Four-star transfer big man Xavier Booker came to Westwood over the portal period as a part of Mick Cronin’s stellar offseason. The UCLA Bruins acquired Booker along with Mountain West Player of the Year and former New Mexico point guard Donovan Dent.
Booker will be an immediate impact player for the Bruins. And a new report from CBS Sports college basketball insider Jon Rothstein reveals that the 6-foot-11 big will be playing a new role under Cronin.
“The transfer perhaps that is the biggest unknown commodity, that will have the biggest impact on his team next season is Xavier Booker at UCLA,” Rothstein said. “This is somebody that firmly control UCLA’s ceiling during the upcoming season.
Rothstein revealed in an X (formerly Twitter) post that the Bruins plan to play Booker at the center position exclusively after the transfer spent the last two season playing power forward for the Spartans.
UCLA plans to play Xavier Booker primarily at the 5 after two years of playing PF at Michigan State.
His production level will dictate the ceiling in Westwood in 2025-26. pic.twitter.com/08xQExbAUp
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) June 17, 2025
Many college basketball analysts, including Rothstein and legendary coach Dick Vitale, have UCLA in their top-10 ahead of next season. The Bruins finished last year with 23 wins and bowed out of the NCAA Tournament in the second round after a loss to Tennessee. Booker and Dent were brought in to address the small, but glaring, holes they had in last year’s team.
“UCLA needs Xavier Booker to be a factor to have a chance to compete for a Big Ten regular season title and a high seed in the NCAA tournament,” Rothstein added. “That is just a fact of life.”
College basketball analyst Matthew Winick quoted Rothstein’s post noting that Booker played only 27 non-garbage time minutes at the five position with Michigan State last season. The Spartans had a +21.7 net rating in that span.
Booker detailed in a one-on-one with David Woods from Bruin Report Online that one of the main reasons he chose UCLA was to be able to maximize his potential as a center under Cronin.
“Going somewhere I could play my game and display everything I could do,” Booker said of what he was looking for out of the transfer portal. “And really just play for a coach who has a lot of faith in me to go out on the floor and just be able to play through mistakes. I know I’m capable of doing a lot of things and I kind of what to bring that to this program. And I feel like (Mick) Cronin is going to let me do that.”
The Bruins certainly already have a high floor among national perception ahead of next season. Maybe Booker’s new role could raise their ceiling.
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