Jaylen Clark’s Season-Ending Injury Is a Crushing Blow to UCLA’s Title Hopes

The Bruins, who have been in the running for a top seed in the tournament, will have a much tougher path through March Madness without their star defender.

In a major blow to No. 2 UCLA’s national championship hopes just days before Selection Sunday, star wing Jaylen Clark is expected to miss the rest of the season due to an achilles injury, Stadium’s Jeff Goodman reports. A semifinalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Award, Clark left Saturday’s game against Arizona early in the second half and returned to the bench later on crutches.

Clark emerged as a capable offensive weapon this season, ranking second on the team in scoring at 13 points per game and nearly doubling his scoring average from a season ago in the process. But his biggest strength remains on the defensive end, where he is one of the most impactful players in the country and the catalyst for KenPom’s second-ranked defense nationally. In addition to his versatility allowing him to defend multiple positions, Clark leads the Pac-12 and is in the top 10 nationally in steals per game. His ability to force turnovers helps UCLA get easy baskets offensively and is a major reason why the Bruins rank second in the country in turnover margin.

Clark averages more than 30 minutes of playing time per game this season for the Bruins :: Gary A. Vasquez/USA TODAY Sports

Advanced stats further illustrate Clark’s massive impact on UCLA’s success and hopes for a deep NCAA tournament run. Per Hoop-Explorer, UCLA is 23.7 points per 100 possessions better when Clark is on the floor than off. That’s a far bigger delta than seen with the likes of likely All-American forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. or point guard Tyger Campbell, making a case for Clark as the team’s most important player.

Further complicating matters is the fact that even with Clark, UCLA was not a deep team. The Bruins rank 278th in bench minutes usage per KenPom, with only sharpshooter David Singleton being a consistent offensive weapon off the bench. Singleton seems likely to rejoin the starting lineup (as he did when freshman Amari Bailey was sidelined earlier this season), leaving a bench that only features little-used freshmen Dylan Andrews, Will McClendon and Abramo Canka outside of traditional centers Kenneth Nwuba and Mac Etienne. Andrews has flashed moments of promise in his just over 10 minutes per game, but he’s a smaller guard pegged by many as the team’s point guard of the future, rather than the do-it-all defensive player Clark is.

The injury could also impact how UCLA, which won the Pac-12 regular-season title for the first time since 2013 this season, is seeded in the NCAA tournament. The Bruins moved up to a No. 1 seed in Sports Illustrated’s most recent projected bracket, but the NCAA tournament selection committee weighs how a team looks without key players in the seeding process, should the player be out for the tournament.

“If a player was injured last week and now they’re going into their conference tournament, their conference tournament games gives the committee an opportunity to watch and evaluate that team without that key player,” committee chair Chris Reynolds told NCAA.com’s Andy Katz on Wednesday.

The Bruins passed their first test without Clark, holding on to a comfortable lead through most of the second half after he went down against Arizona. They open Pac-12 tournament play against the winner of Washington and Colorado on Thursday. The experience of veterans like Campbell, Jaquez and Singleton still makes UCLA a tough out in a tournament setting, particularly given all three players’ roles in the team’s Final Four run in 2021 and trip to the Sweet 16 in ’22. Still, it’s a devastating blow to a team that had won 10 in a row and looked more and more like a national title contender in a season defined by parity throughout the sport.