No. 2 UCLA to Host North Florida on Wednesday

LOS ANGELES – No. 2-ranked UCLA (3-0) will close a season-opening four-game homestand against North Florida (0-4) on Wednesday evening in Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom. Game time is 7:30 p.m. (PT). UCLA's contest will be televised by the Pac-12 Network, with J.B. Long and Don MacLean on the call. Fans in the Los Angeles area can listen to the Bruins' radio broadcast on AM 570 (KLAC).
 
GAME INFORMATION
Venue: Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom
Tipoff Time: 7:36 p.m. (PT)
Television: Pac-12 Network
TV Talent: J.B. Long (play-by-play), Don MacLean (analyst)
Radio Broadcast (UCLA Sports Network): AM 570
Radio Talent: Josh Lewin (play-by-play), Tracy Murray (analyst)
SIRIUS/XM Radio Channels: Ch. 84/Ch. 84
SIRIUS Internet Channel: Ch. 84
 
FAN ATTENDANCE, COVID-19 POLICIES
Face coverings will be required for all individuals aged 2 or older, regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status, at all time unless actively eating or drinking (more information here). In accordance with updated health guidance from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), regarding COVID-19, UCLA Athletic indoor events will require fans (age 2 and older) in attendance to show proof of their fully-vaccinated status or provide a pre-entry negative COVID-19 test result from within 72 hours of the start of the event. Additionally, and effective November 1, 2021, all fans over the age of 18 will be required to present an ID along with their proof of vaccination or negative test result. This policy will be in effect for all UCLA men's and women's basketball, men's and women's volleyball and gymnastics home events. Verification will occur at the venue entry points.
 
ABOUT THE BRUINS
- The Bruins have opened with a 3-0 record, heading into Wednesday night's home game against North Florida.
- UCLA has shot 49.5% from the field, through three games, and 82.1% from the free throw line (46-of-56).
- Junior guard Johnny Juzang has averaged a team-best 23.0 points per game (also averaging 5.3 rebounds per contest).
- Senior guard Jules Bernard has averaged 19.0 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists through the first three games.
- UCLA went 22-10 last season, including a 13-6 mark in Pac-12 play (finishing in fourth place in the league).
- Head coach Mick Cronin has gone 44-22 at UCLA (currently in his third season as UCLA's head coach).
- Eleven of UCLA's 15 players were either born and raised in Southern California or attended high school in the area.
- The Bruins opened the 2021-22 campaign ranked No. 2 in the two major national preseason polls (AP, Coaches' Polls).
- For the second consecutive season, the Bruins were selected No. 1 in the preseason Pac-12 media poll.
- Five of UCLA's last 10 games have advanced into overtime (the Bruins have gone 3-2 in those five overtime contests).
 
THE LATEST FOR UCLA
UCLA closes a four-game homestand against North Florida on Wednesday evening. This will mark the first-ever contest between the Bruins and North Florida. UCLA raced to its third consecutive win on Monday evening, logging an 100-79 victory over Long Beach State in Pauley Pavilion. Johnny Juzang, Jules Bernard, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Tyger Campbell have scored in double figures in all three games for the Bruins this season. Juzang, who was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week on Monday, has scored 25 points in each of UCLA's past two games.
 
SHOT MAKERS
The Bruins made 40 of 78 shots against Long Beach State on Monday, the team's most made field goals in one game since connecting on 40 of 74 attempts in the season opener against Purdue Fort Wayne on Nov. 6, 2018. Johnny Juzang led the Bruins in that category on Monday, sinking 11 of 21 shots versus Long Beach State.
 
MOST TURNOVERS SINCE
UCLA forced 25 turnovers in Monday's victory against Long Beach State, the Bruins' highest-single game total (of turnovers forced) since CSUN turned over the ball 27 times in UCLA's season-opening win on Nov. 12, 2010 (the Bruins won that game, 83-50).
 
BRUINS DEFEAT NO. 4 VILLANOVA
UCLA earned its second win of the season last Friday night, logging an 86-77 overtime victory over No. 4 Villanova. Jules Bernard scored a game-tying basket on a driving bank shot with 25 seconds to play (tying the game, 67-67). Trailing 69-67 early in overtime, the Bruins used a 7-0 scoring run to secure a 74-69 cushion and extended their margin to six points (80-74) on a pair of free throws from Jaime Jaquez Jr. with 33 seconds to play. Johnny Juzang finished with 25 points, Jaquez Jr. tallied 21 points and 13 rebounds, and Bernard tallied 16 points and nine rebounds.
 
