Pac-12 Awards: UCLA Guard Amari Bailey Wins Freshman of the Week
The Bruins officially have their first award-winner of the year.
The Pac-12 announced its weekly performance awards Monday afternoon, and UCLA men's basketball guard Amari Bailey took home Freshman of the Week honors. Guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. was nominated for Player of the Week, but he ultimately lost out to Arizona big man Oumar Ballo.
Bailey, on the other hand, beat out Arizona State's Duke Brennan, Cal's Grant Newell, USC's Tre White and Washington's Koren Johnson for the award.
Across UCLA's two wins this past week, Bailey averaged 15.5 points, 6.0 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game.
In the Bruins' 100-53 victory over Pepperdine, Bailey put up a career-high 19 points while shooting a perfect 3-of-3 from 3-point range. The combo guard also dished out four assists without recording a single turnover in the contest, and it is his only game at the college level thus far in which he was perfect from the free throw line.
UCLA strung together another decisive win over Bellarmine on Sunday, and while Jaquez was the team's leading scorer in the 81-60 victory, Bailey once again played an integral role on both ends of the floor.
Bailey dropped 12 points against the Knights, in addition to a career-high eight assists and career-high four steals. The former McDonald's All-American also blocked the first shot of his collegiate career Sunday evening, helping Bailey live up to coach Mick Cronin's high expectations for him as a defender.
On the season, Bailey is averaging 10.3 points, 3.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.4 steals per game on 50.0% shooting from the field and 35.7% shooting from deep. The freshman struggled mightily when UCLA faced Illinois and Baylor in Las Vegas, but he is averaging 13.2 points, 3.6 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game on 55.8% shooting from the field and 36.4% shooting from deep through five appearances at Pauley Pavilion.
Bailey has started all seven games for the Bruins as the season enters its fourth week of action, and he ranks No. 6 in the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio and No. 6 in steals per game.
The Pac-12 first introduced its Freshman of the Week award back in the 2019-2020 season. Both Jaquez and point guard Tyger Campbell won its that year, but Bailey is the first to win it since then.
With the vast majority of the season still left to be played, Bailey and his fellow freshman starter – big man Adem Bona – have already positioned themselves as threats to compete for the honor every week for the rest of the year.
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