Blue Blood Matchup Between Indiana, UCLA Returns With Big Ten Expansion

During the 2024-25 season, Indiana and UCLA will match up for the first time since 2007 and the 13th time in history.

UCLA's Bill Walton (32) Indiana's Steve Green (34) contend for a rebound during the 1973 Final Four. / Malcolm Emmons-Imagn Images

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana and UCLA are two of the most accomplished programs in men’s college basketball history, but they haven’t faced off since the 2007 NCAA Tournament.

That will change in 2024-25, thanks to UCLA joining the Big Ten as a result of conference expansion.

Indiana is scheduled to host UCLA on Feb. 14 at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind., a chance to break the 6-6 series tie. Game time and television information for the Friday matchup has not been announced.

The game will feature two of the sport’s blue bloods and all-time winningest programs. UCLA leads all schools with 11 national titles, and Indiana is tied for fifth most with five championships. The Bruins’ 2,002 wins ranks fifth in college basketball history, and the Hoosiers come in at No. 10 with 1,931 victories.

In the most recent matchup in Sacramento, Calif., No. 2 seed UCLA defeated No. 7 seed Indiana 54-49 in the 2007 NCAA Tournament Round of 32. Under coach Ben Howland, UCLA guard Darren Collison led the way with 15 points, while Indiana’s D.J. White and Earl Calloway scored 12 points apiece.

That ended a 15-year gap in matchups between the teams. Prior to 2007, Indiana hadn’t faced UCLA since the 1992 Elite Eight in Albuquerque, N.M., where coach Bob Knight and the No. 2 seed Hoosiers defeated No. 1 seed UCLA. To advance to the Final Four, Calbert Cheaney led Indiana with 23 points, followed by Damon Bailey with 22 and a double-double from Alan Henderson.

A victory in the Elite Eight represented revenge from the 1991-92 season opener, when No. 11 UCLA defeated No. 2 Indiana 87-72 in Springfield, Mass. UCLA's Tracy Murray scored a game-high 21 points.

The Hoosiers and Bruins rarely missed the NCAA Tournament in that era, but they found themselves matched up in the 1985 NIT championship game. UCLA coach Walt Hazzard capped off his first season with a 65-62 win over Indiana at Madison Square Garden. UCLA's Reggie Miller and Nigel Miguel led all scorers with 18 points apiece.

Indiana remains the last team in men’s college basketball to go undefeated and win the national championship, and UCLA was on its path that year. The Hoosiers defeated the Bruins 65-51 in the 1976 Final Four in Philadelphia, Pa., with four starters in double figures: Kent Benson, Scott May, Tom Abernethy and Quinn Buckner.

Indiana and UCLA also met in the 1975-76 season opener, an 84-64 victory for the No. 1 ranked Hoosiers over the No. 2 Bruins.

UCLA coach John Wooden won seven straight national championships from 1967-73, a run that included a 70-59 win over Indiana at the 1973 Final Four in St. Louis, Mo., during Knight’s second season. 

Indiana's Quinn Buckner (21) and UCLA's Bill Walton (32) walk off the court at the 1973 Final Four. / photo via Indiana University Archives, scanned from the March 26, 1973 edition of The Indiana Daily Student.

The last seven games between Indiana and UCLA were played at neutral sites, but the series began with five on-campus matchups, spanning from 1937-61. Indiana won the first three games against UCLA, beginning with two meetings in Los Angeles and one in Bloomington. UCLA won the next two matchups, split between Bloomington and Los Angeles.

Previous games between Indiana and UCLA fell before and after coach Mike Woodson’s playing career as a Hoosier, so he’s excited to face UCLA and the rest of the west coast teams.

“It’s different from the time I played until now, but again, I say this all the time, competition is healthy,” Indiana coach Mike Woodson said on the College Hoops Today podcast with Jon Rothstein. “And UCLA and USC and the other two schools [Oregon and Washignton] are very good programs, man, and it can’t help but push the action a little bit more. And we have to travel a long way, but that’s nothing new to me. I’ve done that in the NBA for a long time, going from east coast to west coast and west coast back to east coast.” 

“But I just think it’s healthy, man. I think it’s going to be very competitive. When you enter the Big Ten season, man, it’s tough. All these teams can play and well coached and you gotta be on your best game in order to win at home and on the road, man, because it’s not easy.”

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