TOP-FIVE OPPONENT
UCLA landed its first win over a "top-five" ranked opponent since last season's Elite Eight, when the Bruins edged No. 4-ranked Michigan, 51-49, in Indianapolis (March 30, 2021). The Bruins had not faced a "top-five" ranked team in Pauley Pavilion since recording an 82-79 win over No. 5-ranked Oregon on Feb. 9, 2017.
 
RECENT TRENDS
The Bruins have registered a 7-4 record against "top-five" ranked competition (AP poll ranking) since the start of the 2015-16 season. Those victories include a pair of wins over No. 1-ranked Kentucky (Dec. 2015, Dec. 2016), back-to-back wins in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight last March and the most recent win against Villanova.
 
FREE THROWS
UCLA did not attempt its first free throw until the 5:24 mark in the second half. Jaime Jaquez Jr. made one of his first three attempts late in the second half. After Jaquez Jr.'s second miss, UCLA sank its next 16 consecutive free throw attempts, including a perfect 12-for-12 at the line in the five-minute overtime session. The Bruins finished the game having made 17 of 19 free throw attempts and have shot 82.2% at the free throw line, through two games.
 
BACK IN PAULEY PAVILION
The Bruins went 11-1 in Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom last season, with no fans in the arena due to COVID-19 protocols. Dating back to UCLA's 69-64 win over Arizona on Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020, the Bruins had gone 613 days since playing in Pauley Pavilion in front of fans (prior to the home exhibition contest versus Chico State on Nov. 4, 2021). Since the start of the 2019-20 season, UCLA has compiled a 27-5 record in Pauley Pavilion.
 
NEXT WEEK
UCLA will spend next week in Las Vegas, taking on Bellarmine (Nov. 22) and No. 1 Gonzaga (Nov. 23) on back-to-back nights at T-Mobile Arena in the Good Sam Empire Classic. Both of those games will be broadcast by the ESPN family of networks. UCLA will remain in Las Vegas for the remainder of the week, as the Bruins are set to play at UNLV on Saturday, Nov. 27. That will mark UCLA's first game at UNLV since Dec. 27, 1997 (the Bruins won that contest, 65-57).
 
KEY FACILITATOR
Tyger Campbell, a redshirt junior guard, has averaged 13.0 points and a team-leading 4.7 assists in three games. He has made 7 of 14 attempts from 3-point range and all eight of his free throw attempts. Campbell was honored as a first-team All-Pac-12 selection last year. He become the first UCLA player since Darren Collison (2006-09) to serve as the team's primary point guard for three consecutive seasons. From 2011-12 through 2018-19, UCLA had seven different players who serves as the team's "starting" point guard. Campbell played (and started) all 63 games for UCLA the past two seasons.
 
HERE'S JOHNNY
Listed as a preseason All-America selection by nearly every national media outlet, Johnny Juzang averaged a team-leading 16.0 points in 27 games last season. Juzang, who excelled at nearby Harvard-Westlake School, was one of five players to earn All-NCAA Tournament Team acclaim in 2021, having averaged 22.8 points in six NCAA Tournament contests. He shot 50.9 percent in the NCAA Tournament (54-for-106). Juzang secured second-team All-Pac-12 honors last season and finished the year ranked No. 3 among all Pac-12 players in free throw percentage (87.7%, 56-for-65).
 
HOME COOKIN'
Johnny Juzang scored 19 points last Tuesday against CSU Bakersfield, added a team-high 25 points last Friday against Villanova, and registered 25 points against Long Beach State (Nov. 15). Each of those single-game point totals were higher than any other game in Pauley Pavilion for Juzang, last season. His previous single-game high (scoring) in Pauley Pavilion was 17 points versus Washington State on Jan. 14, 2021.
 
GO-TO PLAYER
Selected a second-team All-Pac-12 player in 2020-21, Jaime Jaquez Jr. (along with Tyger Campbell & Johnny Juzang) were picked as "first-team" preseason All-Pac-12 selections in Oct. 2021. Jaquez Jr., a 6-foot-7 guard/forward, has averaged 17.3 points and a team-leading 7.3 rebounds through UCLA's first three contests. Last season, he averaged 12.3 points and a team-best 6.1 rebounds per game. He was one of five players to earn Pac-12 All-Defensive Team honors and led the Bruins with 39 steals and 22 blocks (tied, with Cody Riley). Jaquez Jr. scored in double figures in 21 of UCLA's 32 games.
 
