What does the UCLA basketball team have to gain tonight?

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Sitting at No. 2 in the country with only Western Michigan between it and conference play, UCLA has little to gain and much to lose tonight. The Bruins better get used to it.

Long gone are the preseason projections of Oregon at the top and Arizona ahead of UCLA in the Pac-12 standings. The Bruins’ non-conference run has earned them conference-favorite status. Accordingly, UCLA will have the pressure on it when it travels to Eugene, Ore., a week from today.

UCLA will be under even more scrutiny if it gets past Western Michigan tonight to finish non-conference play undefeated for the first time since 1995, the last time it won a national championship. But keep in mind the Broncos gave the No. 1 team in the country a run earlier this season. Villanova let a 14-point second-half lead dwindle to three before besting Western Michigan by 10 on a neutral floor Nov. 17.

You can read more about Western Michigan, UCLA’s nation-leading offensive efficiency, TJ Leaf tweeting Taylor Swift an invite to a UCLA game and Thomas Welsh’s injury status here.

UCLA has seemed immune to let-down games thus far, but Pac-12 play isn’t the only reason UCLA could look past Western Michigan. The players can look forward to a brief Christmas break that starts at the final buzzer tonight. They don’t have to return to UCLA for their next practice until Christmas night.

“Openers are always scary. Break games are always scary,” UCLA coach Steve Alford said. “But I do trust this team.”