Finnish freshman Lauri Markkanen may be aware of UCLA’s history but he didn’t exactly grow up watching the Bruins.
Or any college team, really.
Markkanen said he never watched U.S. college basketball until he started considering playing it two years ago, being too focused own his own game to watch others that were being played 10 time zones away from Finland.
“I try to get better every day so you don’t want to risk getting up at 4 a.m. to watch games,” Markkanen said. “Of course, UCLA is a tough team and it means a lot to play against them. I knew about UCLA but I didn’t have time to watch the games.”
