UCLA Men's Basketball to Host Seattle on Thursday
LOS ANGELES – UCLA will face Seattle on Thursday evening (5 p.m., PT) in Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom. The Bruins played a pair of games in San Diego last week, going 1-1 against San Diego State and Pepperdine. UCLA's home contest against Long Beach State on Monday was postponed. Glancing at the all-time series against Seattle, the Bruins have compiled a perfect 4-0 record. UCLA last defeated Seattle in the second game of the 1977-78 season – UCLA won 106-73 on Nov. 27, 1977, in Pauley Pavilion. Seattle, which plays in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), has already played four games. Most recently, the Redhawks lost at CSUN, 76-65, on Monday.
GAME INFORMATION
Venue: Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom
Tipoff Time: 5:06 p.m. (PT)
Television: Pac-12 Network
TV Talent: J.B. Long (play-by-play), Don MacLean (analyst)
Radio (UCLA Sports Network): AM 570
Radio Talent: Josh Lewin (play-by-play), Tracy Murray (analyst)
SIRIUS / XM Radio Channels: Ch. 134 / Ch. 197
SIRIUSXM Internet Channel: Ch. 959
BRUIN GAMEDAY LIVE PREGAME SHOW
Starting 30 minutes before all home games, Bruin Gameday Live will bring fans inside Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom. The live simulcast of the pregame radio show will be hosted by Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray. The show will feature an exclusive interview with head coach Mick Cronin, a matchup scouting report, live shots of the team warmups as well as popular videoboard segments such as the intro video, heritage video and appearances by the UCLA Spirit Squad and the UCLA Band. Once the game starts, Bruin Gameday Live will serve to complement the TV and radio broadcasts with game stats, a social media feed, prize giveaways, and more. Bookmark BruinGamedayLive.com on all connected devices to watch this new virtual game day experience.
MAJOR MINUTES
Three UCLA players logged at least 50 minutes in the Bruins' 107-98 victory against Pepperdine in San Diego last Friday. Tied at 70-70 after two halves, UCLA and Pepperdine battled an additional 15 minutes. Chris Smith finished the game with 26 points and 12 rebounds through a career-high 51 minutes. Jaime Jaquez Jr. (16 points, 11 rebounds) never exited the contest. The sophomore from Camarillo, Calif., played all 55 minutes, the highest single-game total by a UCLA player since a four-overtime contest on Feb. 28, 1985, in which Reggie Miller and Nigel Miguel each played 59 minutes.
TRIPLE OVERTIME
UCLA's 107-98 win over Pepperdine last Friday marked the Bruins' first game that lasted at least three overtime sessions since Feb. 28, 1985 (the Bruins lost to USC in Pauley Pavilion, 80-78, in four OT). Prior that contest in 1985, the Bruins had not played a game into three overtime sessions since Jan. 2, 1982 (UCLA lost at Washington State, 57-51). UCLA had not won a game that lasted at least three OT since Feb. 24, 1979. In that contest, No. 1-ranked UCLA escaped at Washington State with an 110-102 win in 3-OT. UCLA has played one game into 4-OT and five games into 3-OT (including last Friday).
WHO'S BACK AT UCLA?
The Bruins have returned eight of their primary 10 contributors from last season's team. All five starters from the second half of last season have returned (Tyger Campbell, David Singleton, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Chris Smith and Jalen Hill). Also back for the Bruins are Cody Riley, Jules Bernard and Jake Kyman, as well as Kenneth Nwuba, who took a redshirt year in 2019-20. UCLA has added sophomore Johnny Juzang (transfer from the University of Kentucky) and freshmen Jaylen Clark and Logan Cremonesi. In all, the Bruins have returned 88.8% of their total scoring output from last season.
ABOUT CHRIS SMITH
Senior Chris Smith has entered the season as UCLA's most experienced player. He has played in all 99 games for UCLA since the start of the 2017-18 campaign, averaging 7.9 points and 3.7 rebounds per game. Last season, Smith earned first-team All-Pac-12 acclaim, having led the Bruins in scoring (13.1 ppg). He has become the first UCLA player to secure first-team all-league honors in a season (2019-20) and return the next year, since Reeves Nelson in the fall of 2011 (Nelson was a first-team selection in 2010-11, returned in the fall of 2011 and was dismissed from the team in Dec. 2011).
NOTES ON THE BRUINS
- Last season, UCLA went 18-1 when limiting the opposition to 73 points or fewer (the loss was at USC on March 7).
- UCLA has returned 86.2% of its total rebounding production and 91.3% of its total assists from last year.
