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UCLA men's basketball extends offer to 2023 SG KJ Lewis

The Bruins are trying to poach one of the top-ranked guards in the country out of the Southwest

Sam Connon

(Photo Courtesy of KJ Lewis/Twitter)

The Bruins sent out another big offer Monday.

Class of 2023 shooting guard KJ Lewis earned a scholarship offer from UCLA men's basketball Monday, he announced on Twitter. The 6-foot-4 wing out of Chapin High School (TX) is considering mostly schools in the Southwest and Midwest, with the Bruins standing out as one of the few coastal programs atop Lewis' list.

Lewis also has offers from Kansas, Houston, Arizona State, SMU, TCU, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and five others.

Lewis also received a two-year, $500,000 offer to join Overtime Elite, an offer he elected to turn down to preserve his amateur status and stay in school.

“It was really hard, it had my head spinning the whole week,” Lewis told KTSM-TV, NBC's El Paso affiliate station. “The two biggest things were not being able to finish out my high school career and not getting to play in college, which I want to do. If I did it, I would lose out on social activities and I’d move to a different state."

The Bruins' offer may have been sent over the past couple days, but they have been in play for Lewis for quite some time now.

Over two months ago, Lewis took to Twitter to ask his followers where he should go, and he prominently featured the UCLA logo on his graphic despite not having an offer at the time.

Lewis took unofficial visits to Houston, SMU and Texas Tech back in June. He has not publicly disclosed if or when he plans to visit UCLA.

As a high school sophomore, Lewis proved his abilities as a scorer by dropping 24.8 a night on 55% shooting from the field, 34% from 3 and 70% from the free throw line. The 6-foot-4 wing also put up a solid 4.0 assists per game, but he used his athletic frame and long arms to stand out just as much on the other end.

Lewis averaged 4.5 steals per game in 2020-2021 after averaging 3.3 the season before. A scrappy, athletic, two-way player like Lewis seems to be a very good fit for coach Mick Cronin's system on the surface.

247Sports, Rivals and ESPN all have Lewis rated as a four-star recruit, and the three outlets have him ranked No. 18, No. 25 and No. 42 player in his class, respectively. 

UCLA has now sent out 11 offers to class of 2023 prospects, but none of committed yet. One of those offers went to another Texas shooting guard, Ja'Kobe Walter, but the Bruins are expected to have a better chance with Lewis at the moment.

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Sam Connon
SAM CONNON

Sam Connon was the Publisher and Managing Editor at Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s All Bruins from 2021 to 2023. He is now a staff writer at Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s Fastball. He previously covered UCLA football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, men's soccer, cross country and golf for The Daily Bruin from 2017 to 2021, serving as the paper's Sports Editor from 2019 to 2020. Connon has also been a contributor for 247Sports' Bruin Report Online, Rivals' BruinBlitz, Dash Sports TV, SuperWestSports, Prime Time Sports Talk, The Sports Life Blog and Patriots Country, Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s New England Patriots site. His work as a sports columnist has been awarded by the College Media Association and Society of Professional Journalists. Connon graduated from UCLA in June 2021 and is originally from Winchester, Massachusetts.