UCLA basketball to open Pac-12 play against defending champs

The Pac-12 portion of the UCLA men’s basketball schedule was announced Tuesday morning and the first school listed was the last conference representative remaining in the 2016 NCAA tournament.

UCLA will travel to defending Pac-12 champion Oregon the opening week of conference play to take on a team that reached the Elite Eight last season with a group that returns six of the seven players in its balanced rotation.

Four of the Bruins’ first six conference games are on the road, but five of the final seven are at Pauley Pavilion.

Coming off a five-game stretch to close nonconference play that includes dates with Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio State UCLA will face each of the four Pac-12 teams that finished the regular season in the top 25 in the first four weeks of conference play. Cal pays a visit to Westwood the first week of January before the Bruins visit Arizona and return home to host Utah.

The exact dates of each game won’t be determined until the televised selections have been made and approved later this summer.

UCLA Pac-12 SCHEDULE
Week of Dec. 28-Jan. 1: at Oregon/Oregon State
Week of Jan. 4-8: California/Stanford (Pauley Pavilion)
Week of Jan. 11-15: at Colorado/Utah
Week of Jan. 18-22: Arizona/Arizona State (Pauley Pavilion)
Week of Jan. 25-29: at USC
Week of Feb. 1-5: at Washington/Washington State
Week of Feb. 8-12: Oregon/Oregon State (Pauley Pavilion)
Week of Feb. 15-19: USC (Pauley Pavilion)
Week of Feb. 22-26: at Arizona/Arizona State
Week of March 1-4: Washington/Washington State (Pauley Pavilion)