- Jaime Jaquez Jr. has scored in double figures in 16 of the team's last 27 games (since the Chaminade game last season).
- The Bruins won 11 of their final 14 games last season, holding teams to 64.7 points per game in that span.
- Including transfer Johnny Juzang, UCLA has nine players who have scored at least 10 points in a college game.
- The Bruins lead the Pac-12 in most returning 3-point production – 87.6% of the team's 3-point shooting returns.
SOPHOMORE STANDOUT
Sophomore Jaime Jaquez Jr. has played in 91 of the team's 95 minutes through two games. Jaquez Jr. will enter this Thursday's contest having averaged 16.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists in two contests. The former standout at Camarillo High School (Camarillo, Calif.) shot 47.8 percent from the field last week (games against San Diego State and Pepperdine). Last season, Jaquez Jr. led the Bruins in total minutes played during Pac-12 play (556 minutes, 30.9 mpg).
SEATTLE TIES
UCLA first matched up against Seattle on March 17, 1956, in a consolation game of the NCAA Tournament (UCLA won, 94-70, in Provo, Utah). In what was head coach John Wooden's eighth year at the helm, UCLA posted a 22-6 overall mark and a 16-0 record in the Pacific Coast Conference that season. The next meeting between both programs occurred during the 1964 NCAA Tournament, as UCLA opened with a first-round win over the Redhawks (95-90). The Bruins followed that win over Seattle with consecutive victories against San Francisco, Kansas State and Duke to win the NCAA championship.
ASSIST LEADER
Sophomore guard Tyger Campbell led all Pac-12 players in assist-turnover ratio last season (2.79-to-1) and ranked third in the league in assists per game (5.0). He tallied at least 10 assists in two games, including a season-best 14 assists (and three turnovers) in a victory against Arizona State (Feb. 27). In the game prior, Campbell had 11 assists (and just one turnover) in UCLA's 70-63 win at No. 18 Colorado. Campbell's season-high 14 assists in the win over ASU marked the most single-game assists by a UCLA freshman, tied with Lonzo Ball's 14-assist effort against Washington State (March 4, 2017).
30-POINT CLUB
Senior guard Chris Smith scored a career-high 30 points last season in a 72-68 victory at home against Colorado (Jan. 30, 2020. The 6-foot-9 guard became UCLA's first player with at least 30 points in a game since Kris Wilkes finished with 34 points in a win over Arizona on Jan. 26, 2019. That marked the first game in his career in which he had scored at least 25 points. Smith, who scored in double figures in three games as a freshman and 10 contests as a sophomore, did not score at least 20 points in a game until the fourth game last season (20 points, vs. Southern Utah on Nov. 18, 2019).
FRONTCOURT FORCES
The Bruins bring back a pair of redshirt juniors in the frontcourt with Jalen Hill and Cody Riley. As a sophomore last season, Hill averaged 9.0 points and 6.9 rebounds per game, totaling four double-doubles and securing honorable mention Pac-12 All-Defensive Team accolades. Riley averaged 8.8 points and 4.5 rebounds per game and scored in double figures in seven of the final nine games. He totaled 19 points in a victory over Washington State (Feb. 13, 2020), scoring 11 points in the overtime sessions. Both Hill (54.4 FG pct.) and Riley (50.1 FG pct.) have shot over 50 percent from the field in their careers.
SINGLETON FROM 3-POINT RANGE
Junior guard David Singleton ranks just outside the top-10 on the school's career 3-point percentage list. Entering this Thursday, he has made 74 of 181 career attempts (40.9%). As a freshman in 2018-19, Singleton ranked second in the Pac-12 in 3-point shooting percentage (46.7%, connecting on 35 of 75 attempts). Last season, he averaged 4.1 points and 1.8 rebounds per game, making 34.5 percent of his total shot attempts and 37.0 percent of his 3-point attempts.
KYMAN'S 20-POINT GAMES
Sophomore Jake Kyman established himself as one of the Pac-12's most accurate 3-point shooters last season. Hailing from Aliso Viejo in Orange County (California), Kyman made a team-leading 40.3 percent of his 3-point attempts. He connected on 31 of 77 shots from long range, the fifth-best 3-point percentage of any UCLA freshman (that record belongs to former NBA player Jason Kapono, who shot 47.4% as a freshman in 1999-00). Kyman scored at least 20 points in three games last season and made a UCLA-freshman-record seven 3-pointers in a 66-64 win at Washington (Jan. 2, 2020).