5 Grades From UCLA’s Dominant Win Over Rutgers

The Bruins would deliver a very balanced performance in their blowout win against Rutgers.

UCLA's starters knew they needed to play some of their best basketball following the lost to Indiana. While Rutgers is not the best team. They despratley were in need of a convincing matchup that they could build on before their nightmare stretch of games coming up.

Trent Perry played a very decent game. It took him a while to see his first points of the night, but when they started to fall, they started to fall. While his scoring was down, he has continued to show his versatility with seven rebounds on the night.

He only earns a B+ here because we really want to see him do better scoring-wise. But besides that there is not much to complain about. With Skyy Clark looming, Perry has continued to show why he deserves that starting bid when he comes back.

Jan 31, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Indiana Hoosiers guard Nick Dorn (7) defends UCLA Bruins guard Donovan Dent (2) as he drives to the basket in the first half at Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom Financial. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Donovan Dent played a very good game, all things considered. Just coming off a 50-minute outing against Indiana, it was not shocking to see his scoring take a small dip. However, Dent proved once again how impactful a court general he is with his 11 assists and one turnover on the night.

An A- feels right here. It was a very solid game, but it was not exceptional by any margin. Again, fatigue definitely played a factor in Dent's lapses in scoring. Moving forward, we should not expect this to be an issue for much longer. 50-minute games are hard to come off of, which is a very rare occurrence in itself.

Great game from Tyler Bilodeau. His ability to really set the tone early, and build off it consistent is what really sets him apart from the other Bruins on this list. He struggled with some disipline issues against Indiana, but against Rutgers he was almost perfect.

While it would hve been nice to see him break 20 points in this one, you really can't complain with 19. What really helped this performance was his seven-rebounds. In the last two games Bilodeau is averaging 9.0 rebounds per game. A number that needs to stick looking ahead.

Eric Dailey Jr played a good, not great game for UCLA. While his scoring was great, no doubt, it wasn't what we were looking for entering this matchup. His rebounding for a while was second-to-none. But with just three against Rutgers, the mask is starting to slip.

He earns an B here, which is the best we can give him. As the Bruins leading rebounder it is concerning to see an outing like this. His scoring was still a massive factor in UCLA's huge win. But as we have seen all season it can be inconsistent. For that reason we need to see him be a consistent board-getter.

This was a career night for Xavier Booker, literally. He was able to find a career high of 24 points against Rutgers, and he did it on 90.9% shooting. We have seen great shooting performances from the Bruins this season, but none can really top this.

He earns an A++ because this was easily his best game of the season. And for Booker's standards this was completely unexpected. Entering this game he was averaging around seven points per game. And as we all saw he exceeded that by more than triple.

Feb 3, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Rutgers Scarlet Knights head coach Steve Pikiell shakes hands with UCLA Bruins head coach Mick Cronin after the game at Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom Financial. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

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