Jaime Jaquez, Tyger Campbell say previous Gonzaga matchup has 'little effect' on this year's

Ahead of their showdown with Gonzaga in the Sweet Sixteen, Jaime Jaquez and Tyger Campbell of the UCLA Bruins are turning back the clocks.

Back in November of 2021, the Bulldogs defeated UCLA in a rout, taking it to the best the Pac 12 has to offer by a score of 83-63. In that game, Jaquez scored 19 points, but only made seven of his 22 shots, while Campbell scored 11 over 33 minutes on the court.

Andrew Nembhard — who’s now getting buckets for the Indiana Pacers — led all scorers with 24. Obviously, the aforementioned 2021 showdown has little to do with Thursday’s game between Gonzaga and UCLA, as Jaquez and Campbell explained to the media.

“I think it’s a new team. We want to compare last year — I think it was maybe the third game of the year, and talk about almost two years, maybe a year and a half, something later. We’ve got a lot of new guys. It’s a completely new team,” stated Jaquez. “So I think that game has little effect on what we’re doing here in this game coming up.”

Campbell whole-heartedly agreed with his teammate, elaborating on just how different both the Bruins and Bulldogs are from last season.

“Jaime hit it on the head,” responded Campbell. “It’s hard to compare a game from a year ago or even when we played them before that because we have a whole new team. They have a whole new team.

“Obviously there’s still some guys that were there, just like we have, but we’re going into this game not worried about the past ones and just trying to get a win on Thursday.”

Moreover, it was Jaquez who led the way for the Bruins in their Round of 32 showdown to get them to the Sweet Sixteen, scoring 24 points and adding eight rebounds on the day to lead his squad. Additionally, Amari Bailey and his 14 points helped in a big way, with the previously mentioned Campbell’s 12 points and seven assists on the night helping in a big way.

The victor between Gonzaga and UCLA will have a golden opportunity, as the No. 1 seed in their region, the Kansas Jayhawks, fell to the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday. Devonte Davis and his 25 points, along with Ricky Council IV’s 21 points was simply too much to overcome for the reigning champions of the sport, and Eric Musselman’s squad notched another victory over a No. 1 seed for the second consecutive season.

Both Jaime Jaquez and Tyger Campbell want a title, but the Gonzaga Bulldogs are in their way before they can think about that. Old issues aren’t coming to light, as the Bruins have their eyes on the prize on Thursday.