WATCH: Jaime Jaquez Jr. on Pac-12 Player of the Year, UCLA Journey

UCLA men's basketball guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. spoke with reporters ahead of Tuesday morning's practice session at the Mo Ostin Basketball Center. Jaquez talked about winning Pac-12 Player of the Year, his teammates virtually sweeping the rest of the conference awards, his development over the past four years in Westwood and how the Bruins will adjust to not having Jaylen Clark in the conference tournament.

Reaction to winning Pac-12 Player of the Year?

It feels great, man. Just a lot of hard work, I give a lot of credit to my teammates, I think it was a very competitive race this year and I give a lot of credit to Tubelis, he played an amazing season, great battles against him always and I give credit to my teammates for helping me win this, I mean to go win the Pac-12 outright by four games is not an easy thing to do, it’s not just one person, so I really appreciate all my teammates helping me and just making me get in the right spot and my coaches as well, all the staff, just thanks to everybody.

How amazing is it to go from doubting yourself as a freshman to where you are now?

Yeah, like I said, I came here on a mission, I’m taking steps along this road, along this journey, to try to get there and as a freshman, you never know what to expect, if you would have told me four years later you’d win the Pac-12 championship and I’d be Pac-12 player of the year I don’t know if I would have believed you, I mean, it’s just been such a crazy ride so far and I’m so grateful to be a part of this thing.

Teammates got some Pac-12 awards too, almost swept?

Yeah, let’s get the brooms out, I mean, that’s a pretty clean sweep. Dave, I think he probably should have got sixth man of the year—I mean, I know he started a lot of games but that was due to injury, I think he could have won that as well, but yeah, this is a team that works so hard and we push each other and when you’ve got guys of this caliber always going against each other in practice, it makes the games a lot easier, so I’m going against the defensive player of the year every single day in practice, I mean, I would hope that I would become a better offensive player going against him every day and having a guy like Adem Bona who could also win defensive player of the year as well, he’s freshman of the year, he’s a freak of nature, and then obviously coach getting on us every single day, I mean, it’s just a recipe for success and I think that’s what we built here.

How do you come together without Jaylen?

I think it’s just a next-man-up-mentality, it’s just I was telling Abramo and Dylan and Will, the guys like those before the Jaylen incident happened to just be ready, you never know, this is the craziest time of year, we need you guys to be ready, you’re here for a reason, you’re here to help us win games and whether you’re not playing or you’re playing, we still need you guys to be locked in and be ready for your name when it’s called and I trust in those guys, the rest of the team believes in them, coach believes in them and I think they’re going to be ready for the challenge.

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