Peyton Watson Suffers Leg Contusion, Out For UCLA Men's Basketball's Game vs. Stanford
The Bruins will be without their most highly-rated underclassmen when they take on the Cardinal on Tuesday.
Guard/forward Peyton Watson is out for No. 12 UCLA men's basketball's (16-4, 8-3 Pac-12) game against Stanford (14-8, 7-5) at Maples Pavilion due to a lower right leg contusion, a UCLA Athletics spokesperson told All Bruins. Watson has been designated by the team as day-to-day.
It is unclear how or when Watson suffered the injury. The true freshman played just four minutes in UCLA's most recent game against Arizona State, appearing in the first half for one shift and then not subbing back in until the final two seconds of the third overtime.
Watson got an offensive rebound on guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr.'s intentional free throw miss in that brief second moment of playing time, but he was unable to convert on a desperation game-tying heave from the corner while falling out of bounds. Several reports claimed Watson was hit by a thrown t-shirt during that final possession.
In 20 games this season, Watson is averaging 14.4 minutes per game and putting up 3.9 points, 3.5 rebounds, 0.7 steals and 0.7 blocks a night. Watson is shooting 31.8% from the field, 20.8% from deep and 66.7% from the line for a team-worst 38.7% true shooting percentage, but he did have two games with multiple steals and two games with multiple blocks during UCLA's recent six-game winning streak.
Watson did not attempt a shot across 14 minutes during the Bruins' road trip to the Arizona schools, tallying just one rebound to go with two turnovers and four fouls.
The Long Beach Poly (CA) product was the first consensus five-star recruit to come to Westwood since coach Mick Cronin arrived in 2019, and he is the only McDonald's All-American currently on the team.
Of the 15 players on UCLA's roster, five are freshmen or sophomores. There is a chance that none of them will take the court for the Bruins on Tuesday.
Guard Jaylen Clark has been in concussion protocols for two weeks now, and while he remains a game-time decision Tuesday against Stanford, he remains day-to-day. Forward/center Mac Etienne and guard Will McClendon each suffered season-ending torn ACL injuries prior to the season. Etienne's status would be in the air even without his knee issues, considering he was arrested and cited for assaulting a fan by spitting on them after the Arizona game in Tucson last Thursday.
Walk-on forward Logan Cremonesi is healthy, but Cronin said earlier in the season that Cremonesi had asked to be redshirted this year. That doesn't rule him out of appearing in a game outright, but he has not taken the court at all since the season began.
The rest of the Bruins seem to be healthy as well, with Jaquez bouncing back from his recent ankle injury last week and guard Johnny Juzang making it out of COVID-19 protocols without showing any symptoms.
Cronin's rotation will be shortened to eight players, though, with center Myles Johnson, guard David Singleton and guard/forward Jake Kyman set to be the main contributors off the bench. Even with Watson available last weekend, UCLA got 7 and 8 points out of its bench in the two road contests.
UCLA and Stanford will tip off at 8 p.m., and it will be broadcast on ESPN2.
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