UCLA's Johnny Juzang Named One of 5 Finalists For Jerry West Award

The Bruins' leading scorer is up for the top award for his position alongside Ochai Agbaji, Johnny Davis, Jaden Ivey and Bennedict Mathurin.

The regular season is one week away from coming to a close, meaning the frontrunners for national awards are in the final stages of setting themselves apart from the crowd.

No. 17 UCLA men's basketball (22-6, 14-5 Pac-12) guard Johnny Juzang was named a finalist for the Jerry West Award on Tuesday. The award is given to the top shooting guard in the country and, along with the other four positional awards, is doled out by a national committee of college basketball personnel in conjunction with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Juzang was a member of the 20-player preseason watch list back in October, and he was one of the 10 semifinalists named in early February. Tyger Campbell was also named a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award on Monday, making him and Juzang the only pair of teammates to earn spots on the two backcourt lists.

Jaime Jaquez Jr. was still in the running for the Julius Erving Award for top small forward at that most recent check-in, and he will find out if he is a finalist Wednesday morning.

The other shooting guards who will be going head-to-head with Juzang are Kansas' Ochai Agbaji, Wisconsin's Johnny Davis, Purdue's Jaden Ivey and Arizona's Bennedict Mathurin. Juzang and the Bruins have only played one of the other finalists, splitting the two regular season contests against Mathurin's first-place Wildcats.

A recent string of injuries and mishaps have led to Juzang missing time, but he is still the Pac-12's third-leading scorer even amid the interruptions.

COVID-19 protocols knocked Juzang out of the Bruins' final two games of January, and even though he was asymptomatic and returned to team facilities five days later, he missed one game due to a hip injury and two more with an ankle injury in the following weeks.

Before this most recent stretch, Juzang had appeared in 23 consecutive games for UCLA dating back to last postseason, when he notably ascended to the status of March Madness hero by averaging 22.6 points per game throughout the NCAA tournament. So far in 2021-2022, Juzang is averaging 17.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 0.7 steals per game while shooting 44.3% from the field, 36.7% from deep and 86.6% from the free throw line.

Juzang was averaging 19.0 points and 5.2 rebounds on .461/.386/.889 shooting splits in the 11 games leading up to his ankle injury against Oregon last Thursday.

One regular season game remains for Juzang and the Bruins, as they are set to host crosstown rival USC on Saturday. It remains to be seen if Juzang will play in that contest, but if he doesn't, he won't be able to take the court again until the Pac-12 tournament quarterfinals begin on March 10.

Juzang has twice been named Pac-12 Player of the Week – first after helping UCLA defeat then-No. 5 Villanova at home in November, then again after averaging 25.5 points per game in the Bruins' road sweep of Utah and Colorado in January.

The West Award, which has been given out since the 2014-2015 season, has never gone to a UCLA student-athlete, nor has one ever been named a finalist.

Juzang was also part of the 20-man late season watch list for the John R. Wooden Award and is one of the 30 candidates up for the Naismith Trophy.

The winner of the West Award will be announced at a date that has yet to be determined, although it previously occurred at the College Basketball Awards show in downtown Los Angeles the week after the NCAA tournament and Final Four conclude in early April.

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