UCLA Basketball: Bruins Announce Matchup For Second Game of 2024-25 season

The Bruins have announced another non-conference opponent.

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

UCLA men's basketball will face New Mexico for their second game of the 2024-25 season, the team announced in a press release Monday. The game will take place on Friday, Nov. 8 at the Lee's Family Forum in Henderson, Nevada. The stadium is outside of Las Vegas, NV.

It’s an early-season contest against 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐌𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐜𝐨.

The 𝐁𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐬 will face the 𝐋𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐬 in a neutral-site contest in Henderson, Nev., on 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐍𝐨𝐯. 𝟖, in UCLA’s second contest of the 2024-25 regular season.

💻📲: https://t.co/1mAXzGSBPj pic.twitter.com/a3nkyvR1TX

— UCLA Men’s Basketball (@UCLAMBB) August 26, 2024

"We're excited to add New Mexico to our schedule this season," Bruins head coach Mick Cronin said. "This game provides us with another good measuring stick, early in the season, to see what our team is made of and how we stack up against a program that went 26-10 last year. I have a ton of respect for Richard Pitino, and he has put UNM's program in a really strong position in the Mountain West. This game also gives our fans in the Las Vegas region a chance to come cheer on the Bruins in November."

The Bruins face New Mexico in one of their early season non-conference games before they begin play against their new Big Ten foes. UCLA has not played New Mexico since 1997, when the Bruins earned a win.

UCLA has also announced several other non-conference matchups ahead of the season. The Bruins will face former Pac-12 rival Arizona in Phoenix on Dec. 14 as part of a multi-year series between the two programs.

The week after their game against Arizona, the Bruins will face North Carolina at Madison Square Garden in New York City as part of the 2024 CBS Sports Classic. The Bruins are one of four teams to be featured annually in that holiday matchup, along with North Carolina, Ohio State, and Kentucky.

Lastly, the Bruins have already announced a non-conference game against Gonzaga the following week on Dec. 28. The game will take place at the recently-built Intuit Dome, the home of the Los Angeles Clippers.

UCLA comes into the season after a disappointing 2023-24 campaign in which they went 16-17 and failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Cronin rebuilt the team's roster over the offseason through the transfer portal, adding in players like Dominick Harris, William Kyle III, Tyler Bilodeau, Skyy Clark, Eric Dailey Jr., and Kobe Johnson.

The Bruins will face a New Mexico team that went 26-10 overall a season ago and are coming off their first NCAA Tournament appearance in a decade.