VETERAN PRESENCE
Senior guard Jules Bernard has averaged 19.0 points and 5.7 rebounds in UCLA's first three games. Bernard totaled 22 points and a career-high seven assists in the team's 100-79 win against Long Beach State on Monday. He sank the game-tying basket with 25 seconds to play in the second half against No. 4 Villanova last Friday (tied the game, 67-67). Bernard has made 10 of 18 attempts from 3-point range. He has played in a team-best 98 career contests, including all 32 games (28 starts) last season. He has registered career averages of 8.2 points and 3.7 rebounds per game.
 
NEWCOMERS
UCLA added three players to the roster in the summer – senior Myles Johnson (6-10, center) and freshmen Will McClendon (6-2, guard) and Peyton Watson (6-8, guard/forward). Johnson earned his degree in electrical and computer engineering from Rutgers University and has enrolled as a graduate student (engineering) at UCLA. McClendon was a standout athlete at Bishop Gorman High School (Las Vegas) and will be sidelined this season with a torn ACL (left knee). Watson excelled the past four years at Long Beach Poly High School (Long Beach, Calif.) and was named a McDonald's All-American.
 
PRESEASON RANKINGS
The Bruins opened the 2021-22 season ranked No. 2 in the two major national polls (AP, Coaches). This marks the Bruins' highest preseason ranking since being tabbed No. 2, nationally, prior to the 2007-08 season. UCLA was last ranked as high as No. 2 during in Dec. 2016 (for four consecutive weeks) after wins at Kentucky and at home against Michigan. The Bruins have not been ranked No. 1 in either poll during the season since the 2006-07 campaign. Last season, UCLA opened the year ranked No. 22 in the Associated Press poll and No. 21 in the Coaches Poll.
 
WOODEN AWARD
Juniors Tyger Campbell, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Johnny Juzang were named to the 50-person watch list for the 2022 John R. Wooden Award in early November by the Los Angeles Athletic Club. All three players were selected as preseason first-team All-Pac-12 honorees in October (as announced at Pac-12 Media Day). UCLA has seen two of its players previously win the Wooden Award – Ed O'Bannon as a senior in 1994-95 and Marques Johnson as a senior in 1976-77.
 
30-POINT CLUB
Last season, Johnny Juzang scored a career-high 32 points in a 64-61 win at Washington (Feb. 13). Juzang's 32-point effort at Washington marked the most points in a game by any UCLA player since Kris Wilkes had 34 points as a sophomore against Arizona (Jan. 26, 2019, in Pauley Pavilion). Aaron Holiday is UCLA's most recent player to have scored 30 points (or more) in multiple games in one season (2017-18, with four games of 30+ points).
 
50 PERCENT
Johnny Juzang (32 points, Feb. 13, 2021, at Washington) became UCLA's first player to have accounted for at least half his team's points in a game since Reggie Miller on Dec. 19, 1986. Miller had 38 of 73 points (52.1%) in an 81-73 loss at Washington State. Juzang tallied half the Bruins' points (32 of 64) in last season's win at Washington.
 
CLOSING TIME
Under third-year head coach Mick Cronin, the Bruins have gone 21-7 in games decided by five points or fewer (includes all overtime games, regardless of score margin). In 2019-20, the Bruins went 7-3 in those contests. In 2020-21, UCLA had a 12-4 record. Through Coach Cronin's final three seasons at Cincinnati (2016-17 through 2018-19), his teams went 18-7 in those situations. From 2016-17 through the 2020-21 season, Coach Cronin's teams went 39-14 in such contests.
 
70 POINTS OR FEWER
Last season, the Bruins went 15-3 when limiting the opposition to 70 or fewer points. In 2019-20, UCLA went 18-1 in such situations. Through his final three seasons as Cincinnati's head coach (2016-17 through 2018-19), his teams posted a 79-10 record when holding the opposition to 70 or fewer points. Since the start of the 2016-17 season, his teams have gone 110-14 when limiting the opponent to 70 or fewer points (through 165 games).