UCLA Senior Jaime Jaquez Jr. Named Wooden Award All-American

The Bruins' star wing also won Lute Olson National Player of the Year to cap off his fourth season in Westwood.

With a career-defining major decision coming up, the Bruins' top senior picked up even more national recognition on Thursday.

UCLA men's basketball guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. was named a Wooden Award All-American, becoming the first Bruin to pick up that honor since Lonzo Ball in 2017. This is Jaquez's third All-American honor of the season, making the AP and NABC All-American Second Teams in mid-March.

Purdue's Zach Edey, Indiana's Trayce Jackson-Davis, Alabama's Brandon Miller, Penn State's Jalen Pickett, Houston's Marcus Sasser, Gonzaga's Drew Timme, Kentucky's Oscar Tshiebwe, Arizona's Azuolas Tubelis and Kansas' Jalen Wilson joined Jaquez as the other Wooden Award All-American selections.

Jaquez was not named a finalist for the Wooden Award. Edey, Jackson-Davis, Sasser, Timme and Wilson remain up for the national player of the year honor. Earlier on Thursday, though, Jaquez was named Lute Olson National Player of the Year.

The Camarillo, California, native led UCLA with 17.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, and he ranked second on the team with 2.4 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.6 blocks per game. Jaquez averaged career highs in every major count stat, in addition to shooting a career-best 77.0% from the free throw line.

Jaquez appeared in all 37 of the Bruins games this season and scored double figures in 34, leading the team to a 31-6 record, a Pac-12 regular season title and a third-straight Sweet 16 appearance.

The 6-foot-6 wing was towards the top of the Pac-12 leaderboards in several categories, ranking No. 2 in points per game, No. 5 in rebounds per game, No. 4 in steals per game, No. 4 in player efficiency rating, No. 1 in win shares, No. 2 in offensive win shares, No. 1 in defensive win shares and No. 2 in win shares per 40 minutes.

In Bart Torvik's analytics-based national player of the year rankings, Jaquez sits at No. 8. Just since the start of conference play, however, Jaquez ranks No. 4, which is part of the reason he beat out Tubelis for Pac-12 Player of the Year.

Jaquez – who is still in the running for the Naismith and Erving Awards – now must decide if he wants to declare for the 2023 NBA Draft or return to Westwood for his fifth year of college hoops.

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