Johnny Juzang, Jaime Jaquez Jr. Represent UCLA Men's Basketball on Wooden Award Midseason Watch List
Two Bruins are still in the running to bring home the most prestigious award of the year.
No. 5 UCLA men's basketball (8-1) guard Johnny Juzang and guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. were named to the midseason watch list for the John R. Wooden Award, the trophy named after the historic Bruin coach given to the top men's and women's players each year. There were 25 players named to the list, and Juzang and Jaquez were two of the four Pac-12 players to make the cut.
Juzang and Jaquez are one of three pairs of teammates on the watch list, while Purdue leads the way with three midseason candidates. UCLA's sample size is smaller than most, with the team missing seven games due to COVID-19 since the start of December, but the duo managed to stand out enough in that short stretch to earn the national praise.
Juzang is the Bruins' leading scorer, putting up 16.6 points per game on 43.1% shooting from the field, 36.7% from deep and 86.7% from the free throw line. Juzang has stepped up as both a rebounder and defender, averaging 4.9 boards per game, and his defensive rating of 96.7 is over seven points better than it was last year.
The former March Madness hero also bumped his assists per game from 1.6 to 2.1 per game, although his assist-to-turnover ratio is still hovering right around 1-to-1.
Juzang put up 25 points in back-to-back games earlier on in the season, with one of those scoring bursts coming in UCLA's overtime win against then-No. 5 Villanova.
Jaquez is averaging 14.8 points per game while shooting at a more efficient clip than Juzang, hitting 46.3% of his field goals and 40.9% of his 3-pointers. Jaquez is the Bruins' second-leading rebounder and assister with 6.6 boards and 2.4 assists a night, while also putting up 1.2 steals per game.
The Bruins' other standout from last year's Final Four run has broken the 20-point mark three times in nine tries. The most recent of those came against Marquette on Dec. 11, when he posted 24 points and 12 rebounds en route to a big-time road win.
Juzang ranks No. 3 in the Pac-12 in scoring and Jaquez is not far behind at No. 5. They are the only pair of teammates in the top five on the conference's scoring leaderboards.
UCLA hasn't had a Wooden Award finalist since guard Lonzo Ball in 2016-2017, and they haven't boasted a winner since forward Ed O'Bannon in 1994-1995. The only other Bruin to win the award was forward Marques Johnson, who won the inaugural honor in 1976-1977.
Arizona guard Bennedict Mathurin and USC forward Isaiah Mobley were the other two members of the watch list from the Conference of Champions. The Bruins, Wildcats and Trojans are all top-10 teams in the most recent AP Poll, and the three teams are a combined 32-2 on the season.
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