{"id":408514,"date":"2026-07-22T21:35:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T21:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/408514\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T21:35:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T21:35:36","slug":"ucla-facing-college-basketball-power-in-anaheim-in-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/408514\/","title":{"rendered":"UCLA Facing College Basketball Power in Anaheim in December"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The UCLA men\u2019s basketball team will be playing its first game in Anaheim in a decade this December, and the Bruins are facing off a perennial college basketball power.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Bruins will be at the Honda Center on Dec. 5 for the West Coast Hoops Showdown, and they\u2019ll be tipping off against the Gonzaga Bulldogs, the school said in <a href=\"https:\/\/uclabruins.com\/news\/2026\/07\/22\/mens-basketball-to-face-gonzaga-in-anaheim-this-december\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">a news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img data-od-added-loading=\"\" data-od-removed-fetchpriority=\"high\" data-od-replaced- data-od-xpath=\"\/HTML\/BODY\/DIV[@class='elementor elementor-246463 elementor-location-single post-256599 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-ucla tag-gonzaga-bulldogs tag-mick-cronin tag-top-stories mv-content-wrapper']\/*[2][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[4][self::DIV]\/*[3][self::FIGURE]\/*[1][self::IMG]\" loading=\"lazy\" data-dominant-color=\"30344a\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #30344a;\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Xavier-Booker-1024x683.webp\" alt=\"Mar 22, 2026; Philadelphia, PA, USA; UCLA Bruins center Xavier Booker (1) reacts against the UConn Huskies in the first half during a second round game of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images\" class=\"wp-image-256600 not-transparent\" \/>Mar 22, 2026; Philadelphia, PA, USA; UCLA Bruins center Xavier Booker (1) reacts against the UConn Huskies in the first half during a second round game of the men\u2019s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s the first time since 2016 the Bruins will be playing in Anaheim, though they\u2019ve faced the Bulldogs several times in the past few seasons, including twice in the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Matchup is \u2018vital for our college game\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the release, head coach Mike Cronin emphasized how important games like this are.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With UCLA joining the Big Ten a couple of years ago, many of the West Coast schools are no longer tied by conference.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud835\udc14\ud835\udc02\ud835\udc0b\ud835\udc00 \ud835\udc2f\ud835\udc2c. \ud835\udc06\ud835\udc28\ud835\udc27\ud835\udc33\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc20\ud835\udc1a \ud83c\udfc0\ud83d\uddd3\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>The Bruins will take on Gonzaga in Anaheim (at Honda Center) in a primetime, nationally-televised matchup on FOX on Saturday, Dec. 5.<\/p>\n<p>\ud835\udc03\ud835\udc04\ud835\udc13\ud835\udc00\ud835\udc08\ud835\udc0b\ud835\udc12: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0yD80FYe66\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/0yD80FYe66<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yC54AT92HK\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/yC54AT92HK<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 UCLA Men\u2019s Basketball (@UCLAMBB) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/UCLAMBB\/status\/2079975725529288951?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">July 22, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With much of the Bruins\u2019 schedule now tied up with teams on the East Coast and in the Midwest, finding regional matchups must be done purposefully.<\/p>\n<p><img data-od-replaced- data-od-xpath=\"\/HTML\/BODY\/DIV[@class='elementor elementor-246463 elementor-location-single post-256599 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-ucla tag-gonzaga-bulldogs tag-mick-cronin tag-top-stories mv-content-wrapper']\/*[2][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[4][self::DIV]\/*[10][self::FIGURE]\/*[1][self::IMG]\" loading=\"lazy\" data-dominant-color=\"3c3f4b\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #3c3f4b;\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Mick-Cronin-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Mar 19, 2026; Philadelphia, PA, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Mick Cronin speaks with the media before a practice session ahead of the first round of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images\" class=\"wp-image-254413 not-transparent\" \/>Mar 19, 2026; Philadelphia, PA, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Mick Cronin speaks with the media before a practice session ahead of the first round of the men\u2019s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are looking forward to playing Gonzaga in front of our fans in Orange County,\u201d said Cronin. \u201cThis is a great opportunity for our young men to play a high-caliber opponent in an area with a ton of Bruin fans. I know it\u2019s been a while since our team has played in Anaheim, and we are grateful to everyone at the Honda Center for helping make this matchup happen. It\u2019s vital for our college game to preserve some of these strong West Coast matchups. UCLA taking on Gonzaga is a win-win for our sport. I\u2019m encouraging all our Bruin fans to pack the Honda Center when we take the court on Saturday, Dec. 5.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>How can I watch the UCLA vs. Gonzaga game?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you\u2019re interested in buying tickets to the game, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/westcoasthoopsshowdown.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">West Coast Hoops Showdown\u2019s website here<\/a>. Ticket presale is expected to start Oct. 7, with the general sale beginning on Oct. 8.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The game will also be nationally televised in primetime on Fox, but the start time has not yet been decided.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UCLA men\u2019s basketball team will be playing its first game in Anaheim in a decade this December,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,60772,8750,136],"class_list":["post-408514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-gonzaga-bulldogs","tag-mick-cronin","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408514","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=408514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}