The 2015–16 UCLA Bruins men's basketball team represented the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, during the

2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 13. The first tournament was the 2K Sports Classic and ended with the Final Four in Houston April 2–4. Practices officially began on October 2. Rule changes The followin ...

. They finished the season with a 15–17 record, the fourth time the program finished with a losing record since

1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

, when

John Wooden John Robert Wooden (October 14, 1910 – June 4, 2010) was an American basketball coach and player. Nicknamed the Wizard of Westwood, he won ten National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championships in a 12-year period as head ...

became their coach. The Bruins were led by third-year head coach

Steve Alford Stephen Todd Alford (born November 23, 1964) is an American men's college basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach for the Nevada Wolf Pack of the Mountain West Conference (MWC). Born and raised in Indiana, he was a ...

and played their home games at

Pauley Pavilion Edwin W. Pauley Pavilion, commonly known as Pauley Pavilion, is an indoor arena located in the Westwood Village district of Los Angeles, California, on the campus of UCLA. It is home to the UCLA Bruins men's and women's basketball teams. The men ...

as members in the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

Isaac Hamilton Isaac Brandon Hamilton (born May 14, 1994) is an American professional basketball player for Cherkaski Mavpy of the Ukrainian Basketball SuperLeague. He played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins, earning second-team all-conference honors in ...

earned second-team All-Pac-12 honors, the only Bruin named to the all-conference team. With

Kevon Looney Kevon Grant Looney (born February 6, 1996) is an American professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). As a freshman playing college basketball with the UCLA Bruins, he earned secon ...

having moved on to the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA), sophomore Thomas Welsh was promoted to UCLA's starting lineup at

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

, while center

Tony Parker William Anthony Parker Jr. (born 17 May 1982) is a French-American former professional basketball player and majority owner of ASVEL Basket in LNB Pro A. Himself the son of a basketball pro, Parker started his career at Paris Basket Racing in ...

moved to

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. Freshman

guard Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison ...

Aaron Holiday Aaron Shawn Holiday (born September 30, 1996) is an American professional basketball player for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The guard played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins, where he earned All-American ...

also opened the season as a starter, teaming with Hamilton and

Bryce Alford Bryce Michael Alford (born January 18, 1995) is an American professional basketball player for Zastal Zielona Góra of the Polish Basketball League. He played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins. He set school records for the most three-point ...

to form a three-guard lineup. The Bruins lost their season opener to

Monmouth Monmouth ( , ; cy, Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. I ...

and lost consecutive games in the Maui Invitational to

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

and Wake Forest. However, they recovered to upset then-No. 1

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

87–77 at home and defeated then-No. 20 Gonzaga 71–66 on the road. UCLA finished their non-conference schedule winning six of their last seven games, and entered Pac-12 play at 9–4 and ranked No. 25 in the nation. They were comparatively better than a year earlier, when they entered conference play with five losses and a three-game losing streak. The Bruins had an early conference win against then-No. 7

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, but they were 4–5 halfway through the Pac-12 schedule, including 0–4 against the three teams with the quickest pace in the conference,

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

, and

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. Their defense was weakened without comparable replacements for Looney and

Norman Powell Norman WC Powell (born May 25, 1993) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Powell played college basketball with the UCLA Bruins, where he was an all-conference ...

, a senior from the prior season, and sophomore

György Golomán György "G. G." Golomán (born April 2, 1996) is a Hungarian professional basketball player for Lietkabelis Panevėžys of the Lithuanian Basketball League. He played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins. Golomán went undrafted in the 2018 NB ...

had been out for much of the season with a

stress fracture A stress fracture is a fatigue-induced bone fracture caused by repeated stress over time. Instead of resulting from a single severe impact, stress fractures are the result of accumulated injury from repeated submaximal loading, such as running or ...

in his leg. UCLA coach

believed his big front court was "slow" and had sophomore

Jonah Bolden Jonah Anthony Bolden (born 2 January 1996) is an Australian-American former professional basketball player. He started his professional career with FMP in Serbia, where he was named the ABA League Top Prospect in 2017. He played a season-and-a- ...

start in place of the senior Parker. While Bolden was taller than Parker, he was also lighter. UCLA began their second half with a loss to USC, who swept the Bruins for the first time since

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

. The Bruins lost both games in their crosstown rivalry by double digits for the first time since 1938. In their next game, UCLA blew a 10-point halftime lead to Arizona en route to their fifth loss in seven games. The loss dropped them out of all major NCAA tournament projections and mired in 10th place in the Pac-12. The Bruins were eliminated from the Pac-12 tournament after a 95–71 loss to USC, losing three consecutive times in the same season to the Trojans for the first time in 74 years. UCLA missed the NCAA Tournament for just the third time in 10 years.

Previous season

The Bruins finished in fourth place (11–7) in the Pac-12 conference. They earned a No. 11 seed in the NCAA Championship tournament, and advanced to the Sweet 16, becoming the lowest-seed UCLA team to ever reach the regional semifinals. They defeated SMU 60–59 in the second round and UAB 92–75 in the third round. Then the Bruins lost to Gonzaga for the second time of the season, 74-62 in the Sweet Sixteen. The program produced its 49th 20-win season.

led the team in scoring with 16.4 points per game, followed by

with 15.4 points per game.

Off-season

Departures

Incoming transfers

2015 recruiting class

Roster

Schedule

UCLA's 2015–16 schedule includes home games against Kentucky, Long Beach State, Pepperdine, Cal Poly, Louisiana-Lafayette, Monmouth, Cal State Northridge, and McNeese State. UCLA will travel to play at Gonzaga and face off against North Carolina at a neutral venue. The Bruins will also make a trip to play three of the following in the Maui Invitational:

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

, St. John's,

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...

, Vanderbilt, and Wake Forest. During the Pac-12 Conference schedule, UCLA will play 18 games (9 home and 9 away) and will have home-and-homes with the following teams: Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, Oregon State, USC, Washington, and Washington State. The Bruins will only play the Rocky Mountain teams (Colorado and Utah) at home. UCLA will also only play the Bay area teams (California and Stanford) on the road. , - !colspan=12 style="background:#; color:#;", Exhibition , - !colspan=12 style="background:#; color:#;", Non-conference regular season , - !colspan=12 style="background:#;", Pac-12 regular season , - !colspan=12 style="background:#;", Pac-12 Tournament , -

Ranking movement

Notes

* December 7, 2015 – Thomas Welsh was named Pac-12 Player of the Week * January 11, 2016 – Bryce Alford was named Pac-12 Player of the Week * March 5, 2016 – Forward/center Tony Parker was honored on Senior Day * March 24, 2016 – Sophomore center Thomas Welsh was named to the second-team Pac-12 All-Academic team

References

External links

2015-16 UCLA Bruins Roster and Stats
at Sports-Reference.com {{DEFAULTSORT:2015-16 UCLA Bruins men's basketball team

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

UCLA Bruins men's basketball seasons

UCLA Bruins men's basketball The UCLA Bruins men's basketball program represents the University of California, Los Angeles in the sport of men's basketball as a member of the Pac-12 Conference. Established in 1919, the program has won a record 11 NCAA titles. Coach John ...