UCLA's Jaime Jaquez Jr. Named to Updated Julius Erving Award Watch List

Amid a slew of injuries, one of the Bruins' key contributors remains in the running for one of the top honors in basketball.

No. 3 UCLA men's basketball (16-2, 8-1 Pac-12) guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. was named to the updated midseason watch list for the Julius Erving Award on Wednesday, given annually to the top small forward in the country. Jaquez was a member of the 20-man preseason watch list released in October, and now he has made the cut for the award's top 10.

Jaquez was a member of the midseason watch list for the John R. Wooden Award released at the start of January, but was trimmed off the player of the year candidate list when the late season watch list came out Monday.

Baylor's Kendall Brown, Davidson's Hyunjung Lee, Duke's Wendell Moore, Loyola-Chicago's Lucas Williamson, Michigan's Caleb Houstan, Rutgers' Ron Harper Jr., St. John's' Julian Champagnie, Stanford's Harrison Ingram, Villanova's Jermaine Samuels were the other members of the midseason watch list. There will be three rounds of fan voting starting Feb. 4 to further narrow down the field, with five finalists set to be announced in March before the winner is eventually selected by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s selection committee.

Congratulations to Jaime Jaquez Jr. (@jaquez_jr) on being named to the 10-person updated watch list for the Julius Erving Award (nation's best small forward).#GoBruins | #ErvingAward

DETAILS: https://t.co/SwqhyTY1j1 pic.twitter.com/xouYdkbVw4
— UCLA Men’s Basketball (@UCLAMBB) February 2, 2022

Jaquez has left three contests early this season with both head and ankle injuries, which has cost him games and dinged his per game statistics.

In the 17 games Jaquez has played in this season, he is averaging 12.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.2 steals per game. Just going by the 14 games he played to completion, though, Jaquez is averaging 14.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.5 steals per game.

Jauqez is on pace to set career highs on a per 100 possession basis with 25.3 points, 10.9 rebounds and 4.2 assists, and that's after he already made the All-Pac-12 Second Team and All-Pac-12 Defensive Team last season. Jaquez's player efficiency rating, win shares per 40 minutes and box plus/minus are on pace to be the highest of his career as well, and his 92.4 defensive rating ranks in the top 10 in the conference.

Because of his injuries and sharing the scoring load with guards Johnny Juzang, Jules Bernard and Tyger Campbell, Jaquez's offensive numbers don't exactly jump off the page, as he is one of the lowest-scoring members of the latest watch list. And while Jaquez is still shooting well above 50% from 2, his 3-point efficiency has dipped nearly nine percentage points to where he is just barely shooting over 30% from deep.

Despite all of that, Jaquez has stood out as one of the better defensive wings in the country, leading the Bruins' perimeter players in steals-plus-blocks as the team has asserted itself as one of the most suffocating defensive units in the nation.

Unlike Campbell and Juzang, Jaquez has not earned Pac-12 Player of the Week at any point this season.

UCLA has taken on two other members of the Erving Award watch list this season, beating both Ingram and Samuels.

Updated watch lists for the Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Awards will be released throughout the rest of the week. Center Myles Johnson was on the preseason watch list for the Abdul-Jabbar Award, while guard Tyger Campbell was named to the updated watch list for the Bob Cousy Award on Monday and guard Johnny Juzang made it for the Jerry West Award on Tuesday.

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