LOS ANGELES — When Eric Dailey Jr. entered the transfer portal, he was positively confounded to see a school as big as UCLA reaching out so early into the process. He had started just half of the games in his freshman season at Oklahoma State. But there was Darren Savino’s contact popping up on his phone.

Turns out Dailey shouldn’t have been all that surprised. The UCLA staff has a type and he fits the parameters.

“We need the effort, the intensity on defense, that’ll be our style this year,” Savino, UCLA’s associate head coach, said after the Bruins’ intrasquad scrimmage on Oct. 16. “We picked the guys that we wanted, the guys that fit, that we knew would be coachable and would buy in.”

Dailey visited no school outside of UCLA this offseason. He bought right into that system, as did the rest of this restocked Bruins roster that erased the memories of the program’s first losing season since 2016 with each block, swiping away any concerns with each steal.

Behind a strong defensive performance, UCLA beat Rider 85-50 in its season opener on Monday at Pauley Pavilion. The 14 turnovers the Bruins forced isn’t an eye-popping number, but their defense was stifling and it helped propel their offense.

UCLA picked up full court off made baskets, trapping occasionally when Rider (0-1) crossed the timeline. USC transfer Kobe Johnson had 2 steals, as did Oregon State transfer Tyler Bilodeau, who led the Bruins with 18 points.

The Bruins forced four turnovers in the opening four minutes. Johnson stripped the ball and pushed it in transition, finding Dailey for a layup. Skyy Clark tipped an inbounds pass, then saved the ball from going out of bounds. He capped the possession, setting up Bilodeau for a 15-footer.

Johnson’s timely double-teams surprised Broncs’ ball-handlers throughout and his help defense stopped a number of drives.

As the Bruins pulled away, Rider began pressing in response and Johnson broke it. He coolly hit a floater and then swung the ball to Dailey for a corner 3.

Johnson finished with 14 points in his regular-season debut.

Aday Mara added another wrinkle to UCLA’s defense, specifically in the half-court. He blocked Jay Alvarado’s floater within his first minute of game action and blocked Tariq Ingraham’s hook shot later in the half. Even when he didn’t get a palm to the ball, his presence deterred Broncs’ players from attacking the rim.

Mara played seems to have a hold on the backup center job over William Kyle III, who played 11 minutes — all in the second half — and had three blocks of his own.