UCLA announces status of Jaime Jaquez for Arizona game
UCLA forward Jaime Jaquez will start Thursday night against Arizona, the team announced. Jaquez was previously considered questionable after suffering an ankle injury Saturday against Stanford.
The junior is the Bruins’ third-leading scorer with 12.3 points per game and leads the team with 5.3 rebounds. He has started every game he has appeared in over the past two seasons.
Thursday’s contest pits two top 10 teams against each other. No. 3 UCLA (16-2) and No. 7 Arizona (17-2) will battle it out for the top spot in the Pac-12 at 8 p.m. ET in Tucson. The Bruins have a half-game lead on the Wildcats entering Thursday.
The teams have already met once this season, with UCLA coming out on top by a score of 75-59. Jaime Jaquez stuffed the stat sheet in the first meeting against Arizona with 10 points, five rebounds, three blocks and two steals.
The 6-foot-7, 225-pound forward played his high school ball for Camarillo (CA). A four star recruit in 2019, he chose the Bruins over offers from several big names, including in-state schools Stanford and USC.
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It didn’t take long for him to make an impact, as he started 23 games his freshman season. Following his sophomore season, Jaquez was named second-team All-Pac-12 after putting up 12.3 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
UCLA is currently a number one seed according to On3’s Feb. 1 bracketology projection. The Bruins have won six straight since a Jan. 14 loss to Oregon. Their only other loss this season came against then No. 1-ranked Gonzaga. Arizona is a two seed in On3’s bracketology projections.
UCLA snuck into the NCAA Tournament last year as an 11 seed, but would play much larger. The Bruins pulled off upsets of Alabama and Michigan to reach the Final Four, where they lost to Gonzaga. Jaquez was a major part of the run, averaging 15 points and 6.3 rebounds over those six games.
Coach Mick Cronin has kept that momentum going into this season. His team returned all five starters, giving it as good a chance as any to replicate the success in this year’s tournament.