Analyzing UCLA Men's Basketball's Potential Big Ten Rivals After Move From Pac-12
UCLA's move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten is officially official.
While many of the conversations in the past week have been about finances, media deals and further realignment, the Bruins will eventually have to play against a whole new lineup of conference opponents come 2024. That means a whole new schedule rotation across all sports and, inevitably, new rivals.
USC, making the move alongside UCLA, will obviously still remain public enemy No. 1 in Westwood. As it currently stands, though, Bruin fans will have to replace Arizona, Oregon, Arizona State and others when it comes to secondary rivalries on the hardwood.
Based on history, geography, culture and personnel, here are the schools All Bruins has picked as the most likely candidates to become UCLA men's basketball's next biggest rivals.
Michigan State
All-Time Head-to-Head: UCLA 7, Michigan State 4
UCLA and Michigan State have gotten very familiar with each other over the past decade.
The Bruins beat the Spartans in the 2011 NCAA tournament, and although Michigan State bounced back with nonconference wins in Las Vegas and Maui a few years later, UCLA once again got the upper hand in the 2021 First Four. Michigan State is a gutty, hard-nosed team and has been for years, which makes them a perfect opponent for coach Mick Cronin's squad to take on in the future.
What could hold this potential rivalry back a bit is that coach Tom Izzo is 67 years old and may not have too many years left with the Spartans. Izzo has turned Michigan State into a perennial contender ever since he took over in 1995, but before that, the program was far from a blue blood.
Taking out Magic Johnson's two seasons in East Lansing – when the Spartans went to an Elite Eight and won a national championship – the program had made just one Final Four, two Elite Eights and two final AP top 10s in the other 94 seasons pre-Izzo. Michigan State isn't set up for as much success post-Izzo like Duke is post-Mike Krzyzewski, either, considering they aren't exactly a five-star or one-and-done factory.
Time will tell if UCLA-Michigan State is a long-term rivalry, but as long as Cronin and Izzo are going head-to-head, the matchups will be both memorable and tense.
Indiana
All-Time Head-to-Head: UCLA 6, Indiana 3
While the Hoosiers aren't a blue blood anymore, they're still the Hoosiers.
Basketball is religion in Indiana, and the program's dominance goes all the way back to the 1940s. Bob Knight took things to the next level when he became head coach in 1971, and he wound up leading the Hoosiers to five Final Fours and three national championships in his 30 years.
Knight's Indiana squad rose to dominance right as John Wooden's UCLA dynasty was nearing its end, tying the two programs together across different eras of history.
Wooden never lost to the Hoosiers, beating them in the 1973 Final Four en route to a national championship. The year after Wooden left, though, Knight beat the Bruins in the 1976 Final Four before winning an NCAA title of his own. Indiana snagged a 27-point win against UCLA in the 1992 Elite Eight, but the blue and gold got revenge in the 2007 Round of 32.
Whether the future matchups are at Pauley Pavilion or Assembly Hall, UCLA and Indiana will surely be must-see TV whenever or wherever they compete.
Michigan
All-Time Head-to-Head: UCLA 13, Michigan 6
The Wolverines and Bruins are bound to be enemies on the gridiron and hardwood, since a lot of the connections between the two go beyond the games themselves.
As two top public schools, two Jordan Brand schools and two of the largest overall brands in collegiate athletics, the maize and gold and blue and gold have a lot in common. And just like how their football programs have plenty of experience against each other, UCLA and Michigan have had plenty of big-time hoops battles as well.
The Bruins beat the Wolverines in the 1965 national championship game, and picked up additional March victories over them in 1975 and 1978. Michigan got revenge in the 1993 Round of 32, but UCLA punched right back with a Round of 32 win in 1998.
The two teams met seven years in a row in the mid-2000s, and they split a home-and-home in the late Steve Alford era with each side emerging victorious at home. Their most recent matchup was in the 2021 Elite Eight, when UCLA closed out a two-point win and held Michigan under 50 in Indianapolis.
The Bruins and Wolverines have spent the past two seasons as some of the nation's top programs, and they continue to compete against each other in the recruitment of top five-star prospects. As conference rivals, those recruiting battles will only get more intriguing.
Purdue
All-Time Head-to-Head: UCLA 9, Purdue 1
UCLA and Purdue have played twice in March Madness – the Bruins won in the national championship game in 1969 and the Final Four in 1980.
What makes this future conference showdown interesting, though, is the shared history the two programs have with the sport's most legendary figure.
John Wooden played for Purdue before coaching UCLA's decades-long dynasty, and he holds icon status on each campus. There are statues of Wooden and giant Pyramids of Success in both Westwood and West Lafayette.
The Boilermakers have made 13 of the last 15 and 30 of the last 39 NCAA tournaments, so they have established themselves as a staple of the modern game as well. Matt Painter has been at the helm there for 17 years, helping Purdue earn top-five seeds in each of the last six postseasons while producing NBA-level guards and dominant 7-footers.
The history is one half of the equation, and a Cronin-Painter matchup is another. Combining the two makes a UCLA-Purdue rivalry an interesting possibility moving forward.
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