{"id":31653,"date":"2025-10-31T09:05:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T09:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/31653\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T09:05:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T09:05:17","slug":"no-12-ucla-faces-old-adversary-dan-monson-in-clash-with-eastern-washington-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/31653\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 12 UCLA faces old adversary Dan Monson in clash with Eastern Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"

Past UCLA<\/a> teams have faced plenty of Dan Monson-coached squads in years past, but the Nov. 3 season opener in Los Angeles marks the first time the No. 12-ranked Bruins meet an Eastern Washington<\/a> side with Monson at the helm.<\/p>\n

UCLA played Long Beach State nine times during Monson’s tenure with the Beach, which spanned from 2007-08 through 2023-24. Monson coached Long Beach State to its only-ever victory over the Bruins — a 79-68 decision in the 2009-10 campaign — but lost the next eight straight, including all four games since Mick Cronin arrived at UCLA in 2019.<\/p>\n

Monson is now beginning his second season as head coach at Eastern Washington, which is facing host UCLA for just the second time in program history.<\/p>\n

The Eagles finished 10-22 in their first season under Monson, who ended his tenure at Long Beach State with a run to the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Eastern Washington ended the 2024-25 season on a six-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

A highlight amid the Eagles’ struggles a season ago was the breakout performance of guard Andrew Cook, a transfer from NAIA program Carroll College. However, The Spokesman-Review reported on Monday that Cook sustained a season-ending ankle injury, three days before Cook was announced as a preseason All-Big Sky Conference selection.<\/p>\n

“You don’t try to replace him. That’s impossible,” Monson said. “He had a unique game, and he was a guy who could go get his own shot at the end. He had a lot of experience. It’s going to have to be a committee, several guys.”<\/p>\n

Cook averaged 15.8 points per game to pace the Eagles a season ago, grabbed 3.5 rebounds per game and swiped more than a steal per game. His loss highlights the importance of 2024-25 All-Big West performer Isaiah Moses stepping up upon joining the Eastern Washington backcourt from UC Riverside.<\/p>\n

Moses averaged 12.0 points and 3.0 assists per game for the Highlanders.<\/p>\n

Moses may be in the background as far as the transfer guards debuting for their teams, with UCLA premiering Donovan Dent. Nov. 3 marks Dent’s regular-season debut at UCLA after transferring in from New Mexico.<\/p>\n

He played his first game as a Bruin in an Oct. 17 exhibition at San Diego State, compensating for a shaky 4-of-16 shooting from the floor with a 10-of-10 performance at the free-throw line.<\/p>\n

The explosive-scoring Dent averaged 20.4 points per game on his way to winning the 2024-25 Mountain West Conference Player of the Year. He adds perimeter offensive punch to a UCLA lineup returning last year’s leading scorers, frontcourt standouts Tyler Bilodeau (13.5 points per game) and Eric Dailey Jr. (11.4).<\/p>\n

Alongside Dent at guard is Skyy Clark. The Louisville transfer, by way of Illinois, finished last year strong with double-figure-scoring games in four of UCLA’s final five, including NCAA Tournament matchups with Utah State and Tennessee.<\/p>\n

Brandon Williams, a top 100-ranked recruit in the 2023 class, could see his first regular-season gameplay since the 2023-24 campaign. Williams missed the entirety of UCLA’s first year as a Big Ten Conference member and came out of the Oct. 17 exhibition with an apparent hip injury.<\/p>\n

“He’s getting there,” Cronin said of Williams’ progress. “Big, strong guy; (we are) trying to pattern him after (NBA veteran) Draymond Green.”<\/p>\n

–Field Level Media<\/p>\n

\n Copyright 2025 STATS LLC and Field Level Media. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Field Level Media is strictly prohibited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Past UCLA teams have faced plenty of Dan Monson-coached squads in years past, but the Nov. 3 season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[4213,23065,131,133,132,13652],"class_list":["post-31653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-college-basketball","tag-eastern-washington-eagles","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-ucla-bruins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}