Lonzo Ball’s UCLA debut will be an all-nighter

The debut of UCLA’s most highly prized freshman basketball player in recent years won’t exactly come in prime time.

Lonzo Ball will play his first game as a Bruin at 2:30 a.m. PDT on Tuesday against Sydney University at Brydens Stadium in Sydney. The exhibition is part of a tour of Australia that will also include games against Melbourne United at 2 a.m. Saturday and against the Brisbane Bullets at 2 a.m. Monday.

A streaming feed of the first exhibition game can be found here.

UCLA spent its first few days in Australia recovering from the 15-hour flight from Los Angeles and sightseeing. Players climbed the 440-foot-tall Sydney Harbour Bridge and visited the Coogee Bay and Taronga Zoo.

Ball will be the featured attraction in each of UCLA’s exhibitions. The 6-foot-6 point guard is coming off a season in which he led Chino Hills High to a 35-0 record and a state championship after averaging 23.4 points, 11.5 rebounds and nearly 13 assists per game in front of fans who were lucky enough to snag a ticket to his mostly sold-out games. His appearance in the McDonald’s All-American game and selection as national player of the year by several publications only presaged the outsized expectations that await him at UCLA.

Ball won’t be the only freshman making his Bruins debut. Power forward T.J. Leaf and forward-center Ike Anigbogu will also be trying to show they deserve immediate playing time on a roster thinned by defections and injuries.

Kobe Paras and Jonah Bolden left the team over the summer and Prince Ali suffered a knee injury that is expected to sideline him at least several games into the season.

The Bruins have been left with a top-heavy roster featuring guards Isaac Hamilton, Aaron Holiday and Bryce Alford and center Thomas Welsh in addition to the trio of highly regarded freshmen. There is little proven depth behind those seven players.

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