Jaime Jaquez reveals impact Russell Stong provides

Senior night is coming up for UCLA, where they’ll honor a legendary group of veterans, such as Tyger Campbell, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and David Singleton. However, one name that doesn’t get as much acclaim but who will also be going through the festivities is walk-on Russell Stong. In the leadup to the goodbye night for the senior class, Jaquez and head coach Mick Cronin both made a point to highlight Strong’s contributions.

“Russell, he’s the mayor of Westwood, that’s who he is,” said Jaquez of Strong. “He’s a hot commodity around campus, everyone knows him. He’s like the social chair. He knows everybody, everyone knows him. He just brings energy, like he works just as hard as any of us. He doesn’t have to but he gets up extra shots as well in the gym. He’s always trying to get in and work hard.”

A hard-worker who also wants to make sure his teammates are getting valuable experience in practice, per Jaquez.

“When he’s on the scout team, he always asks us questions about, like… What can I do to make it more realistic, what can I do to help make this the best scout team possible to help you guys win? So without him, I don’t think we’d be in this position as well. I know you know there’s a lot of guys who make impacts off on the floor, but off the court impact is just as important to me and just about team chemistry.”

Definition of a team-first player. Coach Cronin echoed many of those same sentiments in comments this year about the beloved walk-on.

“I will say this about Russell Stong—impact on the program, practice is really important; people don’t know that on the outside. Russell’s a very good player, so when Tyger needs rest, Russell’s in there. When we have injuries, Russell’s in there. And he’s good — he can make shots, he takes care of the ball,” said Cronin.

“People see he gets in at the end of games and he’s the walk-on guy who gets in at the end of games — Russell really can play. Like, there’s levels that he would have been a good player, aside from his character, his locker-room presence, all the obvious things that you would think about with a guy like Russ that are awesome.”

Russell Stong sacrificed possibly a decent mid-major or Division II career to be an unheraled piece of an incredibly successful program. Not very many guys would make that choice but credit Strong for being a star in his role off the court with UCLA. His contributions certainly haven’t gone unnoticed by the Bruins’ star player and head coach.