UCLA Has One Glaring Need This Season and It Cannot Be Ignored

The Bruins are entering this next season with a lot on the line for both their players and their coach Mick Cronin, as the former are taking over for two stars in Donovan Dent and Tyler Bilodeau, and the latter may have his job on the hot seat if the season does not end well.

This means that all returning players and every transfer will need to clean up what was messy last year in order to prove that they can fill in for missing stars going to bigger leagues, as well as save their coach.

• This year they need to be able to get momentum on their side with a huge defensive play more than just every now and then, they need it to be a common occurrence from game to game and play to play.

• Because most of the time that a team is able to get a big defensive stop, the mood in the building begins to change a bit, and when the forced turnover becomes points for UCLA, momentum fully shifts.

What UCLA Can Do

• Simply said, the Bruins will need to workshop their defense over the off-season, and luckily they have brought in some amazing transfers to do so.

• Only time will tell as to the success of the work that UCLA is putting in though, and if they can get things to work once again Bruins fans might be seeing a deep run, or a championship, coming home soon.

This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/ucla as UCLA Has One Glaring Need This Season and It Cannot Be Ignored.

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This story was originally published June 7, 2026 at 4:00 AM.