Bruins. Fresh additions on the roster bring new possibilities, but they also sharpen the expectation that UCLA should be doing more than simply reaching the tournament and hanging around for a weekend. The pressure now is not about whether Cronin has stabilized the program. It is about whether he can turn that stability into the kind of team that looks built to chase a title. [Read more 🡒]
UCLA Opens With Pressure On A Rebuilt Roster At Cal
UCLA opens the season in an unfamiliar spot, with a rebuilt roster and a new voice on the sideline as Bob Chesney takes over in a road trip to California Memorial Stadium. The matchup carries the usual early-season uncertainty, but it also comes with the added weight of history between the Bruins and the Golden Bears, two programs that know each other well and have spent plenty of autumns measuring themselves against one another in the Pac-12 era and beyond.
The opening game also brings a little intrigue off the field, where the numbers do not quite agree on how to read the Bruins. UCLA is listed as a slight favorite, while ESPNs win predictor gives Cal a narrow edge, a split that mirrors the uncertainty around a team trying to reset quickly under a first-year head coach. For a roster still taking shape, Saturday is less about style points than about answering an immediate test in a setting where a slow start would only sharpen the questions. [Read more 🡒]