The No. 1 ranked UCLA Bruins will head to the Eastern time zone for a conference game for the very first time in program history for Saturday morning’s Big Ten matchup against the 10-3 Indiana Hoosiers. UCLA women’s basketball will have to head over 2,000 miles east for their matchup against the Hoosiers and not only do the Bruins have a long flight ahead of them, they have to be ready for a 9:00 a.m. (Pacific Standard Time) tip-off. It won’t be the first time UCLA had to travel far for a game this season, after opening the season in France and heading to Hawaii for the Rainbow Wahine Showdown. It’s just the Bruins’ second Big Ten road game but the first came against old Pac-12 rival Washington up in Seattle.
At 14-0, UCLA’s record is still without a blemish but head coach Cori Close said that it won’t stay that way unless the Bruins play team basketball more consistently.
“I’m really excited that we have such a tough opponent in a very hostile environment this very next game because I think it’s going to force us to be like ‘You want to keep winning? You better buck up,’” Close said of Saturday’s matchup. “You go into Bloomington with that level of urgency and concentration, we’re going to get beat.”
UCLA will have two games in Indiana before heading back to Westwood, facing Purdue on Tuesday. After this roadstand, the Bruins will return to the East Coast later this month for the Coretta Scott King Classic against Baylor before facing Rutgers and Maryland and then again in February to face Iowa and Wisconsin. UCLA will likely return to Indiana for the Big Ten tournament in March.
Saturday’s game against Indiana will be aired on Fox, giving the national audience a chance to see how the Bruins respond to an early gametime.