Marquette and University of California-Los Angeles will start a home-and-home series for men’s basketball in 2020, the schools announced Wednesday afternoon.
The Golden Eagles will travel to Los Angeles in 2020 before playing the Bruins at Fiserv Forum in 2021. Marquette typically plays against teams in the BIG EAST Conference, which primarily are located in the Midwest and East Coast.
“It’s rare that our schedule takes us to the West Coast, so it’s great to be able to provide our Marquette fans in the area the chance to see the team in person, while at the same time bringing another quality nonconference opponent to Fiserv Forum in 2021-’22,” head coach Steve Wojciechowski said in a statement.
It will be the first matchup between the two programs since the 1964-’65 season, which was legendary head coach Al McGuire’s first season at Marquette. UCLA is 2-0 all-time against Marquette.
The Bruins have made it to the NCAA Tournament in five of its last seven seasons and have three Sweet 16 appearances since 2014.
Cronin will be in his first season at the helm of UCLA this fall after coaching at the University of Cincinnati since 2006. The Cincinnati native faced Marquette seven times while the Bearcats were in the BIG EAST and went 3-4 against MU.
“I have a ton of respect for Coach Wojciechowski and what he’s done at Marquette, and we think this can be a fantastic matchup for both schools,” UCLA head coach Mick Cronin said in a statement. “It’s always a win for our sport to see strong matchups across a pair of power conferences like the Pac-12 and the Big East. I strongly believe in adding high-quality home-and-home games, and we are looking forward to this upcoming series.”
