Exhibition games are a great way to start out the year, because it allows you to ease into the season against an opponent you will clearly outmatch. This is doubly-great if your team features only 3 returning rotation pieces from last year.
Maybe I should repeat that fact, just for clarification: UCLA only returned 3 rotation pieces from last year’s 31-5 squad: Aaron Holiday, Thomas Welsh, and my large Hungarian son G.G. Goloman. Enter 5 new freshman, all highly recruited, part of the 5th best recruiting class in the nation last year. And then throw in the return of two more players from redshirt seasons, and you have a lot of new faces that need to learn how to play with each other in a competitive setting.